STUDYING CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR IN RETAIL STORES WILLIAM APPLEBAUM Stop 6? Shop, Inc. S TUDIES of customer behavior in re- tail stores usually deal with (i) identification of customers and (2) their buying behavior patterns. The aim of such studies is to ascertain who buys where, what, when and how. In addition, such studies endeavor to learn about customer response to sales promotion de- vices. The results of these studies are useful in the solution of an array of marketing problems. These studies are gaining importance in marketing research. It is safe to pre- dict that interest in them will increase greatly in the next decade. This paper summarizes the writer's experience with such studies in grocery stores.^ However, the principles and techniques discussed here are also applicable to other types of retail stores. The "why" of customer behavior is a separate and very difficult subject; it is not treated here. A knowledge of cus- tomer behavior must precede any con- sideration of the reasons for the behavior. IDENTIFICATION OF CUSTOMERS The terms customer and consumer are not synonymous. A customer is a purchaser of a product or a service; a consumer is a user of a product or a service. Bed-ridden invalids in hospitals are food consumers but hardly food store customers. Purchasers of rat poison are not the consumers of the product. The buying behavior of the customer ^ In so far as the author himself has developed or le- fined the ideas and techniques dealt with in this paper, by far the major part of the pioneer research work was dene between 1932-38 vriiile IK wai in du: employ a(Tht Kroger Company. 172 is influenced by the needs and prefer- ences of the consumers for whom the products are purchased. As a dog owner 1 can testify that our Cocker influences her purchasing agents in the choice of brands of dog food. A devoted house- wife will buy for her husband his favor- ite, extra-strong cheese, even though she prefers not to subject her sensitive nos- trils to the penetrating, if not over- powering, bouquet. Here, however, we are primarily con- cerned with customers' buying behavior rather than with consumer preferences. The strict definition of customer as pur- chaser, valid as it may be, is sometimes impractical because it is not always sim- ple to identify a purchaser in a store. A husband and wife shopping together may represent two customers, or one customer and one bundle carrier, and it is not always possible to tell which is which. A boy accompanying his mother may influence decisions in selection and purchase of several items, even if the youngster has no purchasing power of his own. Therefore practically every person who enters a store is a potential purchaser and represents a unit in the store's customer traffic. Identification of customers seeks to ascertain who the customers are. It is not sufficient to study buying behavior pat- terns without knowing whose buying behavior is involved. Hence it is neces- sary to identify the competition and origin of customers. Composition of Customers This includes many characteristics, 8uch as sex, age group, color, economic