Coping with the Pandemic: A Qualitative Exploration of How Female Millennial Consumers Use Retail Therapy

Abstract

The focus of this dissertation study was to explore retail therapy behaviors of female millennial consumers in the novel context of the coronavirus pandemic. Personality was an additional attribute examined to understand how it impacts attitudes and behaviors towards shopping in these conditions. This study took a qualitative grounded theory approach by conducting semi-structured in-depth interviews of 19 millennial women, most of whom had partners and children. The findings suggest themes that seek to redefine the meaning of retail therapy and offer new factors driven by the pandemic that led to an increased need to seek retail therapy. Online shopping led to an increase in package deliveries to the home which made shopping behaviors more visible to partners, creating a new dynamic of feelings of guilt within relationships. Inventory shortages both online and in store created frustration for participants that exhibit completionist type personalities. This study demonstrates how retail therapy shopping itself has changed – RT theory should be defined more broadly to include treat shopping as a reward for good outcomes or avoidance of negative ones, and that shopping for treats for others is a form of RT. Additionally, novel conclusions about relationship guilt and completionism as factors that drive retail therapy shopping have changed because of the pandemic are discussed. Outcomes of this study offer several theoretical implications by contributing to existing studies on retail therapy and related topics, as well as offering a novel research approach of qualitative research. Practical implications of this study are realized by providing insight to the retail industry on the female millennial consumer’s therapeutic shopping needs in a post-pandemic paradigm.