ABSTRACT
Pan way through a research project investigating women consumers' satisfaction and dissatisfaction in clothing retail encounters, Helena explained to others in the group how her participation in the project had helped her to be more confident and assertive in a recent experience of shopping with her mother. Helena was involved in the research as a member of a group utilising a qualitative research method known as memory-work (Haug and Others 1987). This method requires those involved to write specifically focused texts about recalled experiences which are read, discussed and analysed in a collective research group. In one of her memory texts, evoked by the theme ‘a pressure buy', Helena wrote:
Oncc again the shop assistants are engaged in their mysterious tasks, of reorganising the clothes or something, and show no interest in Helena and her Mom who are not, once again, dressed well for the occasion. However, Helena, after attending the empowering memory-workshops on shopping, decides not to be another victim of dominance by distant and secluding shop assistants. She determinedly interrupts one of these customer servants and asks her to help Mom.
