London:
Britain's first ever 'Fast Track' pedestrian shopping lane has opened in Liverpool, following a research that claimed 47 per cent in the country find slow walking the most annoying aspect of high-street shopping.
Opening on the city's St John Street, the fast lanes will allow users to speed through the crowds while perusing the three-storey Liverpool One shopping centre.
The research, conducted by Argos, stated that shoppers hated battling through crowds, people chatting in the middle of the street and pavement hoggers, The Independent reported.
However, it seems the idea of fast lanes is more popular with younger shoppers than the old, as 69 per cent of the 16 to 24 year-olds surveyed were in favour of fast lanes, while only 37 per cent of over-55s backed the plan.
The most popular reason for supporting the lanes was to avoid wasting time, with 31 per cent of shoppers saying they were annoyed by people blocking the pavement.
People checking their phones was also a frustration for 18 per cent of those surveyed.
It is hoped the new lane will allow speedy shoppers to navigate their way through the shopping centre without being held up.
Andy Brown, central operations director at Argos, told Retail Times, "Shoppers have also told us that speed is critical when simply getting around the high street or town centre, so we want to test consumer reaction to a dedicated pavement fast lane.
We hope it alleviates some of the biggest shopping high street frustrations."
According to the research commissioned by Argoshere,
Britain's top 10 shopping hates include pavement hoggers, dawdling pedestrians, middle of the street chattering,navigating huge stores and traffic dodging