Retail Restructuring and Consumer Choice 2. Understanding Consumer Choice at the Household Level

Abstract

This paper complements the preceding one by Clarke et al (2004a) which looked at the long-term impact of retail restructuring on consumer choice at the local level. While the previous paper was based on quantitative evidence from survey research, this paper draws on the qualitative phases of the same three-year study, aiming to understand how the changing forms of retail provision are experienced at the neighbourhood level within selected households. The empirical material is drawn from focus groups, accompanied shopping trips, diaries, interviews and kitchen visits with eight households in two contrasting neighbourhoods in the Portsmouth area. The data demonstrate that consumer choice involves judgements of taste, quality and value as well as more 'objective' questions of convenience, price and accessibility. These judgements are related to households' differential levels of cultural capital and involve ethical and moral considerations as well as more mundane considerations of practical utility. Our evidence suggests that many of the terms that are conventionally advanced as explanations of consumer choice (such as 'convenience', 'value' and 'habit') have very different meanings according to different household circumstances. To understand these meanings requires us to relate consumers' at-store behaviour to the domestic context in which their consumption choices are embedded. Our research demonstrates that consumer choice between stores can be understood in terms of accessibility and convenience, while choice within stores involves notions of value, price and quality. We conclude that choice between and within stores is strongly mediated by consumers' household context reflecting the extent to which shopping practices are embedded within consumers' domestic routines and complex everyday lives.

Weaving new retail and consumer landscapes in the Scottish Borders

“…These analyses of retail change have recently been complemented by studies of consumer choice and behavioural change of consumers over longer time-spans (Clarke, 2000Jackson et al, 2006). Retailing and consumers have changed.…”

The importance of context in store forecasting: The site visit in retail location decision-making

“…Indeed, recent research 46 has suggested consumers ' behaviour is becoming more diffi cult to forecast with changes in household composition and responsibilities: ' consumer choice is socially embedded within households ' increasingly complex everyday lives, with shopping " fi tted in " around people ' s other responsibilities and commitments (childcare, work, leisure, etc) ' (p. 59). It is essential to note that accessibility is not simply the outcome of the geography of the catchment, but also ' socially constructed notions of value, price, and quality ' (Jackson et al ., 47 p. 61).…”

The Co-Creation of a Retail Innovation: Shoppers and the Early Supermarket in Britain

“…12 This is arguably nowhere more evident than in relation to the rapid diffusion of the supermarket, in which self-service organisation saw shoppers replace the retailer in undertaking much of the work in handling and transporting goods through the store and to the home. 13 Retailers promised supermarket shoppers various forms of possible recompense for the additional costs they incurred in 4 undertaking the new form of shopping including reduced time spent in queues, a reduction in the overall work of food shopping as a result of the opportunities for one-stop shopping, enhanced freedom of choice through the personal selection of goods and, eventually, price reductions.…”

“…3 As we discuss below, retailing provides a compelling case for analysis of cocreation thanks to its role in integrating the inputs of a network of agents including the shopper. 4 Our evaluation includes matters relating to both the physical and mental tasks of shopping, including requisite learning and skills development. It is also encompasses a consideration of the experiences shoppers could undergo in the supermarket and that led to feelings and emotions such as satisfaction or dissatisfaction, and, more occasionally, fun, and excitement.…”