Apparently, of 1,000 people sampled across the country, a sizeable majority were going to go out on a mini-shopping spree as an antidote to the effects of the earthquake.
Now I live in an old house which creaks and groans at the best of times, so it is hardly surprising that although, as far as I can remember, I can only just have gone to sleep when this cataclysm struck, I slept through it.
I know of some people who were woken by it and probably suffered a few seconds of concern.
Closer to the epicentre at Market Rasen there was almost certainly, as Jeremy Paxman said that night on Newsnight, 'a bit of crockery broken' in this thoroughly English disaster.
Indeed, Asda reported a massive increase in the demand for plastic wall filler in the days following the event.
However, I cannot really believe it was the sort of thing which would persuade anyone to go out and buy an MP3 player (19 per cent) or a plasma screen TV (16 per cent) as this survey maintained.
It proved, we were told, that natural disasters were generally a boost to the economy.
On that basis Pakistan, Iran, Bangladesh and such like would be the wealthiest nations on earth.
Apparently, the reasoning behind their thinking which people gave was that events like this reminded them of their own mortality and that you never know what is round the corner.
The fact that smoking, feasting on fast food until obese and then sitting watching a giant plasma screen TV all day are particularly unhealthy activities and far more likely to curtail one's life than an earthquake seems to have escaped the notice of the good people questioned in this survey.
Indeed, those who indulge in these unhealthy activities actually could have an inkling of what was round the corner, if they bothered to think about it.
In a way, I was disappointed to have missed the earthquake, especially as the last one of a similar size was 25 years ago.
Working out whether or not one is likely to be around for the next one really does remind you of your own mortality.
However, I did once experience an earthquake in this country, in the late 1960s, or it might have been the early 1970s, while on holiday in North Yorkshire.
I was where I often am on holiday – and was, even in those days – on a high place among the moors, with heather all around.
Nearby was a tall brick chimney, a leftover of some sort of mining, or other industrial process, I suppose.
I looked up at the top of the chimney and thought I had gone dizzy or had a hallucination of some kind, because the top visibly moved and settled back again.
That evening, back at our B and B, I heard on the news there had been an earthquake somewhere in the east of England, and it had been felt for some great distance around, at exactly that time.
So, although I heard nothing and, if I felt the ground move under me, I didn't realise what it was, I remain convinced I saw the event and was quite fortunate the chimney didn't fall on me.
I didn't however, feel the need to go out and buy a new bicycle or stereo system, or whatever I was into at the time, in order to recover from the shock, so I'm afraid the incipient economic boost to the area was nipped in the bud.
When it comes down to it, I think people nowadays must just be so miserable with their lives that they jump at any excuse to try to cheer themselves up with a bit of gratuitous shopping.
As I explained last week, I hate shopping, so the earthquake has served to persuade me to do even less of it to recover from the shock of missing such a big event.