Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Amid growing concerns surrounding and unsustainable consumption patterns, new retail trends and consumption practices continue to evolve within contemporary consumer culture. This makes it valuable to explore how such evolving retail environments are understood and experienced by consumers. This study explores how consumers make sense of sample sales, as an emerging retail practice within contemporary consumer culture. The study delves deeper into how sustainability is understood and negotiated in relation to these consumption contexts. While sample sales are often associated with discounted consumption, samples and surplus fashion, limited research has explored how consumers experience and make sense of these in relation to sustainability. The study was conducted using qualitative focus group interviews and the application of a cultural and social constructionist theoretical approach. Findings from this study reveal that consumers understand sample sales as a paradoxical retail environment, characterised by excitement, affordability and competition while simultaneously expressing feelings of stress, discomfort and concerns surrounding impulsive and unsustainable consumption. The study further revealed how sustainability within these retail spaces is continuously negotiated and reevaluated by consumers, and is not understood through fixed distinctions between sustainable and unsustainable consumption. The study revealed that consumers had more trust in sustainability motives of sample sales when associated with second-hand organisations. By exploring sample sales as an emerging feature within contemporary consumer culture, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of consumer culture and the complexities of sustainable consumption.