Need for uniqueness: shopping mall preference and choice activity

Since the store mix and product offerings of many regional shopping malls are very similar, often the primary discriminator between many of these centres is merely location. Making the choice to shop at a regional shopping mall other than the one nearest to one′s place of residence, therefore, does not appear to be a logical choice in many instances. Such behaviour, however, appears to be relatively common. It would appear, therefore, that regional shopping mall choice may not always be based solely on the offerings and location of the available shopping alternatives. Appears to provide support for the hypothesis that regional shopping mall choice can be an avenue for expression of an individual′s need for uniqueness. Suggests that outshopping activity as it relates to choice of regional shopping mall, may, at least in part, be prompted by the personal uniqueness which can be experienced by choosing to patronize regional shopping malls other than the one which is nearest to one′s place of residence.

[1]  L. Festinger.  A Theory of Social Comparison Processes , 1954 .

[2]  G. P. Stone,et al.  City Shoppers and Urban Identification: Observations on the Social Psychology of City Life , 1954, American Journal of Sociology.

[3]  L. L. Beik,et al.  Shoppers' Movements outside Their Local Retail Area , 1968 .

[4]  H. Fromkin.  Effects of experimentally aroused feelings of undistinctiveness upon valuation of scarce and novel experiences. , 1970, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[5]  William R. Darden,et al.  Shopping Orientations and Product Usage Rates , 1971 .

[6]  William R. Darden,et al.  Intermarket Patronage: A Psychographic Study of Consumer Outshoppers , 1972 .

[7]  William R. Darden,et al.  Identifying Interurban Shoppers: Multiproduct Purchase Patterns and Segmentation Profiles , 1976 .

[8]  C. R. Snyder,et al.  Abnormality as a positive characteristic: The development and validation of a scale measuring need for uniqueness. , 1977 .

[9]  C. R. Snyder,et al.  Effects of degree of interpersonal similarity on physical distance and self‐reported attraction: A comparison of uniqueness and reinforcement theory predictions , 1979 .

[10]  Howard L. Fromkin,et al.  Uniqueness, the human pursuit of difference , 1980 .

[11]  W. Bearden,et al.  Reference Group Influence on Product and Brand Purchase Decisions , 1982 .

[12]  U. Yavas,et al.  Intermarket shopping behavior and the small community: Problems and prospects of a widespread phenomenon , 1983 .

[13]  Richard F. Yalch,et al.  To Take or Not to Take the Only One: Effects of Changing the Meaning of a Product Attribute on Choice Behavior , 1984 .

[14]  Jon M. Hawes,et al.  Understanding the outshopper , 1984 .

[15]  William R. Darden,et al.  Shopping patterns of the rural consumer: Exploring the relationship between shopping orientations and outshopping , 1986 .

[16]  A. Coskun Samli.  Retail marketing strategy : planning, implementation, and control , 1989 .

[17]  Richard G. Netemeyer,et al.  Measurement of Consumer Susceptibility to Interpersonal Influence , 1989 .

[18]  B. R. Schlenker,et al.  Self-consciousness and self-presentation: Being autonomous versus appearing autonomous. , 1990 .

[19]  OUTSHOPPING FROM SMALL TOWNS A BRITISH CASE STUDY , 1990 .

[20]  William O. Bearden,et al.  Attention to Social Comparison Information: An Individual Difference Factor Affecting Consumer Conformity , 1990 .

[21]  M. Lynn.  Scarcity effects on value: A quantitative review of the commodity theory literature , 1991 .

[22]  C. R. Snyder,et al.  Product Scarcity by Need for Uniqueness Interaction: A Consumer Catch-22 Carousel? , 1992 .

[23]  William S. Sekely,et al.  Retail attributes: Influence on shopping mode choice behavior. , 1994 .

[24]  C. Maslach,et al.  Establishing the social impact of individuation. , 1994, Journal of personality and social psychology.