The purpose of this study was to examine high school adolescents' clothing shopping frequency, expenditure, purchase motivations, information sources, and store selection criteria and to determine the similarities and differences between male and female as well as impulse and nonimpulse shoppers. A survey design was used to collect the data. One hundred thirty‐seven high school students, in 9th to 12th grade, 69 males and 68 females, were recruited. Similarities were found between male and female participants. They spent similar amounts of money on clothing and had similar degrees of conformity, sexual attraction, and recognition motivations. For both genders, friends were the most important clothing information source, and price was the most important criterion for store selection. Significant differences were also found between genders. Female participants shopped significantly more often than males and had higher recreation clothing purchase motivation. Certain information sources, such as friends and magazines/books, had more influence over clothing purchase decisions made by females compared to males. Certain criteria such as product variety/availability and store display carried more weight for females than males when making a store selection. When impulse and nonimpulse shoppers were compared, significant differences were found in all the clothing behaviors examined in the study (i.e., clothing shopping frequency, expenditure, purchase motivations, information sources, store selection criteria). Educational and marketing implications are recommended.

IntroductionA price discount is a very prevalent marketing strategy to attract consumers by providing an extra value or incentive, which encourages consumers to purchase the promoted products immediately (Yin and Huang 2014). In marketing research, theoretical models have been developed to investigate the relationship between price and customers' perceptions of products, and two well-known models in the pricing literature are the pricequality-value model (Monroe and Krishnan 1985) and the means-end model (Zeithaml 1988). According to these models, price increases both perceived quality and perceived AbstractExtending the price-quality-value model (Monroe and Krishnan in The perception of merchandise and store quality 1985) and means-end model (Zeithaml in J Mark 52:2-22, 1988), we developed a conceptual model to investigate the mediating role of price discount affect (feeling aroused by price discounts) in the relationship between price discounts and consumers' perceptions (perceived savings, quality, and value) and in the relationship between perceived value and purchase intentions in the context of online apparel products. A between-subject experimental design with four levels of price discounts (10, 30, 50, and 70%) was used. Jeans were selected as the product stimulus. Web pages were developed to create a fictional online store and to collect data. A total of 209 usable responses were collected by a research firm in the United States, and structural equation modeling was performed to analyze the data. The results showed that price discount affect played an important mediating role in the relationship between price discounts and consumers' perceptions. When the direct effect of price discounts on perceived quality was examined, consumers perceived the apparel product with higher discounts as lower quality (i.e., a negative direct relationship). However, when price discount affect served as a mediator, the feelings created by a price discount led to a positive perception of product quality (i.e., a positive indirect relationship). By considering the influence of price discount affect, our model provides a better understanding of the effect of price discounts on consumers' perceptions of apparel products. Keywords: Apparel, Price discount, Quality, AffectOpen Access © The Author(s) 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creat iveco mmons .org/licen ses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Lee and Chen-Yu Fash Text (2018) Lee and Chen-Yu Fash Text (2018) 5:13 sacrifice (the sacrifice of paying more), and the trade-off between perceived quality and perceived sacrifice affects perceived value. When the price is high, consumers perceive that the quality of the product is high. With respect to price discounts, accordin...

The purpose of this study was to compare the website evaluation criteria among college student consumers in the US with different shopping orientations and Internet channel usage (i.e. online information searchers, online purchasers). The sample for this research was 414 college students, non‐married and aged 18–22 who have experience in visiting websites selling apparel products. Five apparel website evaluation criteria were identified by factor analysis (i.e. product information, customer service, privacy/security, navigation, auditory experience/comparison shopping). Based on shopping orientation factors, cluster analysis revealed three shopping orientation clusters (i.e. Hesitant In‐home Shoppers, Practical Clothing Shoppers, Involved Clothing Shoppers). Factorial manova showed that website evaluation criteria were significantly different among college student consumers with different shopping orientations and between online information searchers and online purchasers. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed.

This study examined whether antibacterial finishes can effectively reduce the presence of bacteria on fabric used for health care workers' uniforms (HCWUs). The specific objectives of this research were (a) to compare the antibacterial property (percentage bacterial reduction) of a 65/35 polyester/cotton blend fabric treated with two commercially available antibacterial agents, AEGIS Microbe Shield (AMS) and polyhexamethylene biguanide (PHMB), before laundering and after 5, 10, and 25 laundering cycles and (b) to determine which agent may be a better choice for HCWU fabrics. The results provided evidence that an antibacterial finish can be an effective way to combat the problem of bacteria contamination. PHMB-treated fabrics are a good candidate for use in reusable HCWUs incurring up to 25 laundering cycles. PHMB-treated specimens had a significantly larger reduction against both Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteria before laundering and after 5, 10, and 25 laundering cycles than did AMS-treated specimens and no-treatment specimens.

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