Adventures, auctions and aspirations: Illuminating shifts, tensions and contradictions in consumers' leisure shopping experiences

Abstract

Drawing upon the work of Simmel ([1907–1911] 1971) and other socioculturally oriented theoreticians (e.g. Campbell 1987; Thompson et al. 1994), this paper illuminates the composite and dynamic character of leisure shopping. Using three overarching themes – the adventure, the auction and the aspiration – the paper illustrates that leisure shopping experiences comprise a synthesis of opposites, involving dynamic shifts between for example spontaneity and control, delight and disappointment, dreams and fantasies as well as rational calculations and purposive planning. Leisure shopping is thus described as a form of rational recreation (Lash and Urry 2002), where consumers seek pleasure in highly rationalized ways.

Keywords:

• leisure shopping experiences
• hedonic value
• utilitarian value
• retailing
• consumer culture

Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Foundation for Research in Trade and Commerce in Sweden (HUR). The author would also like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments during the development of the manuscript.

Notes

1. There are however also those who have used other terms to denote this activity, such as pleasurable shopping, entertaining shopping or leisure shopping (Cox et al. 2005; Howard 2007; Sit et al. 2003).

2. For a similar perspective on green shopping, i.e. shopping for environmental friendly products, see Fuentes (2011).

3. Twelve first-year students enrolled in a management education at a University in a Swedish city participated in the pilot study. The study involved three separate focus group settings, with men and women aged 19–40.

4. Similes are very like metaphors but there is an important philosophical difference: the comparison is explicit. That is; while metaphors are literally impossible or untrue (e.g. saying that a person is a fox), similes represent an explicit comparison where the resemblance is literally true (e.g. saying that a person is like a fox) (Knowles and Moon 2006). See Knowles and Moon (2006) for a more thorough discussion of this subject.

5. For a thorough discussion of shopping as sacrifice, see Miller (1998).

6. For a thorough examination of the various ways in which status manifests itself in consumption activities, see Ulver-Sneistrup (2008).