Gendered retailing: a study of customer perceptions of front line staff in the DIY sector

This paper reports findings from a small scale study exploring the role gender plays in the interactions between customers and front-line staff in DIY retailing. Drawing on materials gathered through observations, informal discussions with staff and focus groups, this study suggests that “maleness” pervades many aspects of DIY retailing. For the respondents the image of the case retailer, B&Q, and the products sold had male connotations. Furthermore, male customers perceived male customer-facing staff to have better knowledge of technical DIY than female employees, even though this was not always the case. Given the rising interest from women in home improvements, it would appear that measures need to be put in place to create a more “inclusive” DIY store environment for female customers, and one that challenges the stereotypical assumptions held by many male home improvement customers

Implementing diversity management in retailing: exploring the role of organisational context

Diversity management is a means of managing customer and employee differences for the benefit of the organisation. This qualitative study considers how contextual factors influence diversity management implementation in different retailing environments. Exploratory research was conducted in three SBUs of a UK retailing group: the UK high street SBU, the US operations and the online SBU. Despite different cultural, legal and historical differences between the UK and US, these factors did not lead to significantly different ways of dealing with diversity in the UK high street and US businesses. Instead the extent to which individual differences were recognised was influenced by the selling environment and the retailer’s size and structure. The paper recommends that retailer’s need to develop a ‘home-grown’ approach to diversity management that acknowledges their organisational context

Using scenarios to explore employee attitudes in retailing

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to explore how hypothetical scenarios can be used to study individual employee attitudes towards diversity and equality initiatives in retailing. Design/methodology/approach: Forty semi-structured interviews were conducted with a range of staff working in three business units belonging to a UK retailer. As part of the interviews, respondents were asked to comment on four work based scenarios exploring customer and employee diversity issues. Findings: The paper proposes that scenarios can be a useful method for exploring the hidden meanings retail employees have towards ethical issues such as diversity management. However, they may not always be useful for furthering knowledge of the area. This is because responses to the scenarios in this study frequently contradicted the respondent’s real-life work experiences explored in the rest of the interview. This suggests that, when commenting on the scenarios, interviewees did not always ground their responses so that they reflected their role in the retailer and their own diversity. Originality/Value: The study argues that hypothetical scenarios, if used in retail research or for retail training and development purposes, should have ecological validity. In order to obtain an accurate picture of individual attitudes and to tease out what an individual might do (the rhetoric) from what they have actually experienced (the reality), those researching in the retail industry should use a range of qualitative methods to study the same issue

Poetry in motion: creative networking in micro retail

This developmental paper explores the role of networks in the micro retail sector by providing qualitative evidence from a longitudinal study of a female owned retail publishing business. The preliminary analysis finds that the owner has drawn upon her own social capital to develop networks which have been crucial to the survival of the retail business. These networks are informal, wide reaching and closely linked to the social bonds the owner has made with other individuals who share similar values to that of the business

Consumer Expenditures Vary by Age

The Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) publishes information classified by characteristics such as income, household size, and age of the reference person. This article uses 2013 CE data to examine the relationship between age and consumer expenditures. This relationship is important because the aging of the baby-boom generation will influence the overall level and composition of consumer spending in the years to come

Household Healthcare Spending in 2014

This Beyond the Numbers article uses 2014 CE data to examine household spending on healthcare and its components. The article first examines the relationship between healthcare spending and household pretax income and then the relationship between healthcare spending and the age of the reference person

Movies, Music, and Sports: U.S. Entertainment Spending, 2008-2013

[Excerpt] This Beyond the Numbers article examines entertainment spending from 2008 to 2013 and breaks the spending down into its four parts: fees and admissions; audio and visual equipment and services; pets, toys, hobbies, and playground equipment; and other entertainment supplies, equipment, and services. This article also analyzes the relationships between entertainment spending and 1) income, 2) education, and 3) age

New Education Classification Better Reflects Income and Spending Patterns in the Consumer Expenditure Survey

An individual’s level of education and associated earnings profoundly influence spending patterns. Published Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) data shown average expenditures, income, and other consumer unit (CU) characteristics classified by education of the reference person. With the release of calendar year 2012 CE data on September 10, 2013, the education of reference person classification was replaced by the highest education level of any member in the consumer unit. The major reason for this change is that the highest level of education attained by any household member more accurately reflects income and spending patterns than does the education level of the reference person only. For example, data from the Census Bureau show that the proportion of married couples where the wife is the more educated spouse increased during the 1996–2010 period. This means that the education level in families where the husband is designated as the reference person could be understated. Table 1 shows selected characteristics, mean annual expenditures, and expenditure shares for consumer units classified by the highest level of education of any CU member, which is the new breakdown. Table 2 presents the same data classified by education of the reference person, which is the old breakdown. (Both tables show data for 2012.

Hispanic Household Spending in 2015

Although the Hispanic population has grown more slowly in recent years, it still exerts a powerful influence on the U.S. economy. Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) data show that, in 2015, households with a reference person of Hispanic or Latino origin were 13 percent of the sample, compared with 12.2 percent in 2010 and 10.6 percent in 2005. This Beyond the Numbers article uses 2015 CE data to examine spending by households with a Hispanic or Latino reference person, compared with households without a Hispanic or Latino reference person. (In the article, for convenience, “Hispanic or Latino” is shortened to “Hispanic.”) Spending by Hispanic households is compared with spending by households with a non-Hispanic White reference person and spending by households with a non-Hispanic Black or African-American reference person