Socioeconomic Product Risk and Patronage Preferences of Retail Shoppers

CONVENTIONAL retailers have faced vigorous competition from discount stores ove the past decade. The discount stores, in spite of the somewhat gloomy projections for their future that were made in the early 1960s,' have experienced steady growth. Since 1960, their total sales volume has risen fifteen fold. In 1973, the general merchandise sales of discount stores reached $23.1 billion and accounted for 19.5% of the sales of major retailers of general merchandise.2 In comparison, the corresponding figures for the conventional department stores were $17.1 billion and 14.5%, respectively.3 The extent to which competing retailers will be able to maintain their market positions in the face of the challenge of the discount stores depends on the extent to which they can creatively adapt their operations to the changing patterns of consumer shopping behavior and consumer patronage attitudes toward different retail store types. Industry surveys have shown that the patronage of discount houses is by no means limited to blue-collar workers, but is widely prevalent among higher occupational groups.4 This does not necessarily mean, however, that consumers in b th lower and higher socioeconomic classes have similar patronage attitudes toward discount stores for all their purchase needs. Rich, for example, investigated the effect of income on the purchase of nine selected items at discount stores.5 He observed that income had relatively little effect on the purchase of men's socks and shirt , large appliances, towels and bed linens, and kitchen utensils and small appliances. In the case of coats, better dresses, housedresses, undergarments, hosiery, and children's clothing, the incidence of purchase at discount stores decreased as income increased. This was most true of coats and better dresses, and least noticeable in the case of children's clothing. Dardis and Sandler, in their study of discount store shoppers in a small city, found a significant and inverse relationship be ween the shopper's social class and the amount of his purchases of clothing and household textiles at discount stores.6 These studies suggest that consumers in different socioeconomic segments differ in their patronage of discount stores for some types of products but do not for others.' An important question may thus be raised: for which types of purchases can one expect a significant relationship between a shopper's social class and his patronage attitudes toward discount stores? It is the thesis of the pres1. William R. Davidson and Alton F. Doody, "The Future of Discounting," JOURNAL OF MARKETING, Vol. 27 (January 1963), pp. 36-40; William R. Davidson, "The End of the Discount House as a Distinctive Type of Retailing Institution," Department Store Economist, Vol. 24 (December 1961), pp. 24-28; and Alfred R. Oxenfeldt, "The Retailing Revolution: Why and Whither?" Journal of Retailing, Vol. 36 (Fall 1960), pp. 157-162. 2. "The True Look of the Discount Industry," The Discount Merchandiser, Vol. 13 (June 1973), p. 32. 3. Same reference as footnote 2, p. 34. 4. Discount Store Study (Cleveland: The Cleveland Press, 1970), p. 20; and "The True Look of the Discount Industry," The Discount Merchandiser, Vol. 11 (June 1971), pp. 29-TL.