Consumer Behavior

Chapter 4

Shopping as a Life Skill

This chapter focuses on the acquisition of consumer and shopping skills through mother–daughter interactions. The acquisition of consumer skills is termed “consumer socialization” by researchers and occurs as a result of parents (almost always the mother) showing children how to shop, either by direct instruction or by observing their parents’ behavior. Consumer behavior information processing skills are also transferred by interacting with parents in consumption situations. These forms of direct and indirect instruction lead to the child being able to act as a consumer on his or her own.¹ While parental influence on consumer socialization tends to diminish as children get older, their influence on adult buying ...