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Originally Posted by warpedg  In todays tight retail market does anyone ever really boycott stores? You know they don't. They might tell their friends about the bad shopping experience they had but if that friends goes there the next day and buys something 75% off which memory is going to stick in their head more?... |
Ok, I'm sorry I should clarify that there are a lot more things that come into play than just a "typical" shopper having a "typical" bad experience. If you're in the lowest income brackets, virtually nothing will deter you from shopping at Wal-Mart because it is ultimately the most cost effective way for you to live on the money you make, even if you have an outlandish and terrible experience shopping there your alternatives are limited. Obviously for different income classes this differs and you could spend all day calculating income elasticity and performing analysis on people that make all sorts of different money if you really wanted to validate your argument.
HOWEVER, the general rule is that consumers EXPECT good service, which is why they will never talk about it (unless it's ABOVE their expectations) but when they get bad service (which they DON'T expect) it sticks in their mind and they are more likely to talk about it.
So sure your lower-income shoppers at Target will usually become return shoppers (unless you stiff them so bad that they turn to Wal-Mart... unlikely, but possible) but if you think of the alternatives to Target that someone making six figures has you better believe if you stiff them once you will (statistically) lose their business because they're going to pay the extra $20 to have a better shopping experience.
So you get the point, we could ramble on day after day about all the different possibilities and externalities that could affect the situation but at the end of the day, it's safest to assume that even the most obnoxious consumer is "right" because you don't want to lose ANYONE's business... it's not in your best interest in a profit-seeking industry.