Shopper reactions to perceived time pressure

Reports the results of an exploratory study of the effects of time pressure on consumer supermarket shopping behaviour. Unique to the study are the use of measures of both actual and relative shopping time and purchase amount, and measures of self‐reported perceived time pressure. Measures of relative shopping time and purchase amount potentially provide more accurate methods for measuring time pressure effects in certain shopping situations while the use of self‐reported time pressure makes the results applicable to a wider variety of consumers. Results indicate that time‐pressured shoppers do not necessarily spend any more or less time or money in supermarkets. Instead, supermarket shoppers tend to spend less time making any given purchase and more money in the time available to them. Provides several suggestions for improving future research of time pressure effects as well as several possible retail strategies for dealing with the time‐harried consumer.