This article explores precipitating events, emotions, and decisions associated with older consumers' disposition of special possessions. Findings are based on analyses of semistructured interviews with 80 older consumers, complemented by depth interviews with seven informants. Cherished possessions and their disposition play a significant role in older consumers' reminiscence and life review. Concerns about disposition of special possessions involve strong and ambivalent emotions. Older consumers voice concern over avoiding intrafamilial conflict, reducing uncertainty, and exercising control over the future life of special possessions. We emphasize the storied nature of the meanings consumers attach to their cherished possessions and the way in which these storied meanings are bundled with life review and disposition concerns. Many older consumers attempt to control meanings transferred with cherished possessions. They seek to pass on personal and familial legacies, achieve symbolic immortality, insure a good home for special objects, and/or influence the future lives of others. We show that there is a porous boundary between ownership and disposition of cherished possessions. And to our knowledge this is the first research to identify tactics and heuristics employed to select recipients for special possessions, time transfers, and effect these transfers. We suggest that future research could explore individual differences in disposition behaviors, the use of possessions by older consumers as external mnemonic props, disposition decision theory, cultural differences in disposition behaviors, or the role of special possessions in the creation of familial legacies. I keep telling my children, "If you want something, take it." They say, "Hold it." I say, "No." We are reaching a point that we don't need all this that we have. We need to get rid of it. And we are. Slowly-You know, when you get to a certain stage in life, you're trying, you don't want to-But see, as you get older, we have all this stuff that we don't really use. And we would like to, not all of a sudden-. Tell you what, I go to estate sales all the time. And when I go, every time I go, I realize that I have to do something. I must get rid of what I have. It is

No abstract

We live in an aging society, thus, it is important for businesses to develop a solid understanding of the older consumer. The food and grocery store industry is no exception since mature consumers spend more money on the average at food stores than their younger aged counterparts. Because there are marked differences within the large, mature consumer market, different marketing strategies are required even within this market to ensure the greatest success. This research employs a random, nation‐wide, sample of 10,500 names of household heads drawn from seven age categories. The literature from a wide range of disciplines was examined to explore factors and events affecting preferences and motives in the selection of food stores. Using factor analysis, four gerontological segments resulted that best describe the mature consumer market. Marketing strategies are offered suggesting how to most effectively appeal to older consumers in general as well as more precise strategies for successfully appealing to the four gerontological segments.

In this paper we examine how the complex relationship between consumption and production evolves in empty nest households as individuals reconstruct their sense of self during periods of major household change and role status transitions. Specifically, we seek to understand the "lived experience" of mothers as they negotiate the role status transition on entering the empty nest stage of family life, and thus to provide glimpses of how women manage production and consumption in order to create family life across a variety of diffused sites as their children move away from home. The main themes to emerge from the data are: the distress associated with this role status transition as women re-evaluate their definition of the self and their mothering role; and the evolving role of enacting love and mothering as the emphasis changes, in many cases, from production-led tasks to consumption-based activities.

Since the early 1990s, the internet has dominated the attention of the media, academics and business organisations. It has the potential of being a revolutionary way to collect primary and secondary data, although much more research is needed to learn how to better harness its strengths. This project compares depth interviews collected online with depth interviews conducted face-to-face. Advantages and disadvantages are highlighted, as well as suggested strategies for successfully collecting online data. Major points are illustrated using data from a project in which both data collection techniques are employed. The online interview dataset included some of the strongest and some of the weakest interviews in the investigation. This paper argues that under some conditions online depth interviews can provide a useful complement to the traditional face-to-face interview. Sampling frame problems of non-representativeness, endemic in quantitative online data collection, is not problematic if the researcher is conducting an interpretive investigation. When the researcher's goal is not to quantify or generalise but instead to better understand a particular population, online data collection can complement other datasets, allow data triangulation and strengthen the trustworthiness of the findings.