Toward Consumer Efficiency: A Model for Improved Buymanship

Seventy years ago, alert consumers were challenged to identify acceptable product quality as the basis for their purchase decisions. Product quality varied widely, and distribution alternatives were limited. Today's shoppers face a vastly different shopping environment. Quality variability within many product categories has decreased (Grunewald, Faulds, and McNulty 1993; Hjorth-Andersen 1988, 1991), but the number of product, service, and store choice decisions has steadily increased (Maynes 1976; Schor 1992). Given these changes, the guidelines for buymanship based on the market conditions described by Wesley Mitchell (1912) and Chase and Schlink (1928) may not serve today's consumers. This paper introduces a shopping model designed for a changed marketplace - a marketplace impacted by a wide array of social, cultural, economic, and technological forces. Consumers following the model increase purchasing power by taking advantage of the intense competition in consumer product markets and the retail environment. The focus of consumer purchasing deliberation is shifted from the manufacturer to the retailer. First, the economic foundations and current recommendations of consumer education are reviewed. Changes in the marketplace and household behavior which provide the foundation for the model are then described. Next, the model for improved buymanship is presented, and finally, implications for consumer buying, research, and consumer education are delineated. TRADITIONAL APPROACHES The buyer behavior models of consumer education are derived largely from economic theory of consumer demand and the normative concepts of economic man and rational behavior. The assumptions of consumer demand specify that buyers, at the point of purchase, possess perfect information about products and prices, are certain of their own stable tastes and preferences, are capable of perfectly processing information, and can express preferences between goods and bundles of goods without cost (Schwartz 1986). The framework for the consumer decision process is based on these and on assumptions about the behavior of economic man who chooses a good for its primary function. The rational decisionmaker adheres to the tenets of Herbert Simon's three-step model in which one (1) identifies the problem, (2) gathers information, and (3) makes a choice based on the information (Simon 1957). In spite of contemporary consumer behavior texts resting heavily on the tenets of psychology and sociology to explain attitudes, motivations, and behavior, the discipline holds fast to economic theory (Sheth, Newman, and Gross 1991). Shopping and search are typically treated as "costs" of consumption with consideration given to both subjective and objective costs (e.g., Maynes 1976), yet there is mounting evidence that many consumers enjoy shopping. Prus, examining shopping activity as "an instance of human lived activity" (1991, 296), found one important type of browsing to be casual or recreational browsing, an activity in which the consumer has no intention of making a purchase. Others (Hafstrom, Chae, and Chung 1992; Smith 1989; Sproles and Kendall 1986) have identified "recreational shoppers" - those who take time to shop carefully because they enjoy shopping for its own reward. Clearly, for these individuals, the opportunity cost of time is of little concern. Consumer Education Recommendations Educators' recommendations are largely concentrated on teaching the consumer to formalize decisionmaking (Deacon and Firebaugh 1988). Careful analysis, thought, and planning are favored (see Deacon and Firebaugh 1988; Freidman and Rees 1988; Garman 1991). Consumers are encouraged to engage in search until it is no longer profitable and to make optimal purchase decisions on individual items. Price and quality are key considerations with the recommendation being the consumer use a marginal rule starting with the lowest quality specimen. In moving up on quality the consumer asks, "Is the improvement in quality worth the increased cost? …