The average UAE consumer spends 127 hours a year in the country's supermarkets and embarks on shopping trips nearly four times a week, according to a new retail study. The findings by ACNielsen reveal that Arab residents spend 57 per cent more time in malls compared to Asians living in the UAE, indicating that a significant amount of their time is devoted to leisure.

On average, the UAE shopper will make a purchase on seven out of every ten visits to the mall. Asian residents beat the average rate with 73 per cent, while the rate for Arab expatriates is just 56 per cent. And while the average UAE consumer shops 3.7 times a week (mostly in the evening), Asians shops 4.8 times, a much higher rate than Arabs who shop just 2.7 times a week.

Other major findings reveal that UAE supermarket space has experienced a 60 per cent growth over the past four years, but not at the expense of traditional grocery stores which have maintained their overall land area. Dubai's malls in particular are leading the charge and expectations are that overall retail space will quadruple by 2010, when new malls including Mall of Arabia and Dubai Mall are scheduled to be completed.

According to the study, Dubai has four times the shopping area per capita compared to the US, while over retail spending is expected to reach 30 per cent of Dubai's GDP by 2010. The study also found that consumer confidence in the UAE is high, ranking ninth in a survey of 42 markets. India tops the list, followed by New Zealand, Norway and Denmark. The UAE is placed one position above Hong Kong and beats major European nations including the UK, France and Germany.

"Consumers here are pretty bullish about their job prospects and financial well-being, and this drives impulse buying," said Piyush Mathur, ACNielsen's regional managing director for the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan. "But on the other hand, a greater segment of the population is beginning to have concerns over living costs, he added.