Hanging up our coat, tidying our desk, classifying our books, what meanings do these mundane practices convey? Extending Mary Douglas's work, this article investigates tidiness from the angle of symbolic pollution. Based on photo-elicitation, it shows that, similarly to symbolic pollution described at a macro-social level, tidiness depends on two conditions, namely, a set of classifications and the dangerous transgression of these classifications. However, at a micro-social level, individuals negotiate boundaries between classifications in order to cope with symbolic pollution. Consumers define their domestic classifications through a juxtaposition of micro-practices, which does not necessarily create a hierarchically ordered system but which enables these consumers to avoid anomalies and transgressions. Furthermore, respondents are willing to break tidiness rules on specific occasions because the danger-beliefs associated with transgression are context-dependent. This analysis of tidiness gives new insights into materiality, emphasizing the cultural meaning of ordering one's possessions.H anging up our coat, sorting out papers on our desk, classifying our books, storing our groceries in the kitchen, why are these everyday and apparently normal practices so important to study? What specific meanings do these mundane daily activities convey? According to Mary Douglas (1967), these ordinary practices deploy our system of symbolic classification, that is, the social assignment of things to their place. Putting things in their place is more than placing them in a specific physical Delphine Dion (dion.iae@univ-paris1.fr) is associate professor of marketing, Sorbonne Business School, Paris. Ouidade Sabri (ouidade.sabri @u-pec.fr) is professor of marketing, Paris-Est University, UPEC, Créteil, France. Valérie Guillard (valerie.guillard@dauphine.fr) is associate professor of marketing, University of Paris Dauphine, Paris. The authors thank the JCR editorial team for their very helpful and insightful comments and particularly the associate editor for his remarkable involvement and suggestions. They would also like to thank Eric Arnould, Søren Askegaard, and Barry Babin for their helpful feedback on earlier drafts of this article. The authors wish to express their gratitude to the informants for sharing their time and aspects of their home and of their domestic lives. They are grateful for support provided by the Sorbonne Business School and the DRM research center at Paris Dauphine University.

This article focuses on the study of consumers with social anxiety who avoid relationships in commercial settings. While relationship marketing recommends fostering personal relationships with customers, our research shows that too much closeness can be a problem for people with social anxiety who are apprehensive about interacting with strangers. A qualitative study based on 17 in‐depth interviews with individuals with social anxiety allows us to specify the contexts that give rise to social anxiety—physical closeness between consumer and salesperson, when the interaction is relatively long, in new situations, or in situations designed to be repeated. Our study shows that social anxiety has psychological, economic, and time costs for the consumer. Additionally, the study sets out the relational preferences of people with social anxiety, showing that they prefer neutral, distant or anonymous relationships, that they do not like or benefit from special treatment, nor do they like to be surprised by novelty. The conventional recommendations of relational marketing (e.g., creating a close relationship with customers) are partly called into question by this study, which shows that not all individuals necessarily want such relationships in a commercial context. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Consumers are often faced with the question of what to do with objects that are still usable but not worth selling and for which they no longer have a use. Our paper shows that some consumers have a tendency to keep them rather than dispose of them. Two qualitative studies and nine quantitative studies were conducted to analyze this recurring behavior and to propose a consumer hoarding scale composed of four dimensions (instrumental, social, economic and sentimental). We show that this hoarding tendency may hinder the product replacement process: hoarders are likely to postpone the decision to replace a product if they do not know what to do with the one they currently own.

International audienceThe present article explores a relatively new way for consumers to dispose of items they no longer use, namely free recycling websites. Online recycling is based on an encounter with an unknown recipient to give something away 'in person'. A phenomenological approach was used to understand the meaning of giving through free recycling websites. Placing the focus on the donor's perspective, we analysed Internet postings and conducted 27 in-depth interviews. Our research shows that (1) when the object is given, the online giver is less concerned about the risk of refusal, since the recipient has deliberately made the choice to take the item; (2) when the item is received, the encounter with the recipient removes the anonymity of charities and (3) in return, the encounter with the recipient offers the giver acknowledgement for the gesture without committing them to a relationship with the recipient in the way a gift to kith or kin might do. While former literature has highlighted certain tensions in the gift economy, this study shows how free recycling websites can help to alleviate such tensions. The research highlights how this system of object disposition enhances social interactions between two strangers that share an interest in the same object. The article shows how this new form of gift-giving relationship is both rewarding and liberating: it is rewarding thanks to the interaction with the recipient (unlike donations to charities) without necessarily creating a bond of dependence (unlike giving to someone you know)