WHO ARE THE PRICE VIGILANTES - AN INVESTIGATION OF DIFFERENTIATING CHARACTERISTICS INFLUENCING PRICE INFORMATION-PROCESSING

Research suggests that many consumers exhibit poor price recall, even at the point-of-purchase and that some consumers are more price vigila nt than others. We incorporate Stigler's economics of information conc ept into a multinomial logit model to explore differentiating factors that influence the price recall information at the point-of-purchase. Intercepting subjects at the point-of-purchase in an actual retail set ting, data were collected from 289 subjects across four product catego ries and three stores. We find that price recall is influenced by corr ectly perceived promotion status of the brand, use of the price in mak ing the purchase decision, and income. Two other demographic variables , gender and age, had no impact on price recall. We discuss implicatio ns for researchers, retail managers, and consumer advocacy groups.