Servicescapes: The role that place plays in stay-at-home mothers’ lives MICAEL-LEE JOHNSTONE 1 * and SARAH TODD 2 1 School of Marketing & International Business, Victoria University of Wellington PO Box 600, Wellington 6140, New Zealand 2 University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand ABSTRACT Over the past decade, increasing attention has been paid to gender-related consumption behaviour. However, a relative gap in our knowl- edge still exists when it comes to understanding the changes that occur as a result of motherhood and how this may influence their interac- tions in the retail environment. The purpose of this article is to explore stay-at-home mothers’ experiences in the servicescape to gain a better understanding of how they associate with servicescapes during this transitional period, how they use retail space to suit their needs, and how they use retail space to negotiate their role as a stay-at-home mother. Five stay-at-home mothers with children younger than 5 years were provided with disposable cameras and asked to photograph servicescapes that they visited regularly. Over a 1-year period, they were inter- viewed several times, and photo-elicitation techniques were used throughout the interviewing process. The results of this study suggest that when consumers undergo role or identity changes, certain places can be used to smooth this process. Not only can the retail environment be used as a coping mechanism for stay-at-home mothers, it can also be viewed as a “second place” as opposed to a “third place”, thus enabling isolated consumers to feel connected with the outside world. Last, this study highlights the temporal dimensions of place. Throughout one’s lifetime, one will form attachments to and patronise different places, which will evolve and change as individuals, accordingly, take on different roles and identities. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. INTRODUCTION Interest in gender-related consumption behaviour has grown in the past 15 years (e.g., Fischer and Gainer, 1993; Davies et al., 2006; Thomsen and Sorensen, 2006). However, a relative gap in our knowledge still exists when it comes to understanding changes in women’s interactions with the retail environment as a result of motherhood. As Mehta and Belk (1991) suggested, when people change roles, assume new roles, or relinquish old roles, their behaviour also changes, and they accordingly experience a need to redefine their self-concept. One way to manage this is through one’s consumption activities (Solomon and Anand, 1985). Likewise, when consumers undergo role or identity changes, certain places can be used to smooth this process. The purpose of this article is to explore stay-at-home mothers’ experiences in the servicescape to gain a better understanding of how they associate with servicescapes during this time of motherhood, how they use retail space to suit their needs, and how they use retail space to negotiate their changing role. As this article will show, servicescapes play an important role in some mothers’ lives. When consumers take on new roles or identities, the meanings of certain places will change and evolve as individuals evolve and change. Accordingly, how mothers associate with place and make use of services- capes will change as they move along the motherhood continuum. This reflects the temporal dimensions of place, whereby places will become connected and disconnected to the life path of its consumers, a concept that has not normally been considered within the marketing literature. MOTHERHOOD, CONSUMPTION, AND PATRONAGE BEHAVIOUR Over the past decade, much attention has been paid to better understanding gender-related consumption (e.g., Woodruffe, 1997; Olsen, 1999; Otnes and McGrath, 2001; The Voice Group, 2010a, 2010b). However, very few studies within the academic marketing literature have looked at mothers and their consumption activities and/or patronage behaviours (e.g., Hogg et al., 2004; Carrigan and Szmigin, 2006; Davies et al., 2006; Thomsen and Sorensen, 2006). This is some- what surprising given the long-established and accepted link between consumption and role identity (e.g., Schouten, 1991). Those studies that have been undertaken suggest that ‘consumption plays a critical role in the enactment of moth- erhood’ (Davies et al., 2006: 517). For instance, the study of Thomsen and Sørensen (2006) revealed how commodities were used to support a woman’s identity construction as she transitioned into motherhood. With consumption being very much the dominant social paradigm in Western society, it will arguably have a huge influence on motherhood and the experience of mothering (Davies et al., 2006: 519). Relation- ships that have been studied have found, for example, that pregnant women often consume products and services to help them through this transitional period (Davies et al., 2006: 519), and commodities are frequently used to help working mothers find a balance between self-directed accom- plishments and being perceived as a ‘good’, ‘caring’ mother (Thompson, 1996: 403). Within the marketing discipline, many studies have explored why consumers patronise particular stores and service locations. Some studies have focused on retail patronage behaviour in terms of purchase intentions and buyer behaviour (e.g., Hisrich et al., 1972; Swinyard, 1993; Yalch and Spangenberg, 2000), whereas other studies have *Correspondence to: Micael-Lee Johnstone, School of Marketing & Interna- tional Business, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington 6140, New Zealand. E-mail: micael-lee.johnstone@vuw.ac.nz Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, J. Consumer Behav. (2012) Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/cb.1383