This document discusses the concept of recreational shopper identity, which is defined as incorporating recreational shopping into one's self-concept. Two studies were conducted to develop and validate a Recreational Shopper Identity Scale. In the first study, the scale was validated and showed recreational shopping can be experienced as a true leisure activity. The second study used the scale to identify groups that differ in how much they see themselves as recreational shoppers. Those who saw it as central to their identity engaged more in shopping behaviors and spent more money.

1. Defining and Measuring Recreationai
Shopper Identity
Michael Guiry
State University of New York, New Paltz
Anne W. Mägi
Richard J. Lutz
University of Florida
The concept of recreational shopper identity, a dimension
of the consumer's self-concept, is contrasted with simple
shopping enjoyment, which has characterized most past
research on recreational shopping. Two survey studies in-vestigate
recreational shopper identity in a clothing shop-ping
context. In Study J, the Recreational Shopper Identity
(RSI) Scale is validated with a sample of 561 adult con-sumers,
demonstrating that recreational shopping is expe-rienced
as a true leisure activity. In Study 2, involving 354
adult consumers, the RSI Scale is used to identify three
groups of shoppers who differ in the degree to which they
incorporate recreational shopping into their self-concepts.
Recreational shopping enthusiasts are found to engage
more extensively in a range of retail shopping behaviors,
to spend more money shopping (i.e., they are not just
browsers), andaré more "multi-channel" than other shop-pers,
reporting higher levels of Internet, catalog, and TV
home shopping as well as traditional "brick-and-mortar"
shopping.
Keywords: shopping; recreation; leisure; self-concept;
identity
Shopping is a way of life in contemporary consumer
society. Its importance is evidenced by the considerable
time and energy consumers devote to the endeavor, not
only to procure desired products but also to participate in a
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.
Volume 34, No. 1, pages 74-83.
DOI: 10.1177/0092070305282042
Copyright © 2006 by Academy of Marketing Science.
wide range of experiential activities to satisfy various per-sonal
and social motives (Bloch, Ridgway, and Dawson
1994).
Many consumers truly enjoy being in the marketplace
to make a product purchase and/or engage in experiential
consumption (Arnold and Reynolds 2003). For these con-sumers,
shopping is a form of recreation that may even
he one of their favorite pastimes. Our language is filled
with aphorisms, such as "Bom to shop" and "1 Shop,
Therefore I Am," that reflect the prominent position shop-ping
plays in consumer culture, as well as its potential self-significance.
The purpose of this research is to clarify the
nature of recreational shopping, in particular its status as a
true leisure activity for some consumers. Because shop-ping
can he recreational for some consumers, and an activ-ity
to be avoided for others, we develop a scale that is
designed to capture the degree to which the consumer
incorporates the role of recreational shopper into his or her
self-concept.
RECREATIONAL SHOPPING
Bellenger and Korgaonkar (1980) defined recreational
shoppers as "those who enjoy shopping as a leisure-time
activity," contrasting them with "economic shoppers" who
experienced no pleasure from the shopping process per se
(p. 78). Much of the subsequent research on recreational
shopping has tended to adhere to this general idea, focus-ing
primarily on shopping enjoyment. Westbrook and
Black (1985) performed a cluster analysis based on shop-ping
motivations and identified a "shopping process-involved"
cluster that they concluded corresponded to

2. Bellenger and Korgaonkar's recreational shoppers. In a
qualitative study, Prus and Dawson (1991) identified rec-reational
shopping orientations as embracing "notions of
shopping as interesting, enjoyable, entertaining and lei-surely
activity" (p. 149). Lunt and Livingstone (1992)
identified five shopping groups, one of which was leisure
shoppers, who found shopping "pleasurable" (p. 90).
Batiin, Darden, and Griffin ( 1994) developed a scale mea-suring
hedonic and utilitarian shopping value, where the
former dimension captures pleasure, enjoyment, and
excitement. More recently, Mathwick, Malhotra, and
Rigldon (2001) developed a multidimensional measure of
retail "experiential value," with one of the dimensions
being "playfulness," which is related to the concept of rec-reational
shopping. Arnold and Reynolds (2003) devel-oped
a six-dimensional measure of hedonic shopping
motives including dimensions such as adventure,
gratification, and value.
Enjoyment is a major component of recreational shop-ping.
However, the notion of shopping as leisure or recre-ation
invokes gratifications beyond simple enjoyment. For
example, Prus and Dawson (1991) noted that "shopping
takes on recreational or valued quality because it is taken
as means of acknowledging, entertaining, or expressing
one's self (p. 160). Campbell (1997a) has suggested that
recjreational shopping is valued because it is a form of self-determination.
On the basis of these observations, we pro-pose
a broader definition of recreational shopping as shop-ping
activity that is characterized by the shopper experi-encing
intrinsic rewards from the shopping process per se,
either in conjunction with, or independent of, the acquisi-tion
of goods and services.
Shopping and Identity
For some consumers, intense involvement with a prod-uct
or activity reaches a heightened state of attachment in
which the product and/or activity is incorporated into their
self-concept (Belk 1988; Bloch 1986). At this highest
level of involvement, sometimes referred to in the con-sumer
behavior literature as the extended self (Belk 1988)
or. product enthusiasm (Bloch 1986), and in leisure
research as a leisure identity (Haggard and Williams 1992;
Shamir 1992), a consumer defines himself or herself in
terms of a product or activity, recognizing the products' or
activity's function as a means of self-definition.
Fischer and Gainer (1991) found that three forms of
shopping—wedding planning, Christmas gift shopping,
and home shopping parties—were valued by women as a
means of expressing their individuality, femininity, and
competence in socially prescribed roles. Falk and Camp-bell
(1997) viewed postmodern consumers as "identity-shoppers"
seeking consumption experiences that allow
them to alter their identities at will (p. 7). Likewise, Camp-bell
(1997b) observed strong gender differences in the
Guiry et al. / RECREATIONAL SHOPPER IDENTITY 75
"meaning" of shopping, with women attaching far more
significance to the shopping role than did men (pp. 167-
168). Miller, Jackson, Thrift, Holbrook, and Rowlands
( 1998: 144) found that women shoppers developed a sense
of identity with the shopping center they patronized most
often.
In the context of recreational shopping, this type of spe-cial
consumer-object bond is exhibited when consumers
explicitly think of themselves as being recreational shop-pers,
reflected in such statements as "I shop, therefore I
am" that affirm a unique recreational shopper identity.
Bloch (1986) proposed that the high end of the product
involvement continuum is anchored by a group of con-sumers,
referred to as product enthusiasts, for whom the
consumption and possession of highly involving products
play an important role in life, satisfying enthusiasts' needs
for uniqueness, mastery, and/or affiliation. Later, Bloch
et al. (1994) extended these notions into the shopping
arena, profiling the mall enthusiast, who is deeply
involved with all aspects of mall-related activities. The
concept of a recreational shopper identity is also congenial
with Belk's (1988) conceptualization of the extended self,
in which consumers incorporate their most meaningful
and treasured possessions, including experiences (e.g.,
shopping) and places (e.g., retail marketplace), into the
self.
In the leisure literature, when an individual defines
himself or herself in terms of a leisure pursuit, he or she is
said to possess a "leisure identity" (Shamir 1992). A lei-sure
identity may become salient and incorporated into the
self-concept for three reasons: " 1 ) It expresses and affirms
the individual's talents or capabilities, 2) it endows the
person with social recognition, and/or 3) it affirms the
individual's central values" (Shamir 1992: 302). This
proposition is consistent with research by Haggard and
Williams (1992), who found that individuals affirmed the
nature of their identities through participation in leisure
activities that symbolized desirable character traits and
identity images.
In the present context, we propose the existence of a
recreational shopper identity, which is a dimension of an
individual's self-concept whereby the consumer defines
himself or herself in terms of shopping for recreational or
leisure purposes. Thus, the individual strongly identifies
with recreational shopping and is committed to it as a per-sonally
rewarding activity. Transcending mere enjoyment,
recreational shopping is experienced as self-defining and
even self-enhancing. Obviously, not all consumers experi-ence
shopping in this manner. Some consumers view shop-ping
from a strictly utilitarian perspective, seeing it as noth-ing
more than a means to product acquisition. It is viewed
as a chore, a necessary evil (Campbell 1997a). For them,
shopping is an unpleasant task filled with frustration and
anxiety (Tatzel 1991). Thus, some consumers are shop-ping-
aversive (e.g., Campbell, 1997b), while many others

3. 76 JOURNAL OF THE ACADEMY OF MARKETING SCIENCE WINTER 2006
enjoy shopping but not to the same degree as those who
incorporate recreational shopping into their self-concepts.
RESEARCH OVERVIEW
In this research, we develop a scale to measure the
degree to which consumers adopt a recreational shopper
identity. The Recreational Shopper Identity (RSI) Scale is
developed and validated and used to identify a group of
consumers, termed recreational shopping enthusiasts
(following Bloch et al. 1994), who are highly involved in
shopping as a leisure activity and view shopping as a cen-tral
part of their lives. Furthermore, we compare the self-reported
shopping opinions and behaviors of recreational
shopping enthusiasts with those of "normal" shoppers and
aversive shoppers.
Two studies were conducted, both of which used cloth-ing
shopping as the context. Campbell (1997a) found that
clothing shopping is a common focus of recreational shop-ping
activity (p. 83). The purpose of Study 1 was to
develop and validate the RSI Scale, using standard scale
development procedures (e.g., Gerbing and Anderson
1988). The major goals of Study 2 were to further investi-gate
the validity of the RSI Scale and to explore the rela-tionships
between recreational shopping identity and a
range of retail consumer behaviors.
STUDY 1
The first study was conducted at a large eastern univer-sity.
Survey questionnaires were distributed to a quota
sample of consumers by undergraduate and MBA students
in the first author's classes. In return for extra course credit
and the opportunity to participate in a cash raffle, each stu-dent
was asked to secure up to 10 respondents. Firm guide-lines
on respondent eligibility were established to try to
ensure a reasonable diversity of individuals and back-ground.
The first author verified the identity of approxi-mately
10 percent of each interviewer's respondents
through follow-up telephone calls. A total of 561
responses were obtained. The sample was split randomly,
with one half being used for scale development and
purification, and the other half for validation.
RSI Item Generation and Additional Measures
In the first stage of scale development, a pool of items
was generated and pretested. Items were in part drawn
from the literature, for example, Shamir's (1992) Leisure
Identity Scale, as well as author intuition. The pretest
included a list of 29 items that were evaluated by a panel of
five expert judges, who were asked to rate each item on the
degree to which it reflected recreational shopper identity.
This was defined explicitly for the judges as a dimension
of an individual's self-concept whereby the consumer
defines himself or herself in terms of shopping for recre-ational
or leisure purposes. Based on the judges' evalua-tions,
17 potential RSI items were included in the main
survey questionnaire.
The questionnaire also contained variables for assess-ing
convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity. To
assess convergent validity, Unger and Kernan's (1983)
Leisure Dimensions Scale was used. To the extent that the
RSI Scale reflects identification with shopping as a leisure
behavior, then RSI scores should be positively related to
respondents' perceptions of shopping as possessing the
various dimensions of leisure, such as arousal, mastery,
and involvement. Materialism and compulsive buying
were judged to be associated individual-difference vari-ables
that may be useful for establishing the discriminant
validity of the RSI Scale. Because recreational shopping
does not necessarily entail the actual acquisition of goods,
the RSI Scale should measure something different from
materialism and compulsive buying. Materialism was
measured by Richins and Dawson's ( 1992) 18-item scale,
while compulsive buying was assessed by Faber and
O'Guinn's (1992) 7-item scale.
Various shopping-related activities were included in
the questionnaire to assess nomological validity since it
was expected that recreational shopping identity would be
positively related to such behaviors. Measures of the fre-quency
of consumer participation in various mall activities
were drawn primarily from Bloch et al. (1994) and were
modified and augmented to capture a range of product and
service purchase activities, experiential activities, and
consumption of the mall itself. The final inventory com-prised
20 items measured on 5-point scales anchored by
very often and never. These items were subjected to an
exploratory factor analysis that yielded four dimensions of
mall-related activities. See Table 1 for details. Respon-dents
were also asked to indicate their frequency and dura-tion
of shopping for clothing for themselves in a retail
store.
Scale Purification and Validation
The initial analysis of the calibration sample showed
that all of the 17 candidate RSI items had item-to-total cor-relations
above .50; however, the 17-item scale did not
exhibit unidimensionality. An exploratory factor analysis
yielded two somewhat overlapping dimensions, with one
of the factors more clearly capturing the importance of
shopping for self-definition, while the other dimension
had a stronger focus on affective responses to shopping
and shopping involvement. Examples of items on the sec-ond
dimension were the following: "I get so involved in
shopping that I forget everything else," "I get a real high
from shopping," "I find that a lot of my life is organized

4. TABLE 1
Study 1—Convergent, Discriminant, and
Nomoiogicai Vaiidity of the RSI Scaie
Mati
Number of
rialism
Compulsive buying
Leis
Intri
are dimensions
lsic satisfaction
Percsived freedom
Arousal
Mastery
Involvement
Spontaneity
Mall activities
EatiLg''
Passmg time'^
Socializing
"Enlertain/service""^
Time spent shopping
Frequency of shopping
Items
18
7
3
5
3
4
5
5
3
4
4
4
1
1
a
.82
.80
.80
.54
.75
.75
.80
.86
.79
.75
.67
.60
—
—
Developmental
Sample
.46"
.38"
.67"
.30"
.70"
.63"
.68"
.37"
.08"
.34"
.23"
.17"
.28"
.24"
Validation
Sample
.38"
.48"
.66"
.24"
.68"
.67"
.70"
.48"
.17"
.23"
.18"
.18"
.20"
.34"
NOTE: RSI = recreational shopper identity.
a. Correlation with RSI significant atp < .05.
b. Having a drink, having a snack, having lunch.
c. Walking for exercise, browsing without planning to buy, walking for
funj browsing for possible future purchase.
d. Talking with other shoppers, conversing with sales clerks, looking at
exhibits or shows, people watching.
e. Playing a video game, going to a movie, going on a carousel ride, get-ting
a haircut.
around shopping," and "Shopping totally absorbs me."
Because of our focus on developing a measure of identity,
we made the judgment to continue the scale refinement
procedure with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on the
items loading on the first dimension. These items also
were rated higher (on reflecting of self) by our judges, so
we used these converging statistical and judgmental crite-ria'to
narrow the scale with an eye toward content validity.
We initially had eight items in our CFA. The initial model
exhibited poor model fit, and three items (e.g., "Shopping
allows me to express myself) were deleted from the scale
on the basis of low factor loadings. Based on modification
index values, five items were retained. The fit indices indi-cate
that this model fit the data well, exhibiting satisfactory
reliability, in both the calibration and validation
suDsamples (Table 2).
At the next step, the convergent, discriminant, and
nomoiogicai validity of the RSI Scale were assessed.
Because the results for the calibration and validafion
subsamples were nearly identical, they will be presented
and discussed together. Turning first to convergent valid-ity,
as expected, RSI correlated significantly with the Lei-sure
Dimension Scales.
RSI scores correlated strongly with intrinsic satisfac-tion
in both subsamples (see Table 1). Unger and Keman
(1983) described this dimension as the "quintessence of
Guiry et al. / RECREATIONAL SHOPPER IDENTITY 77
leisure," citing its purely pleasurable character (p. 382).
Thus, the original conception of shopping enjoyment put
forth by Bellenger and Korgaonkar (1980) is strongly rep-resented
in these findings. However, as argued by Unger
and Kernan (1983), Stebbins (1982), and others, true lei-sure
goes deeper than mere enjoyment. Recreational shop-ping
appears to share that characteristic, as revealed by the
remaining five dimensions measured by the Unger and
Kernan (1983) scale.
Recreational shopper identity was significantly but
only weakly correlated wti perceived freedom. However,
it should be noted that the reliability of the Perceived Free-dom
subscale was quite low, which may have attenuated
the observed relationship. Recreational shopper identity
correlated strongly with Unger and Kernan's (1983)
Arousal subscale. Examining the content of the four-item
Arousal subscale reveals that it is heavily slanted toward
novelty, which Berlyne (1969) found to have strong
arousal properties. The recreational shopper also tends to
have a sense of mastery, the correlations between mastery
and recreational shopper identity were strong and
significant.
Unger and Kernan's (1983) Involvement subscale also
captures the concepts of escape and total absorption in the
experience, feelings strongly related to recreational shop-per
identity. This sort of deep involvement in the activity is
what Stebbins (1982) termed "serious leisure." The final
dimension of leisure measured by the Unger and Kernan
scale is spontaneity, which had a significant but only mod-erate
relationship with recreational shopper identity.
Unlike the Perceived Freedom subscale, the Spontaneity
subscale exhibited strong reliability, so its somewhat
lower associafion is not due to a statistical anomaly. More
likely, for recreational shopping enthusiasts, shopping is
not necessarily a spontaneous event but rather is
something they plan and anticipate enjoying.
In summary, RSI Scale scores correlated strongly with
four dimensions of perceived leisure and weakly to mod-erately
with two others. Using the Fisher r-to-z transfoi-mation,
the average correlation between RSI and Unger
and Kernan's six leisure dimensions was .58 in the devel-opmental
sample and .59 in the calibration sample. Thus,
the more an individual perceives recreational shopping as
a form of leisure, the more likely he or she is to incorporate
it into his or her self-concept.
Turning to discriminant validity, the RSI Scale exhib-ited
low to moderate levels of correlation with materialism
and compulsive buying (Table 1). The average correlation
between recreational shopper identity and materialism
and compulsive buying was .42 and .43, respectively, in
the two subsamples. The correlations are significantly (p <
.05) lower than the average recreational shopper identity
correlations with perceived leisure. Thus, as argued ear-lier,
it seems apparent that recreational shopper identity is

5. 78 JOURNAL OF THE ACADEMY OF MARKETING SCIENCE WINTER 2006
Items in the Recreational
TABLE 2
Shopper Identity Scale^ and Scale Properties
Study 1
Calibration Sample Validation Sample
Factor Loadings Factor Loadings
in Studies 1 and 2
Study 2
Students
Factor Loadings
Parents
Factor Loadings
Shopping is important for my self-definition.
Shopping contributes to my self-esteem.
If 1 was not able to go shopping, I would feel that a part of me is missing.
Shopping aflfirms my values.
Shopping enables me to realize my aspirations.
Cronbach alpha
Composite reliability
Average variance extracted
CFI
AGFI
RMSEA
RMSEA: 90% CI
Range of factor loadings
,66
,75
.63
,79
.68
282
.83
.83
,50
13,69
(¡y < .05)
.99
.94
.076
.03 to.13
.63 to .79
.62
.75
.73
.78
,76
264
,85
,85
,53
7,85
{p < .05)
,99
,97
.042
.00 to. 10
.62 to .78
.77
,83
,85
,78
,80
258
.83
.83
.49
14,07
(p < .05)
.98
,94
,084
.03 to. 14
.64 to .76
,64
,73
,76
.69
.67
354
,90
,90
,65
26,36
(l, < ,05)
,99
,91
,11
,07 to.15
.77 to .85
NOTE; CFI = Comparative Fit Index; AGFI = Adjusted Goodness-of-Fit Index; RMSEA = root mean square error of approximation; 90% Cl = 90 percent
confidence interval,
a. In both studies, the specific behavioral context was shopping for clothing. In Study 1, the full phrase was included in each scale item. In Study 2, the cloth-ing
shopping context was stated at the top of the page on which the scale items appeared, and the actual scale items included only the word shopping, as
shown above. This minor modification did not affect the scale properties adversely.
measuring something different from materialism and
compulsive buying. Discriminant validity was also
assessed according to the criteria proposed by Anderson
and Gerbing (1988), None of the confidence intervals for
the Phi correlations included one, and all constrained
models exhibited significantly worse model fits than the
unconstrained model, providing further support for
discriminant validity.
Finally, to investigate nomological validity, the RSI
Scale was correlated with measures of mall activity as well
as the typical duration and frequency of clothing shop-ping,
which are logical consequences of recreational shop-ping
involvement. Recreational shopper identity corre-lated
significantly with three of four dimensions of mall-related
activities; only "Eating at the Mall" failed to corre-late.
The strongest correlation was with "Passing Time,"
which is clearly suggestive of shopping as a recreational
activity. "Socializing" and "Entertainment/Services" also
correlated significantly with recreational shopper identity,
further supporting the proposition that recreational shop-per
identity is predictive of a wide variety of shopping
behaviors. Similarly, recreational shopper identity was
significantly correlated with the amount of time spent
shopping on a typical shopping trip, as well as the fre-quency
of shopping. Obviously, a consumer who identi-fies
with recreational shopping as a primary leisure
activity should tend to spend more time shopping, and the
data support that logic.
Discussion
Study 1 provided initial evidence for the existence of a
recreational shopper identity. The RSI Scale was devel-oped
and validated using a split sample procedure. Both
subsamples demonstrated satisfactory reliability, and RSI
scores converged with measures of leisure experience.
Furthermore, RSI scores did not correlate strongly with
measures of compulsive buying or materialism, thus dem-onstrating
discriminant validity. Finally recreational shop-per
identity was a significant predictor of the amount (both
frequency and duration) of shopping, as well as a range of
shopping-related recreational behaviors. To build more
confidence in the RSI Scale, we decided to (a) validate it
with another sample and (b) explore its relationship with
additional shopping behaviors of managerial relevance.
STUDY 2
Two data sets were collected in the second study, a stu-dent
sample and a parent sample. The student sample was
employed as another test of the RSI Scale's reliability and
validity, while the parent sample was used to explore the
behavioral implications of differing levels of recreational
shopper identity. Survey questionnaires were completed
by a convenience sample of undergraduate students and
independently by one or both of their parents. The students

6. were enrolled in an introductory marketing course at a
large southeastem university and received extra course
credit for their, as well as their parents, participation in the
study. The students completed the surveys in a classroom
session at which they also had the opportunity to address
envelopes to their parents. The questionnaires were
inserted in the envelopes by the researchers and mailed to
the parents along with a self-addressed, postage-paid
envelope and cover letter describing the nature of the
study. All surveys were returned directly to the researchers
within 2 weeks of mailing.
Measures and Scale Validation
Identical questionnaires were used for both the parent
and student sample. Recreational shopper identity was
measured using the RSI Scale developed and validated in
Study 1, with a minor adjustment to the way the scales
were presented (see Table 2, note a). Respondents also
were asked to indicate their frequency and duration of
shopping trips for clothing for themselves in a retail store
and to estimate how much they spent on all clothing pur-chases
for themselves in retail stores during the past year.
The preceding questions were also asked for three addi-tional
shopping venues: catalogs, TV home shopping
channels, and the Internet. In addition, respondents were
asked to indicate on 5-point scales the extent to which they
had a favorite store for clothing shopping, the number of
stores they shop at for clothing, how often they made a
clothing purchase using a credit card, and how often they
went to the same store first. The latter two items were
assessed on a 5-point scale ranging from very often to
never. Finally, respondents were asked to indicate their
age, gender, race/ethnic group, marital status, number of
children living in their household, highest level of educa-tion
completed, U.S. citizenship status, and annual house-hold
income before taxes. CFA was performed on the RSI
Scale for both the student and parent samples. Similar to
Study 1, the RSI Scale demonstrated satisfactory scale
properties in both samples (Table 1).
Relationships Between RSI and Retail Behavior
The second major goal of Study 2 was to explore the
retail behavior of consumers with differing levels of recre-ational
shopping identity. We chose to conduct these analy-ses
on the parent sample only, because that sample reflects
a broader range of demographic and socioeconomic char-acteristics
among adult shoppers. The parent sample con-sisted
of 354 respondents. Ages ranged from younger than
3,9 to older than 60, with 44.3 percent between the ages of
4|0 and 49 and 47.4 percent between the ages of 50 and 59;
slightly more than half (52.9%) were female, and 81.0 per-cent
were married. Caucasians made up 75.4 percent of the
respondents, and 97.2 percent were U.S. citizens.
Guiry et al. / RECREATIONAL SHOPPER IDENTITY 79
Educationally, 29.3 percent of the respondents had a col-lege
degree, and 25.9 percent had a graduate degree.
Regarding annual household income, 13.1 percent were
below $40,000, 14.2 percent were between $40,000 and
$59,999, 26.9 percent were between $60,000 and
$99,999, and 45.8 percent were at or above $ 100,000.
Although the parent sample differs from the national
average (i.e., underrepresenting younger, older, and
unmarried adults and overrepresenting higher income and
education), it is important to note that the goal of this
research is not to estimate the degree of recreational shop-per
identity in the general population. Rather, the goals
here are to measure recreational shopper identity and
explore its relationships to other shopping-related vari-ables
such as shopping frequency and duration. Although
not representative of the overall U.S. population, the par-ent
sample is a hroad cross section of adult consumers and
hence adequate for meeting the present purposes.
The parent sample was divided into three groups.
Although a median split is often used to create different
analysis groups, that approach is not well suited for the
present purpose. Recreational shopper identity represents
an extreme level of shopping involvement, so it would not
make sense to include consumers near the median value on
the RSI Scale in that group. Hence, the data were parti-tioned
by creating two extreme groups that were one stan-dard
deviation below the mean and one standard deviation
above the mean, respectively, on recreational shopper
identity. The former group (n = 94, 27% of sample) were
labeled shopping aversives (Campbell 1997a). Following
Bloch (1986), the latter group {n = 59, 17% of sample)
were termed shopping enthusiasts. The remaining large
(n = 201 ) group were called normal shoppers. Thus, shop-ping
enthusiasts are those who most strongly embrace rec-reational
shopping as a part of their identity, while shop-ping
aversives strongly reject recreational shopping as in
any way self-related. For the majority (i.e., "normal"
shoppers), recreational shopping has no particular place of
importance in their self-definitions, either positive or neg-ative.
We now turn our attention to examining key
behavioral differences across these three groups.
The RSI Scale has a theoretical range of 5 to 25 and a
theoretical midpoint of 15. It is interesting to note that the
overall sample recreational shopper identity mean was
only 10.64, well below the theoretical midpoint. This sug-gests
that in general, the respondents did not incorporate
recreational shopping into their personal identities.
Indeed, the shopping aversives almost completely rejected
the notion of recreational shopper identity, with a mean
RSI score (M = 5.33) barely above the minimum. Shop-ping
enthusiasts, on the other hand, exhibited a rather
moderate mean (M= 17.86), with individual scores rang-ing
from 16 to 25. Given the procedure used to partition
the sample, the significant one-way ANOVA for recre-ational
shopper identity should be viewed simply as

7. 80 JOURNAL OF THE ACADEMY OF MARKETING SCIENCE WINTER 2006
TABLE 3
Means on Key Variables for Parent Sample
Shopping Aversives Normal Shoppers Shopping Enthusiasts Total
Recreational shopper identity
Shopping enjoyment ' °
Time spent shopping stores ' '=
Shopping frequency stores ' '=
Money spent shopping stores
b.e
Shopping frequency catalog ' ^
Shopping spend catalog
Shopping frequency TV
Shopping spend TV
Shopping frequency Internet''
Shopping spend Internet''
Number of stores shopped ' "
Has a favorite store
Likelihood of visiting same store first
Uses store credit card
Demographic/socioeconomic
Children at home (yes/no)
Number of children
Education
Income
Age"
Percentage married
Percentage Caucasian
Percentage women ' ^
83 to 94
5.33
2.46
2.02
3.69
2.63
2.01
1.55'=
1.17=
1.14'=
1.47^
1.26'=
2.82
2.96'='''
3.48
2.20'='''
0.88
1.61
4.4 r-"
7.77
50.6'=
0.87
0.76
0.28
188 to 201
11.01
3.49
2.76
5.07
3.03
2.70
1.79''
1.47"
1.28"
1.84''
1.51''
3.68
3.63^
3.72
2.84'
0.80
1.32
3.97'=
7.28
50.9"
0.80
0.79
0.58
52 to 59
17.86
3.84
3.36
6.44
3.88
4.22
2.26'='"
3.53'='"
1.93'=-"
3.47'='"
4.17
3.90"
3.86
3.05"
0.75
1.47
3.91"
6.88
47.9c.d
0.75
0.64
0.80
323 to 354
10.64
3.27
2.66
4.94
3.06
2.77
1.80
1.73
1.35
2.01
1.52
3.53
3.50
3.68
2.71
0.81
1.43
4.08
7.34
50.3
0.81
0.75
0.53
NOTE: Shared superscript letters c and d indicate significant (p < .05) pairwise comparisons with LSD (least significant difference test); e = all pairwise
comparisons significant (p < .05).
a. Ws vary because of missing data.
b. One-way ANOVA significant atp < .05.
verification that the partitioning did, in fact, yield three
distinct groups in terms of their self-identification as
recreational shoppers.
It is interesting that the single 5-point Shopping Enjoy-ment
Scale, while positively correlated with recreational
shopper identity {r-.46,p<.0), was not as extreme in its
distribution of scores. Shopping aversives (AÍ = 2.16) were
only half a scale point below the theoretical midpoint and
less than 1 scale point below the mean {M = 3.27), but 1.5
scale points above the minimum possible score. Similarly,
normal shoppers were above the theoretical midpoint on
enjoyment even though they were below the theoretical
midpoint on recreational shopper identity. In general, the
range of scores is skewed downward for recreational shop-per
identity and upward for shopping enjoyment, suggest-ing
that recreational shopper identity encompasses
something more extreme than mere shopping enjoyment.
Demographic correlates. In the clothing shopping con-text
we investigated, shopping aversives were overwhelm-ingly
male, while shopping enthusiasts were quite likely to
be female. This relationship between recreational shopper
identity and gender mirrors Campbell's (1997a) finding
that shopping enjoyment "correlated with gender more
than with any other single variable" (p. 166). None of the
other demographic or socioeconomic variables exhibited
strong relationships with RSI scores. Shopping enthusi-asts
were slightly younger than the other two groups, and
they reported lower education levels than the shopping
aversives. No differences were observed across the three
groups with respect to income, marital status, total number
of children, number of children living at home, or
ethnicity.
Shopping behavior correlates. The differences across
the three RSI groups are reflected strongly in their shop-ping
behavior. As shown in Table 3, with regard to "brick-and-
mortar" stores, shopping enthusiasts spend more time
and more money and go shopping more frequently than
normal shoppers. Normal shoppers, in turn, exhibit higher
scores than shopping aversives on those three dimensions
of shopping behavior.
It is hardly surprising that those higher in RSI would
shop longer and more often; to them, it is an important lei-sure
activity. Somewhat less obvious, and of more signifi-cance
to retailers, is the finding that greater RSI also
relates significantly to greater dollar expenditures. Thus,
the recreational shopper is not merely a browser, at least in
this relatively affluent sample. This supports the old retail
adage that the longer the customer remains in the store, the

8. more he or she spends. Although recreational shopping
does not necessarily imply actual purchase, the evidence
here suggests a strong empirical relationship between the
tWCj.
Behavioral manifestations of recreational shopper
identity are not limited to brick-and-mortar stores, how-ever.
Indeed, shopping enthusiasts were significantly
more likely to shop more frequently and spend more than
either normal shoppers or aversives across alternative
shopping channels such as catalogs, TV home shopping,
and the Internet. This finding is potentially important.
First, it suggests that recreational shoppers "make their
owin fun" and are not reliant on mall retailers' attempts to
provide "shoppertainment" to enjoy their leisure time
engaged in recreational shopping. This is consistent with
Máthwick et al.'s (2001) finding that consumer shopping
playfulness is an "active" rather than "reactive" form of
experiential shopping value. Second, it suggests that recre-atibnal
shoppers are not intensely loyal to shopping at the
mall or other brick-and-mortar venues. Instead, they are
"multi-channel," pursuing their chosen leisure activity
across the full range of options. Interestingly, QVC (2003),
presenting a profile of their TV home shopping customers,
described a national survey conducted in 2001 by
Yankelovich that showed QVC customers not only "view
shopping as a pleasure sport" but also are more likely than
the general adult population to shop in department and
specialty stores, from catalogs, and online.
Shopping enthusiasts' use of multiple retail channels
CÍ rries over to a distinct lack of store loyalty in the brick-and-
mortar environment. As shown in Table 3, higher RSI
scores related to a greater number of stores shopped in a
typical shopping trip. Conversely, shopping enthusiasts
were not more likely than normal shoppers to have a favor-ite
store, visit the same store first each time they shopped,
or use a store credit card. Thus, shopping enthusiasts are
quite eclectic in their shopping behaviors, exhibiting loy-alty
neither to retail form nor to store within the brick-and-mortar
environment. This suggests that the enthusiast may
be more of a variety seeker than a creature of habit. This
inference is consistent with findings in the leisure studies
literature that suggest that the "serious leisure" consumer
seeks a challenge (Csikszentmihalyi 1975).
Discussion
The results of Study 2 fortified and extended the Study
findings. The concept of a recreational shopper identity
received support in both studies, and the RSI Scale demon-strated
adequate reliability and validity. Study 1 presented
evidence about the RSI Scale's convergent, discriminant,
and nomological validity, while Study 2 used RSI scores to
create different segments of shoppers, termed shopping
enthusiasts, normal shoppers, and shopping aversives.
Furthermore, these three groups were found to differ
Guiry et al. / RECREATIONAL SHOPPER IDENTITY 81
substantially on one demographic variable (i.e., gender)
and a range of shopping-related behaviors.
Consistent with past research on recreational shopping
(e.g., Campbell 1997b), shopping enthusiasts were pre-dominantly
women. However, the present findings extend
previous research by showing that not only do women tend
to enjoy shopping more as a form of leisure but also that
recreational shopping can become an aspect of their self-definition.
Thus, recreational shopping as a leisure activity
can rightfully claim a place as a form of "serious leisure"
(Stebbins 1982).
The good news for retailers is that recreational shop-pers
not only shop longer and more often but they also tend
to spend more. Thus, they are clearly worth pursuing; they
are not mere "browsers" who do not spend money com-mensurate
with their time. The bad news for retailers is
that the shopping enthusiasts are not particularly store-loyal
or even loyal to a particular retail form. Parentheti-cally,
we note that, at the outset of this research, we
assumed that a trade-off existed between recreational
shopping and the incidence of shopping in non-brick-and-mortar
settings. It is clear from these findings that to the
recreational shopping enthusiast, recreational shopping
does not necessarily imply walking around the mall.
GENERAL DISCUSSION
This research began with the proposition that recre-ational
shoppers should not be viewed generically and
defined simply on the basis of shopping enjoyment, as has
been done in past research. The present research reveals
that recreational shoppers vary in their level of identifica-tion
with shopping, and, at the highest level of intensity
may use shopping as a form of self-definition. Although
two consumers may indicate that they enjoy shopping to
an equal degree, their motivations for shopping and subse-quent
benefits realized from the experience may differ
depending on the strength of their recreational shopper
identity. Compared with "normal" shoppers, recreational
shopping enthusiasts have stronger recreational shopper
identities and realize higher levels of leisure experience,
similar to that seen in other leisure activities (e.g., Celsi,
Rose, and Leigh 1993).
The findings of this research suggest several implica-tions
for retailers. First, recreational shoppers appear to be
a high-profit potential group. They shop more frequently,
longer, and spend more money. Catering to the recre-ational
shopper is clearly advisable from a profitability
perspective. Second, for retailers to attract and retain rec-reational
shoppers as customers, it is necessary to create a
store environment and atmosphere that enables recre-ational
shoppers to experience the various leisure dimen-sions
while shopping. Periodically changing floor layouts,
altering the store environment, and updating the

9. 82 JOURNAL OF THE ACADEMY OF MARKETING SCIENCE WINTER 2006
merchandise mix with new items should keep the shop-ping
experience "challenging" for the recreational shop-per,
an important antecedent to the realization of a flow
state (Csikszentmihalyi 1975). Insofar as the recreational
shopping enthusiast is a multi-channel shopper, the trend
toward multi-channel retailers (e.g., Mathwick et al. 2001)
may be useful in attracting recreational shoppers.
Finally, advertising and other communication efforts
designed to attract recreational shoppers should not only
focus on the merchandise a store offers but also extol the
experiential aspects of shopping at the store. Messages can
be designed that promote shopping as a pathway to self-fulfillment
through the process of shopping, beyond mere
product acquisition.
Limitations
The present research investigated recreational shop-ping
only in a clothing shopping context, which may have
accounted for the heavy skew toward women as recre-ational
shopping enthusiasts. Although other research has
identified women as more likely to consider shopping a
recreational activity, it is conceivable that other contexts
(e.g., home electronics, automobiles) would reveal a
higher incidence of male shopping enthusiasts. Second,
the two studies included here were not based on represen-tative
samples of the population. Although these samples
were adequate for scale development and validation, and
for exploring relationships between RSI and various shop-ping
behaviors, a complete descriptive profile of the recre-ational
shopping enthusiast was not achieved. A represen-tative
sample survey that includes the RSI scale could be
implemented for that purpose. In a related vein, another
potential limitation noted by one of the reviewers is that
the wording of the RSI Scale items may be too arcane for
some respondents, relying too much on psychological jar-gon.
If that were true to a large extent, it is unlikely that the
items would have formed a reliable factor across four
subsamples in two studies. However, given that lower
socioeconomic strata were somewhat underrepresented in
this research, this issue warrants attention in any subse-quent
research using the RSI Scale. Finally, the results
reported here were based only on self-report data, which
are subject to possible bias because of shared method vari-ance.
It would be ideal to assess the validity of the RSI
Scale with independent measures or observations of shop-ping
behavior; the present results provide some initial
justification for pursuing a study ofthat nature.
Future Research
An interesting avenue for future research would be to
investigate recreational shopper identity in a Web-based
shopping environment. The results of Study 2 indicated
that recreational shopping enthusiasts tend to shop more
frequently across all shopping channels; however, the
present research focused on clothing shopping in a brick-and-
mortar environment. Given the continuing emergence
of Internet retailing, it would be useful to investigate the
degree to which the RSI Scale captures self-related aspects
of recreational Web shoppers. On one hand, it seems diffi-cult
to conceive of Internet shopping as "recreational" in
the same sense as a trip to the mall. On the other hand, the
capabihties offered by rich media and a broadband con-nection
can create an engaging and entertaining online
shopping experience. Compared with older consumers,
younger consumers much more readily embrace the
Internet and its unique offerings such as music and video
file sharing, instant messaging, chat rooms, and virtual
communities. It seems plausible that younger consumers
might also be more likely to engage in intense and self-related
recreational shopping online.
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Guiry et al, / RECREATIONAL SHOPPER IDENTITY 83
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Michael Guiry (guirytn@newpaltz,edu) is an assistant profes-sor
of marketing in the School of Business at the State University
of New York, New Paltz, He received his Ph.D, from the Univer-sity
of Florida, His research interests include recreational shop-ping
and cross-cultural consumer behavior,
Anne W. Mägi (anne,magi@cba,ufl,edu) (Ph,D,, Stockholm
School of Economics) is a visiting scholar in the University of
Florida Marketing Department, Her research interests include
retail patronage, consumer loyalty, price perceptions and knowl-edge,
and impulsive shopping behavior. Her research has been
published in the Journal of Retailing and the Journal of Retailing
and Consumer Services.
Richard J. Lutz (richard,lutz@cba,ufl,edu) is the J, C, Penney
Professor of Marketing in the Warrington College of Business
Administration at the University of Florida, He received his
Ph,D, from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, His
research lies in the area of consumer behavior and in particular
consumer response to advertising. His work has appeared in the
Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Marketing Research, the
Journal of Consumer Research, and the Journal of Advertising.

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