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This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/13522759810235197. When citing the article, please cite: Ian Clarke, Ian Kell, Ruth Schmidt, Claudio Vignali, (1998), “Thinking the thoughts they do: symbolism and meaning in the consumer experience of the “British pub””, Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, Vol. 1 Iss: 3, pp. 132 - 144.

The key purpose of this paper is to examine the principal dimensions involved in store‐choice decisions and to discuss the trade‐off consumers make in their judgments between salient variables. The process of conjoint analysis is considered, in the first section of the paper, as a means to understanding the behavioural dimensions of customer segmentation. The second section explores this link, with reference to recent research undertaken with a multiple menswear fashion retailer. Respondents were interviewed to elicit their preferred ‘bundle’ of store‐choice attributes, which they felt influenced them in their choice of where to shop. In the third section of the paper, an attempt is made to evaluate the trade‐offs involved in the choice process.

Fashion retailers are increasingly attempting to categorise fashion clothing according to their perceptions of consumer motivations. However, much of the research in this area centres around economic and demographic considerations, disregarding the social and psychological significance of fashion clothing as a means of forming group identity and differentiation. Knowledge of the form and frequency of these group dynamics involved in fashion clothing purchasing will, potentially, have important implications for retailers and marketers alike. The paper considers prevalent theories on the development of social identification, the role of fashion in facilitating these formations (through the semiotic conveyance and interpretation of information), and the mediating role of culture and lifestyle determinants. The relationship of these theoretical underpinnings to the social interactions of the apparel consumer is explored through the construction of an incipient conceptual framework, underlying the cyclical but capricious nature of clothing choice. Implications for future research are identified.

The “food deserts” debate can be enriched by setting the particular circumstances of food deserts – areas of very limited consumer choice – within a wider context of changing retail provision in other areas. This paper’s combined focus on retail competition and consumer choice shifts the emphasis from changing patterns of retail provision towards a more qualitative understanding of how “choice” is actually experienced by consumers at the local level “on the ground”. This argument has critical implications for current policy debates where the emphasis on monopolies and mergers at the national level needs to be brought together with the planning and regulation of retail provision at the local, neighbourhood level.

This paper considers the design of technology in domestic, or home, settings. The systems themselves have become increasingly complex and the need for dependable systems correspondingly important. The design problem is concerned less with the creation of new technical artefacts than with their effective configuration and integration. Inadequate understanding of the lived reality of use and user needs is often responsible for lack of dependability. The paper illuminates and highlights some fields for future investigation.

The paper argues the need for an appraisal of the symbolic meaning of the “pub” and derivative managerialist concepts from the perspective of the consumers’ experience. Set against background developments of the “pub”, the paper explores the use of semiotics as a means of examining the symbolic meaning of pre‐modern, modern and post‐modern pub formats. The paper draws on extensive interviews with a stratified purposive sample of customers of pub formats in the north‐west of England to undertake a semiotic appraisal of the reason why consumers “think the thoughts they do” about managerial developments of this distinctly social phenomenon.

Much of the existing literature on location does not address the problems faced by retail organizations at a strategic level, largely because it has tended to concentrate on the technical and policy issues relating to the evaluation and development of new sites. The reason for this lies largely in the geographic origins of most previous work, and while marketing has borrowed many of these concepts and approaches, it has not yet fully developed additional ones appropriate for a strategic management audience. Reviews research in the geography and marketing traditions, and builds on recently published work to outline two new conceptual models which serve to link strategic and monadic (individual site) decisions. Discusses the development of a more holistic perspective which underlines the strategic role of retail location and emphasizes key areas for research relevant to many of the issues currently facing retail organizations.

Focuses on deprived neighbourhoods where instances of “food deserts” have been found and explores, through focus groups, consumer experiences of food store choices. Focusing on suburban neighbourhoods in Portsmouth, identifies significant differences in experiences of choice both between and within neighbourhoods. In some localities, the research also finds dissatisfaction with the (supposedly‐coveted) “small local store”. Shows that choice is very different from provision, and conceptualises how consumers’ circumstances, situation and individual characteristics can significantly reduce a broad theoretical provision of food stores to a limited set of perceived real choices.

Focuses on the changing nature of retail competition and the way it affects local consumer choice in the UK grocery sector. Integrates relevant literature on the economic aspects of competition with work on the changing corporate geographies of retailers. Links vertical market power (relative to suppliers) and multiple retailers’ ability to compete horizontally (relative to other retailers) in a given trading locality, and argues that this interaction has fundamentally altered the nature of competition. The increase in retail power that has resulted has served to redefine local consumer choice. Smaller retailers are disadvantaged by this shift because it has directly affected the store and product choices of consumer groups depending on their relative mobility. Argues for empirical work to ground and validate these assertions.