The importance of importance: Its impact on decision-making in mall retail categories during an economic downturn

• Importance of product category mediates the attitudes intentions relationship.
• Shoppers’ trade-off between utilitarian and hedonic value in recessions.
• Promotional campaigns need to reflect the value trade-off.

The study examines how, during an economic downturn, the perceived importance of the value offering of retail store categories, as identified by a major international mall operator based in Australia, influences the relationship between consumers’ shopping attitudes and likelihood of purchasing in those categories. The findings show variance in the importance pertaining to retail store categories between those that have and those that have not altered their shopping behaviour. Different mediating effects were found in the major, mini-major, leisure, apparel, and mobile phone categories, suggestive of each group having differing levels of self-interest in the value offerings of each category, thus, symptomatic of dissimilar decision-making strategies for each group. Contributions to theory and practice are discussed.