How Good A Shopper Am I? Conceptualizing Teenage Girls' Perceived Shopping Competence

Academy of Marketing Science Review, 2006 by Palan, Kay M

face= Italic; Knowledge of Different Stores and Brandsface=-Italic; - All informants shared extensive knowledge of and opinions about various retail outlets.

"I don't really like Von Maur's or Younkers just because it looks like to me that they are geared more toward the wealthier people, the people that make more money and have more money and they don't carry a lot of teen stuff. They have a very small teen section and most of them are overpriced." (Jen, 14)

"In Gadzooks they have a lot of hot stuff, so in there I look around. In Sears I just grab stuff and go." (Rebecca, 14)

"I like stores that cater to my age group. Like GAP and American Eagle and sometimes Kohls. I don't really like the bigger department stores. I just don't feel as comfortable there like it's not really for me." (Debbie, 14)

"We went to Kohls. I love Kohls. That's my store. It has everything we want and I can go there with my boyfriend and we can shop for him there too so I can shop for everything. I just recently got a watch for him. I was really surprised because I liked their stuff better than I liked the ones at the jewelry store. I mean it's really nice to go somewhere that isn't Wal-Mart. I do not like Wal-Mart because it just seems kind of uncomfortable because it seems really advertised and even though it has a lot of things in one place it's more comfortable to go to someplace like Kohls that is homier or something you know it's just more of a shopping atmosphere instead of a grocery atmosphere." (Brianna, 14)

face= Italic; Knowledge of General Shopping Routinesface=-Italic; - Almost all of the informants described occasions when they had used various shopping conventions, e.g., putting items on hold, making returns, using dressing rooms.

"I went to the mall last weekend with two friends. We went to American Eagle, The Gap, Younkers, Penney's and Maurice's. Basically we were just trying stuff on in the dressing rooms and then if you saw something you like you'd just come back later and buy it. And we saw stuff we liked and made sure they had it in our sizes and then we just went to some other stores and then we came back later to American Eagle." (Leah, 14)

"I don't like to go and just buy. I usually put it on hold and come back." (Carli, 14)

"Sometimes we put things on hold and go look around for something cheaper."(Courtney, 13)

"I've returned things a few times. Mainly because I didn't like it. I bought it and then got home and changed my mind about it." (Emily, 14)

It should be pointed out that for both of these sub-themes, knowledge of different stores and brands and knowledge of general shopping routines, our findings reflect the informants' subjective knowledge, that is, their self-reports of what they feel they know. We do not have objective evidence of their knowledge in these areas. Nonetheless, given the ease with which they talked about their knowledge, we inferred they did possess general knowledge related to shopping.

face= Bold; CONCEPTUAL MODEL DEVELOPMENTface=-Bold;