Consumer Behavior at Wal-Mart

Paper Summary:

The author hypothesized that, by watching the way people shop, she would find some correlation between the way adults act towards their children while shopping and the sort of shopping decisions they themselves make as they trained their children to be consumers. The author staked out a local Wal-Mart in the most culturally and racially diverse part of town to control for any sort of racial or class distinctions. Whenever the author saw two or more adults accompanied by one or more young children, she discreetly tailed them and observed their behavior. The paper relates that the observations showed the author's original hypothesis regarding shopping as an educational experience was somewhat erroneous; with one exception (Case #2), the author did not observe any parents who were actively educating their kids concerning value judgments and purchasing choices. Observation notes included.

From the Paper:

"Impulsive shoppers had several aspects in common. First, they seemed to consistently purchase expensive items they didn't necessarily need because they were a "good deal" or "really cute" while complaining about the cost of more basic items. This aspect cut across boundaries of financial security. Secondly, they seemed to view shopping as more of a social and emotional experience than non-impulsive shoppers did and were guided by peer pressure into shopping choices. Additionally, every impulsive shopper I noticed seemed to have some sort of emotional alienation issue, which particularly manifested itself in their relationship to their children and to their purchased products."

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