Proximity is an important influence in consumer decisions on everyday purchases, according to a new survey.

In the survey, 93.2 percent of respondents said they typically travel less than 20 minutes to buy groceries, clothing, gas, and other routine transactions, while 87 percent said they won’t travel beyond 15 minutes for such purchases. For purchases that consumers make at least once per week, the distance they’re willing to travel shrinks even further to ten minutes.

“The Impact of Retail Proximity on Consumer Purchases” survey by Access Development was compiled from over 2,000 responses from a national pool of consumers. The survey findings confirm, and even go beyond, the oft-cited statistic that over 80 percent of discretionary spending occurs within 20 miles of home. While that adage makes sense - 92 percent of discretionary spending still occurs in-store, according to the Census Bureau - Access’ findings show that even 20 miles may be too far to travel for most people.

The survey shows that the more frequent the purchase, the less distance consumers are willing to travel for it. Respondents said they typically travel 6.01 minutes from home for gas, 8.03 for groceries, and 8.5 for fast food. Conversely, they’ll travel 19.87 minutes away for clothing and shoes, 17.04 for movies, and 14.17 for auto service.

Among other key findings from the survey are:

92 percent of urban residents travel less than 15 minutes for routine purchases.

Conversely, 70.3 percent of rural residents travel more than 20 minutes for their regular purchases.

When asked to exclude proximity as a factor, the top influences on consumer purchasing decisions were product quality and price, each cited by 32 percent of respondents.

Just 6 percent named brand reputation as a primary influence, while 7 percent said they were influenced by customer service.

A detailed report on the survey results will be available at http://ww2.accessdevelopment.com/consumer_proximity_study.