ABSTRACT
T he principal means of market information for manufacturers or service providersis money or, rather, ‘price’. The most frequent way consumers ‘tell’ producers whatthey think or feel about products or services is either by buying or by choosing not to do so. But price is typically a crude medium for communication. Poor sales, empty shelves or weakened profits do not easily direct producers or providers towards how better to adapt to changes in consumer demand (except by lowering or increasing prices). From a consumer’s perspective, walking away from a shop empty handed does not fully express the detailed character of specific dissatisfactions; nor can non-purchase communicate any sense of what this or that consumer might have been prepared to pay for. If all we know or are concerned about in our relationship to a product is the price, then ‘choice’ becomes a perfunctory act.
