Experience-based aspects of shopping attitudes: The roles of norms and loyalty

The act of shopping does at times involve some negativity despite the best efforts of retailers. These hassling aspects of shopping (such as long check out lines or a product out of stock) are not critical but they can influence attitudes toward returning to the store. The theory of norms states that normative expectations guide cognitive reactions to experiences [Kahneman, D., Miller, D.T., 1986. Norm theory: comparing reality to its alternatives. Psychological Review 93, 136–153]. A zone of indifference (ZI) scale as originally conceptualized by Woodruff et al. [1983. Modeling consumer satisfaction processes using experience-based norms. Journal of Marketing Research 20, 296–304] is developed to capture individual differences in perceptions of typical discount store performance. Variations in the ZI are found to differentially affect participants’ responses only when loyalty to the store is low.