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

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

"Comparing prices, comparing sizes and how it fits. Comparing how long he (my boyfriend) thinks it will last for him and how long he's going to be wearing it. You know if he's shopping for school he would want to buy things that he'll be wearing all year and you know that kind of thing." (Alice, 14)

"She (mom) knows what looks good, what doesn't, what's appropriate and what's not." (Claire, 14)

The following excerpt extends the idea of finding the "right" item to include a planned and deliberate search process.

"She (mom) doesn't usually rush into decisions. She may try something on and get people's opinions but then leave it or put it on hold while she tries other stores or just thinks about whether it would really be right for what she needs. Like we went to a wedding in the spring and she needed a new dress. She didn't wait until the last minute to go and get a dress. She started looking about a month before the wedding and thought about what the weather might be like and how well the dress would pack in a suit bag and stuff like that. She tried on several styles from different stores before finally deciding. She was also trying to work in a certain price range because she knew she probably wouldn't wear the dress very often." (Debbie, 14)

Making good decisions, for some informants, was indicated when the shopper considered not just price or style, but also by whether or not a purchase was needed and not just wanted, exemplified in the following excerpt.

"I'll say 'do I really need it?' or 'Is this something I really want? Is it something that will fit for awhile, is it worth the money, is it something that I can wait for? Basically, do I need it?" (Elizabeth, 13)

face= Italic; Seeking Appropriate Assistance, Opinions, and Adviceface=-Italic; - The informants associated shopping competence as more than just using one's own judgment about a product--they also indicated that competence is exhibited when a shopper uses others as a source of information in order to assist the search and/or decision making process. In the following excerpts, the "other" as a source of information is a salesperson.

"Usually my mom asks a lot of questions like about shoes. Is it a good shoe? She asks for explanations, 'like give us some details." (Angie, 14)

"If I'm looking for something, I'll ask the salesperson, and if I know that I want something but it's not there, then I'll ask them if they have it in the back or something." (Kelly, 13)

"If I need help I'll just go to a salesperson and say, 'I need help finding this item. Could you please help me?" (Debbie, 14)

But "other" as a source of information can also be friends or family, as presented in the following quotes.

"She (mom) may try something on and get people's opinions..." (Debbie, 14)

"I seek out my sister's opinion, because she is more fashionable than I am. She has good fashion sense, and my mother does, but she's more practical. But sometimes I'd rather listen to my sister than my mother because my sister knows what kids are wearing and my mother wants it to be comfortable, and that's okay, because you need to think about that." (Alice, 14)