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The “off-price” retailing concept is defined as the presentation of limited inventories of products in a “disorganised” retail environment which provides an extra level of “challenge” to the shopping experience. Research has identified “off-price” shoppers as those who approach this challenging experience in a purposeful, task-driven way. This current research contributes new knowledge by testing the impact of antecedents (i.e. involvement) on the “off-price” shopper experience and the moderating role of national culture across two distinct cultural groups.

Data were collected via a self-completed, anonymous, online survey provided to a sample of Australian (n = 355) and Chinese (n = 400) shoppers who were identified as regularly shopping for fashion in “off-price” retail stores.

The research found that the consumer's level of involvement positively impacted their “off-price” shopping experience in terms of effort/mastery and pride. However, in contrast to current knowledge of East-Asian and Western cultural variances, limited moderation effects were identified. All national cultural dimensions interacted with product involvement in influencing consumer pride. Whilst product involvement decreased with pride in higher individualism, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation and indulgence cultures, these reversed in cultures with a lower score in these four dimensions.

This new research extends knowledge of “off-price” shopper behaviour by testing the levels of involvement and experience across two distinctly different cultures – East Asian and Western – and challenges existing knowledge of cultural variances. Further, the work extends the use of achievement goal theory as an approach to delineate these consumers from other cohorts.

Off-price fashion retailers are expected to dominate the retail sector over the next five years. Surprisingly, selling excess designer labels, in what some describe as a disorganized manner, appeals to certain shoppers who enjoy the “thrill of the hunt.” Recent research conceptualized consumers, whose motivation for, and outcomes from, fashion shopping set them apart from previously reported shopper types. Referred to as “Sport Shoppers,” they view fashion shopping as an achievement domain. The purpose of this paper is to quantify such shoppers through the development of a valid psychometric scale.

Four studies, comprising depth interviews and online surveys, across two countries were employed to develop a three-dimensional scale of the sport shopping experience. Factor analyses and structural equation modeling were used to analyze and test a theoretically hypothesized model.

Study 1 generated items aligned to the three theoretical dimensions of the sport shopping experience. Study 2 confirmed reliability and factor structure of the psychometric scale. Study 3 provides evidence of convergent and discriminant validity with previous shopper types. Finally, Study 4 demonstrates nomological validity through a theoretically hypothesized model of the sport shopping experience.

This is the first study to employ achievement goal theory in a consumer behavior context to delineate an emergent shopper type. The developed scale is the most comprehensive, multi-dimensional measure of the experience of this new consumer type. As such, it represents a valuable contribution to fashion retail and consumer behavior literature. The scale enables practitioners to quantify target markets and identify relationships to other factors, such as overall satisfaction and brand repurchase intentions.

The process of suburbanisation produced the great flowering of the American shopping centre during the 1950s and 60s, although they started even earlier. They evolved into three major types — regional, community, and neighbourhood, and in the 1970s these were augmented by specialty theme, multi‐use, and factory outlets type centres. But US shopping centres are now facing a number of problems: department stores (their principal tenants) are in decline; regional malls are finding difficulty in adapting to new retail conditions; and the malls themselves are becoming very expensive to operate. David Rogers looks at the “mid‐life crisis” of the American shopping centre and makes some comparisons with the situation in the UK.

Shopping is a popular tourist activity. While a person might not travel for the purpose of shopping, many tourists shop while traveling. This study aims to examine travel motivation as a predictor of the importance assigned to desired shopping center attributes for three different shopping centers, and their effect on satisfaction, and re‐patronage intention.

Data were collected via mall‐intercept surveys from 624 tourist shoppers at seven shopping centers. A tourist was defined as a person who traveled a distance of at least 50 miles from their home.

Desired shopping center attributes are influenced by travel motivation. For the superregional center, a linear relationship was computed for the exploration travel motive, mall environment, overall satisfaction and re‐patronage intention. Interestingly, overall satisfaction with the shopping center was not a significant predictor of re‐patronage intention in the theme/festival or super off‐price centers.

Given the importance of shopping in the travel agenda, identification and consideration of different travel motivations can facilitate development of the shopping center environment for maximum customer satisfaction. All of the motivations may co‐exist in the same family or tourist unit (e.g. convention attendees). These findings can be particularly useful in designing amenities and targeting promotional campaigns to different audiences.

Asks how consumers are responding to the diverse array of retail choices as new formats continue to emerge in US retailing and increasingly in overseas markets. Through the collection of interview data, analyses penetration levels and patronage movement as well as market change push and pull factors. Studies ten retail formats including department stores, speciality stores, mass merchandisers, discount stores, mail order catalogues, off‐price stores, manufacturers’ outlets, warehouse clubs, used stores and television home shopping channels. Consumers evidenced high levels of cross‐shopping between formats. Discusses the means by which various formats deliver value to the consumer in light of current market strategies.

A major trend in US retailing is the increasingly diverse array of retail formats available to consumers. Owing to the emergence of new retail formats, competition between retailers of all types is heightening. Uses data from two consumer studies, to illustrate the pervasiveness and complexity of consumer cross‐shopping patterns across various retail channels. Addresses the implications of this retail trend in terms of channel competition and competitiveness in the US market.

Received wisdom is that retail change starts in America and later spreads to major western European countries. This was certainly true until the early 1970s when France took the lead in innovation, blinding the retail world with its dazzling regional shopping centres and its massive hypermarkets. To this day the Americans have not succeeded in selling food and non‐food under the same roof with the same panache as the French. But in recent years the Americans have revived their capacity for innovation, especially in the development of speciality chains, some of them sharply focussed in marketing terms and closely supported by the latest in automated systems. Then again, in supermarkets there has been the development of different formats within specific store type categories, of which the food‐drug combination store and the “hybrid” warehouse store are two interesting examples. Lastly there have been significant technological developments in cable TV and viewdata systems, and a number of test teleshopping systems are already in operation. In this first of an irregular series of articles on American retailing, Dr David Rogers outlines these changes, some of which will be discussed in more detail in subsequent features.

This research note discusses the difficulty which factory outlet operators are experiencing in finding suitable sites in the UK and, using the example of Freeport Leisure’s acquisition of United Norwest hypermarket in Stoke and other converted “failed” shopping formats, shows how redeveloped sites with low acquisition costs are a likely option for future factory outlet developers. The acquisition has been successful because of the selection of product type for sale (ceramics which lend themselves to discount prices) and location (at the heart of the Potteries).

Three basic approaches to retail institutional change can be discerned in the last 30 years. The first contends that institutional evolution is a function of developments in the socio‐economic environment. The second argues that change occurs in a cyclical fashion. The third considers inter‐institutional conflict to be the mainspring of retail change. None of those approaches is found to be entirely satisfactory, and a series of combination theories has been posited. It is argued that regional institutional change is the result of environmental forces and a cycle‐like sequence of inter‐institutional conflict.

It is not uncommon for the USA to be the origin of innovative retail formats. In recent years in the UK, the most recent retail out‐of‐town developments have their roots in the USA, most notably warehouse clubs and factory outlet centres. Charts the growth of one of these formats, factory outlet centres, in the UK and discusses the prospects for development potential in other European markets. Semi‐structured interviews were carried out with major developers and development consultancies to ascertain the type of strategies pursued, the locational criteria for site selection, the role of tenants in this process and the degree of customization or standardization of the format in market entry strategies. Although the UK appeared to offer US developers the best opportunity for market penetration, planning policy has progressively worked against the development of this retail format. It is unlikely that any more than seven to eight US‐style factory outlet centres will be built out of a total of 26 developments by 2001. There has been a considerable downsizing of initial proposals, with the creation of smaller, more downmarket centres than in the USA. US developers have been forced to seek sites in the rest of Europe much earlier than originally intended. Their strategies have differed from the standardized, upmarket brand character of one operator compared with a more customized approach adopted by the market leader.