Spatial convenience : Bridging the gap between shopping malls and shopping strips
- Authors: Reimers, Vaughan , Clulow, Val
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management Vol. 42, no. 10 (2014), p. 864-883
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- Description: Purpose - Due to rising obesity levels, declining fitness levels, an aging population, and shopper lethargy, retail planners must give serious consideration to the physical demands retail centres place on their patrons. The purpose of this paper is to determine the importance consumers assign to spatial convenience, measure how consumers perceive shopping malls and shopping strips (also referred to as the downtown area, central business district, Main Street or the High Street) in relation to it, and compare them in their provision of it. Design/methodology/approach-The study utilises a household survey of consumers and as well as a retail audit. The survey was used to identify the importance consumers assign to spatial convenience, while the retail audit was used to establish how malls and strips compare in their provision of it. Findings-The results of the survey indicate that consumers regard spatial convenience as important and believe that malls are superior in providing it. The retail audit confirmed the accuracy of these perceptions, with the mall providing greater store compatibility, and a more compact shopping environment. Originality/value-The influence of spatial convenience on shopping behaviour has been largely overlooked at the level of the retail centre. Moreover, those studies that have focused on this topic, have typically done so from the singular focus of either malls or strips. This study incorporates both, and does so via an empirical analysis of consumer attitudes and a spatial comparison of both retail formats. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
How do consumers define retail centre convenience?
- Authors: Clulow, Val , Reimers, Vaughan
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australasian Marketing Journal Vol. 17, no. 3 (2009), p. 125-132
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- Description: The 1980s and 1990s have been labelled the ‘decades of convenience’. In spite of this, retail research has often indicated that when compared with other shopping motives, consumers assign relatively less importance to the convenience of a retail centre when deciding where to shop. Such counter-intuitive findings could be due to the way in which academics have defined retail centre convenience. This study develops and tests an alternative definition. Comprising 16 attributes, it represents a fourfold increase over any existing definition. Subsequent empirical analysis provides strong support for the alternative definition, with respondents indicating that 14 of the test attributes serve as convenience attributes. The failure of existing definitions to incorporate so many of these attributes is a likely explanation behind the counter-intuitive proposition that convenience often serves as a less-than-salient determinant of retail centre patronage.
Retail centre convenience : Its' influence over consumer patronage behaviour
- Authors: Reimers, Vaughan , Clulow, Val
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Proceedings of the ANZMAC 2009 Conference p. 1-8
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- Description: The modern consumer seeks to maximise the value they derive from all their marketing exchanges. While there are two ways this can be achieved, current academic interest is typically focused on just one: increasing the hedonic benefits obtained from shopping. This study focuses on the other side of the equation: increasing value by decreasing the time, space and effort costs of shopping. Utilising a survey of consumer households, this study examines the importance of convenience in a multi-purpose shopping context. Analysis revealed that consumers prefer and visit most frequently, the retail form they consider most convenient. Moreover, the greater the convenience they associate with an attribute, the greater the importance they assign to it.
The role of convenience in the evolution of the mall
- Authors: Reimers, Vaughan , Clulow, Val
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Proceedings of the ANZMAC 2009 Conference
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- Description: The shifting market share between malls and strips is an important trend in retailing. While convenience is recognised as a major influence behind the initial success of the regional mall, it has largely been ignored in accounting for its more recent decline. Using secondary data, this paper seeks to account for the varying fortunes of the regional mall using both convenience and non-convenience factors. The review indicated that while convenience alone could not account for its loss of market share, the decline of the mall appears to have coincided with its loss of time- and effort-saving qualities.