I'll have the ice cream soon and the vegetables later
Subtitle: decreasing impatience over time in online grocery orders
By: Todd Rogers, Katherine L. Milkman, and Max H. Bazerman
Contributors: Milkman, Katherine L.; Bazerman, Max H.; Harvard Business School. Division of Research
Series: Working paper / Division of Research, Harvard Business School -- 07-078; Working paper (Harvard Business School. Division of Research) -- 07-078
Publisher: Division of Research, Harvard Business School
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 52
Description: How do decisions for the near future differ from decisions for the more distant future? Most economic models predict that they do not systematically differ. With online grocery data, we show that people are decreasingly impatient the further in the future their choices will take effect. In general, as the delay between order completion and delivery increases, customers spend less, order a higher percentage of "should" items (e.g., vegetables), and order a lower percentage of "want" items (e.g., ice cream). However, orders placed for delivery tomorrow versus two days in the future do not show this want/should pattern. A second study suggests that this arises because orders placed for delivery tomorrow include more items for planned meals (as opposed to items for general stocking) than orders placed for delivery in the more distant future, and that groceries for planned meals entail more should items than groceries for general stocking.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.