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‘You are where you shop’: Examining stereotypes about town center shoppers

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Abstract

The future role of the town center as a retail hub is uncertain. Despite being a historical meeting place, town centers have been struggling for decades to attract customers and retain retailers after the development of out-of-town centers and advancement of online shopping. Previous retail research has mostly used rational explanations and strategies like improved access, pricing, and retail mix to deal with this situation; but this study uses the stereotyping framework that traditionally examined user imagery associations. Town centers have historical charms, cultural establishments, and high streets, which may give rise to certain stereotypical judgments of consumers who prefer or dismiss town centers over other channels, such as more mass consumption-oriented out-of-town centers or online retailers. Could stereotyping be an alternative way to generate alternative strategies to cope with the decline of town center retailing? In two experiments with representative samples (total N = 703), we found that town center shoppers were perceived to be more likable, cultured, and moral, but less frugal than out-of-town and online shoppers. We further observed that status and polarization were central to our postulation as the results were moderated by income type such that only employed, but not welfare-recipient, town center shoppers were perceived positively. These findings not only support the role of symbolic consumption and stereotypes in retail channels, but also provide strategic marketing implications for town centers where retailing activities are in decline.

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Consumer stress as experienced at the nexus of gender and poverty, has received limited attention in marketing and consumer research. This empirical study applies the theoretical lens of social stress to explore gendered aspects of poverty, consumption and marketplace activity. It demonstrates that for women in poverty, consumer stress is a relational issue, involving marketplace and interpersonal (dis)connections. In particular, it surfaces the hidden, often, nuanced power relations that place additional strain on women with limited finances, as they oscillate between marketplace and intra-household pressures. By applying social stress theory, the study offers a new way of thinking about the unequal social relations and associated consumption strains bound up with the disadvantaged position of an intersectional group of women experiencing poverty.
Article
Bourdieu’s concept of habitus describes a set of tastes and dispositions operating according to a class homology – for example, a working-class preference for utility, or a bourgeois orientation toward luxury. In the United States, Holt found that high cultural capital consumers were characterized by their cosmopolitanism, idealism, connoisseurship, and affinity for the exotic and authentic. In this article, we use Holt’s analysis as a comparative case, finding an altered high cultural capital habitus incorporating environmental awareness and sustainability principles, in a configuration that has been called ethical or “conscious consumption.” Using both quantitative survey data of self-described conscious consumers as well as four qualitative case studies, we argue that ethical consumers are overwhelmingly high cultural capital consumers, and that high cultural capital consumption strategies have shifted since Holt’s study in the mid-1990s. We show that on a number of dimensions – cosmopolitanism, idealism, and relation to manual labor – a new high cultural capital consumer repertoire privileges the local, material, and manual, while maintaining a strategy of distinction. While the critical literature on conscious consumers has suggested that such practices reflect neo-liberal tendencies that individualize environmental responsibility, our findings suggest that such practices are hardly individual. Rather, they are collective strategies of consumption – what we have termed an emerging high cultural capital “eco-habitus.”
Article
Place should not be viewed solely as a physical space that people inhabit or, within a servicescape context, patronise because the experiences consumers have in place are very much shaped by its occupants. Marketing literature, though, has tended to focus on the physicality of place, or the stimulus–response aspects of place, whereas in other disciplines such as geography, place has been viewed in terms of its temporal, spatial, natural, and social dimensions. The purpose of this study was to gain a greater understanding of how women's non-commercial relationships shaped their patronage decisions. Since this study was interested in why consumers make repeat retail visits, qualitative methods were used. As the findings revealed, one's need for social connectedness and desire to feel like an insider were sometimes more important than the products available and/or the servicescape's attributes.
Article
Determining what consumers value, and how online stores compare to traditional stores on valued attributes is a necessary first step in understanding the relative benefits of e-commerce. In this paper, we measure consumers’ valuation of online stores compared to traditional stores by measuring the consumers’ perceptions of the performance of online stores on 18 attributes, as well as the importance of each of those attributes. These individual perceptions and preferences from a web-based and paper-based survey of 224 shoppers are combined in a self-explicated multi-attribute attitude model. The findings show that, overall, all product categories in our survey of online stores are less acceptable than traditional stores. Online stores are perceived as having competitive disadvantages with respect to shipping and handling charges, exchange/refund policy for returns, providing an interesting social or family experience, helpfulness of salespeople, post-purchase service, and uncertainty about getting the right item. The advantages that online stores have in areas such as brand-selection/variety and ease of browsing do not entirely overcome the disadvantages listed above.
Article
The 1990s have witnessed the rapid expansion of the concept of Town Centre Management (TCM). This article considers the extent to which urban stakeholders (particularly retailers and property owners) participate in TCM schemes, drawing on evidence from three towns in Sweden. Perceptions relating to participation, and motives for actual participation (or non-participation) in TCM schemes are analysed using as frameworks models of co-operative behaviour. The problem of “free-riders” is discussed and the article concludes with a typology of co-operative behaviour amongst urban stakeholders and possible strategies for overcoming problems of non-co-operation.
Article
This article traces approaches adopted in the UK in response to problems of declining retail facilities in inner city areas. Many of the approaches have been applied in relative isolation, and hence tend to address some but not all of the problems of such centres. One such approach has been the ‘regeneration thesis’, whereby a large new store is seen as a catalyst to wider shopping regeneration. A case study of an area of inner Nottingham is developed, where the introduction of a new superstore was portrayed thus, although empirical study suggests that this may not have proved to be so.
Article
Of all modern building types, the shopping mall has perhaps been the most prone to sensationalist statement. However, despite much that has been written about them, it appears that architectural theory and criticism have had little success in penetrating beneath the surface of this phenomena, and, as such, the mall has over the course of its fifty year life-span remained in a stasis of non-evolution. The purpose of this study is to attempt to imbue architecture with a critical tool that is capable of breaking this stasis. Unlike many building typologies that we take for granted in modern society, whose evolution has taken place over the course of centuries and even millennia of trial and error experimentation, the shopping mall's life-span has been comparatively brief. Surely we now need to break this stasis and subject the shopping mall to the same trial and error experimentation through critical practice that has allowed other building typologies to successfully evolve. Implicit within the current manifestation of the shopping mall, is the potential for the realisation of a highly complex social organism, a potential which sadly is suppressed by the bludgeoning regime of programmatic violence that the present typological mani festation of the mall implements to ensure the maintenance of the experiential values that are so key to its success. This study, by recourse to direct analysis of precedent, is directed at a questioning of the validity of these values and an analysis of the mechanisms of consumption behind them, unravelling these levels of experiential myth in order that a more accurate and productive understanding of the existential nature of the inhabitation of the shopping mall may be achieved.
Article
This paper explores the influence of the larger material culture on consumers living within the culture of poverty so that the scholarly community mightbetter understand the actual as well as potential role marketing plays in the lives of the poor. The data are a series of short stories based explicitly on six distinct subpopulations of impoverished people, and these stories are used as ethnographic data for the purposes of analysis. An interpretation emerges that emphasizes five inter-related thematic categories: meager possessions, consumer restrictions, role of the media, consumer reactions, and survival strategies. The paper closes with a summary of findings and specific implications for the marketing community with regard to theory and practice.
Article
Male and female subjects read a food diary attributed to a male or female target who was portrayed as eating either a small breakfast and lunch or a large breakfast and lunch. Consistent with the hypothesis that amount eaten would more strongly affect subjects' inferences about the female target, ratings of the male target were not differentially influenced by the meal size manipulation. In contrast, subjects considered the female target who ate smaller meals to be significantly more feminine, less masculine, more concerned about her appearance, better looking, and more likely to possess stereotypically feminine personality traits. Implications for understanding female eating behavior and the etiology of eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia are discussed.
Article
The rapid expansion of the Internet has spawned a growing body of literature on the impact of online shopping (here called e-shopping) on physical shopping. This paper explores the impact of e-shopping on shopping at city centres in the Netherlands for 25 retail categories, using a sample of 3200 Internet users. Results indicate that in the short run, e-shopping is unlikely to have a significant effect on purchases at city centre stores. In the long run, however, e-shopping may well substitute for going to actual stores. Furthermore, consumers today frequently consult the Internet before making a purchase from a store, and the city centre constitutes a source of information before an online purchase is made. The impact of these events, however, differ largely among the various retail categories and types of Internet shoppers.
Article
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Article
Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s the debate surrounding the comparative costs and benefits of town centre and out-of-town retail developments for consumers and to the environment has been a heated one. Informed by a largely puritanical view of consumerism, current Government policy tends towards the preservation of the traditional town centre. However, the actual evidence is far from conclusive and there is limited consumer research supporting this stance. Based on an interviewer-administered survey conducted during 1994 and 1995 to assess shoppers’ opinions in both types of location in Preston, presents an examination of consumer perspectives and examines differences in perceptions and behaviour patterns among town centre and out-of-town shoppers.
Article
As Allport (1954) implied, the content of stereotypes may be systematic, and specifically, ambivalent. We hypothesize two clusters of outgroups, one perceived as incompetent but warm (resulting in paternalistic prejudice) and one perceived as competent but not warm (resulting in envious prejudice). Perceived group status predicts perceived competence, and perceived competition predicts perceived (lack of) warmth. Two preliminary surveys support these hypotheses for 17 outgroups. In-depth analyses of prejudice toward particular outgroups support ambivalent prejudice: Paternalistic prejudice toward traditional women, as well as envious prejudice toward career women, results in ambivalent sexism (Glick & Fiske, 1996). Envious prejudice toward Asians results in perceived competence but perceived lack of social skills. Ambivalent content reflects systematic principles.
Article
There has been an increase in consumers’ reliance on credit and rising consumer debt. The increase is especially problematic for those least able to afford debt of any kind – welfare recipients. This qualitative study reports on 120 Australian welfare recipients’ attitudes towards debt, their understanding about what constitutes acceptable debt and the debt-management strategies they adopt. The results of this research show that welfare recipients see debt as a way of life and as a means of survival in a society where a core value appears (to them) to be the acquisition of material wealth. Their status as income earners and therefore their capacity to service debt is less than others. Consequently, we could expect that their debt levels would be proportionally less; however, many participants in this research did not appear to understand the long term consequences of their level of debt. The paper concludes with a discussion as to how social marketing can be applied to potentially assist this vulnerable consumer group and the wider community.
Article
Public attitudes towards welfare policy are often explained by political values and perceptions of deservingness of welfare recipients. This article addresses how the impact of values and perceptions varies depending on the contextual information that citizens have available when forming welfare opinions. It is argued that whenever citizens face deservingness-relevant cues in public debate or the media, a psychological ‘deservingness heuristic’ is triggered prompting individuals spontaneously to think about welfare policy in terms of who deserves help. This is an automatic process, equally influential among the least and the most politically sophisticated. Moreover, when clear deservingness cues are present, the impact of values on opinions vanishes. These arguments are supported by data from two novel experimental studies embedded in separate nationwide opinion surveys. The findings revise conventional wisdom of how values and heuristics influence public opinion and have major implications for understanding dynamics in aggregate welfare opinion and attempts from political elites to manipulate public opinion.
Article
Recent studies of welfare state retrenchment have argued that policy makers can win public support for welfare state reform by framing the issue in terms of deservingness of welfare recipients. However, this literature has not tested the argument at the individual level. Using a Scandinavian context, this experimental study investigates how alternative framing of a welfare state retrenchment proposal affects citizens’ perception of welfare recipients’ deservingness, policy support and whether perceptions of deservingness mediate policy opinion. A news story was manipulated to present welfare recipients as either deserving or undeserving of welfare benefits. This issue framing affected citizens’ perception of deservingness as well as support for retrenchment policy. Opinion change was partly explained by differences in perceptions of deservingness. These results provide strong support for the effectiveness of the deservingness frame.
Article
Male and female subjects (predominately white) provided impression ratings of body shape, personality traits, and total caloric consumption for a female target based on her preference for a low fat or high fat diet. Results showed that meal type significantly affected impression ratings: the target who preferred low fat foods was viewed more favorably than the one who preferred high fat fare. Compared with male subjects, female subjects perceived the target who preferred a high fat diet to be significantly less conscientious. Males were significantly more accurate than females in their caloric estimations of targets' total daily consumption. The results will be discussed in terms of the social pressure on women to restrict not only their weight to acceptable levels, but their food consumption as well.
Article
One way to generate more traffic in a mall is to build a strong mall image perceived by shoppers as delivering a unique bundle of benefits. Such effort has to be guided by a performance metric, namely a comprehensive measure of mall image. We hypothesize that mall image can best be conceptualized in terms of five major dimensions a la Ailawadi and Keller [Ailawadi K.L., Keller K.L. Understanding Retail Branding: Conceptual Insights and Research Priorities. J Retail 2004; 80 (Winter):331–342.] retail branding dimensions: access, store atmosphere, price and promotion, cross-category assortment, and within-category assortment. The predictive (nomological) validity of the mall image measure was tested in relation to mall attitude, mall patronage, and word-of-mouth communications. We validated the mall image measure using data generated with mall-intercept surveys in two different malls in a large city in Canada (N = 861). The data provided support for the predictive validity of the mall image measure. Managerial implications of the mall image measure are also discussed.
Article
A comparison was made of the social and physical milieu of supermarkets and farmers' markets in ten California cities. On the semantic differential, the farmers' markets were perceived by their customers as more friendly, personal, rural, smaller, and happier settings than were the supermarkets by their customers. More than three-quarters of the supermarket shoppers arrived alone while at the farmers' markets, more than three-quarters arrived in the company of others. Interaction counts showed a similar number of perfunctory conversations in the two settings but more social and informational encounters at the farmers' markets. The lack of extended interaction in supermarkets is seen as a function of its social organization, relatively low density, and traffic-dominated architectural layout.
Article
In many cities in North America and Europe, shopping centres are replacing the traditional high street shops. At the same time, electronic shopping is growing rapidly. In this paper, the results of a literature review of environment–behaviour research on shopping and shopping environments (e.g., farmer's markets, shopping centres, and electronic shopping) are presented. The focus of analysis is on how the physical features (e.g., layout and background music) influence shoppers’ experiences, and on how well these environments satisfy the psychological needs of their shoppers (e.g., social interaction, sensory stimulation, and security and comfort). Any implications for environmental design, and the future of shopping environments are discussed. A conceptual framework and suggestions for future research are proposed.
Article
This paper attempts to contribute to a more thorough understanding of the on-site (in vivo) evaluation of retail agglomerations once shoppers have already made their destination choices. To address this issue, a modification of more conventional concepts of retail attractiveness that considers situational contexts is proposed and empirically tested. The survey comprised more than 2,000 on-site interviews of customers of an inner city shopping street and a competing peripheral shopping mall. The results show that the tenant mix and the atmosphere, unlike parking and accessibility, exert a major impact on distinct dimensions of perceived attractiveness. Furthermore, the empirical findings provide evidence that factors characterizing aspects of the individual shopping situation significantly affect on-site evaluation. Some methodological limitations and future research directions are also discussed.