QUESTIONNAIRE – Slovakia Consumer behavior of young adults in European comparison COMMENTS ON THE QUESTIONNAIRE

1. How much money do you spend on average per month ? The chart shows that the majority of students participating in the survey spend up to €25 per month while 29% of participants spend up to €50 per month. It seems that there is a minority (6%) that is relatively well off and these students can spend more than €150 a month. The graph reflects the situation in our district where the average salary is one of the lowest in Slovakia. However, there are families that are relatively well-off or even very rich.

2. What do you most frequently spend your money on ?

3. Where do you do your shopping ? Young people prefer shopping in a traditional way (shops & shopping centres and not many are accustomed to doing their shopping on the Internet yet. As for buying things from salespeople, students mostly buy brand cosmetics this way.

4. What influences your decision to buy something ? Students are mostly influenced by the price of the product and also its quality. They also take into consideration necessity and their parents’ opinion when shopping. It is interesting that it’s more important for them what their parents say than what their friends think. This is because parents are those who give the students money.

5. What limits your spending ? Price is the most significant factor influencing students’ shopping habits. It would seem that the only drawback stopping them from buying something is lack of money while things like religion and tradition don’t play an important role at all.

6. Do you agree with following statements ? 6.1 Religion influence consumer behavior of young people. It is clear from the graph above that behaviour of young people is becoming more and more liberal with religion having less and less influence on them despite the fact that the majority of the Slovak population claims to be religious.

6.2 Upbringing influences consumer behavior of young people. It seems that family life and the way parents raise their children does have a significant influence on the consumer behaviour of the students.

6.3 The environment ( place where people live) influences consumer behavior of young people. This graph shows that the environment influences behaviour of young people. This is mostly thanks to the pressure of the media. Young people are likely to be Influenced by music bands, actors and films.

6.4 Would you be able to commit a crime for the sake of money ? It is good that 72% of the students would not commit a crime for the sake of money but, at the same time, it’s alarming that 17% are not sure about that and 11% would do it if necessary.

6.5 Have you already committed a crime because of money ?

7. Are you able to control your need to borrow money ? Fortunately, the students seem to be able to control the urge to spend money which prevents them from getting into debt.

8. What part of your money is borrowed ? The majority of students don’t have any debts and if they do, they’re not completely in debt, which is positive and they’re able to control their financial spending.

9. What did you need the money for ? Again, buying food or snacks takes most of the students’ money but vices such as smoking and alcohol are unfortunately very popular among young people as well.

10. Has anything changed since you have borrowed money? 10.1 If yes, what has changed ? Debts are not a significant problem for our students yet. However, if they didn’t have any constraints, 80% of them would probably borrow money in order to enjoy themselves more.

11. Have you ever been in a situation when you were unable to repay the money you had borrowed ? It is good to see that only 1% of the students have been in trouble because of their inability to repay borrowed money.

12. Imagine you have borrowed money. How strong would be your agreement with the following statements ? It is very important for me to be able to pay back my debts as soon as possible. It is good to see that our students realise that repaying one’s debts is very important and only 2% of students strongly disagree with this.

12.2. It is absolutely normal to be in debt nowadays. On the one hand, our students (39%) are aware of the danger of being in debt, so they try to avoid it, but on the other hand, a lot of them agree with the statement because the media keep bombarding us with offers from financial institutions to borrow money.

12.3. I have already thought about how to get some money to be able to pay back my debts faster. It appears that our students are responsible and try to earn money doing various student jobs in order to earn money and be able to repay what they owe.

12.4. If I can’t pay back the money myself, my parents will do it for me. It’s good to see that 50% of the students don’t try avoid their responsibility to repay their debts themselves rather than having their parents do it for them. However, the other half thinks it’s all right for the parents to help them this way, which is sad.

12.5. Even when I’m in debt, I think about spending more money. 60% of the students totally disagree with the statement while 19% of them actually think it’s OK to spend more money even when one is already is in debt.

12.6. I think it’s ok to be in debt, because my parents are also indebted. Again, here the majority (66%) totally disagree, which is good, but there seems to be a problem with the 15% of students who seem to show no responsibility for their financial situation.

12.7. As log as the person who has lent me money doesn’t ask to get it back, I don’t remember to pay it back. 59% strongly disagree, which is nice. However, 20% of students don’t remember that they need to pay borrowed money back, and that’s alarming.

12.8. I’m worried that I won’t be able to pay off my debts. The survey shows that the students are aware of the danger of being unable to repay their debts.

13. In order to satisfy a need of consumption which exceeds your budget, which do you prefer: saving (to be able to fulfill your need soon) or borrowing the necessary money ? Students prefer saving to borrowing and that’s really positive. Hopefully, this will not change in the future.

14 Have you saved any money ? 79% of the Slovak students participating in the survey have already saved Some money. This habit is definitely a good one.

15. What have you saved money for ? Fashion is the winner here, which show that the students love to look smart. other popular articles to spend money on are hobbies (such as sports equipment), cosmetics and going out.

16. How do you save your money? A piggybank is the most popular way to save money. The second most popular Way is having a saving book in a bank where the parents put money regularly.

17. Do you sense that you are protected as a consumer ? 68% of students feel they are protected, but 32% think they aren’t, so there’s clearly some work to be done in this area in terms of educating our students about their consumer rights.

18. Which of the following means of protection mostly impact you ? As we can see from the chart above, school education plays an important role in educating young customers about their rights – we already have that in our curriculum, so it’s good to see it’s working.

19. How many people live in your city ? 51% of the students participating in the survey come from Bardejov, which has 35,000 inhabitants whereas 40% of them come from various small villages in the disctrict.

20. How many people live in your houshold ? It is common in this part of Slovakia to see families where 3 generations of people live under one roof, that’s why 84% of students chose “d” in this question, but, naturally, families with two parents and two children or more are extremely common here, too.

21. What is your family income? This chart shows what the economic situation in the region is like. The income of a family is usually somewhere between 500 – 2,000 Euros.

22. How big is your monthly income ? Similalar to the previous slide, here we can see what sort of money students get a month.

23. Which is the main source of income supporting your personal expenses ? It is obvious from the above chart, that the main source of our students’ income is their parents.

24. What age are you ? Here we can see that the majority of participants in the survey were aged 16 – 18.

25. What is your gender ? We had slightly more boys than girls taking part in the survey.