The online game asked users to rank a huge range of objects based on how quintessentially British they were, and the results are as telling as they are delicious.
The top ten, aggregated from all of the answers submitted, consists entirely of food and drink – but there is barely a vegetable in sight. Fish and chips was found to be the ultimate British purchase, followed by Sunday roasts and tea.
Created by AKQA, the game is part of Barclaycard's 50th anniversary campaign.
The top ten is completed by fry-ups, scones, strawberries and cream, Victoria sponge, chip butties, crumpets and 99 ice creams.
A further four products dipped their toes into the top ten during the process, but ended up bubbling under: Cornish pasties, pints of milk, baked beans and shepherd’s pie.
Local preferences made themselves felt while the voting was open. At one point, umbrellas reached number two in Britain’s rainiest city, Glasgow – while literature was briefly the most in demand item in Cambridge.
Barclaycard said the game, which ran from 13 June to 4 July, attracted 240,000 sessions of play with an average engagement time of 5 minutes and 55 seconds.
Barclaycard CMO Katherine Whitton said: "We know that Brits love to shop, but The Great British Shopping Showdown shows we’re a nation obsessed with spending our money on food.
"Barclaycard has been helping people buy and sell for the last 50 years and while we’ve seen many trends come and go in this time, the Great British Shopping Showdown results show that some British favourites are firmly set to stay. We’re now looking forward to seeing how Brits shop over the next half a century."
AKQA executive creative director Wayne Deakin said: "We wanted to create a sense of fun and gamification around the nation's love for shopping. A game that tested your Britishness in an eccentric way felt like a great way to celebrate this."
.jpg)
.jpeg)
