ABSTRACT
For many years across several disciplines, academics have studied how people make choices as consumers, whether as individuals or as part of households (see for example, Bettman 1979; Bettman, Luce, and Payne 1998; Bitner 1992; Kohli, Devara, and Mahmood 2004; Park et al. 1981). Their studies examined how consumers form attitudes and beliefs about products, brands, and retail stores, predicting their future consumption choices based on their evaluations. While providing the foundation for models of consumer choice, such studies may also hold an implicit assumption that consumers have relatively equal abilities to make their purchases, to travel freely to retail shopping locations, and to access needed information as they please.
