Unpacking package free shopping: Alternative retailing and the reinvention of the practice of shopping

Christian Fuentes, Petronella Enarsson and Love Kristoffersson

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 2019, vol. 50, issue C, 258-265

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to understand how the practice of package free shopping takes shape and is established. Taking a shopping-as-practice approach, and drawing on an ethnographic study of a Swedish ecological food store, this paper shows that to be able to successfully remove a key artefact - packaging - from the practice of shopping, the practice itself must be reinvented. Developing package free shopping therefore requires the re-framing of the practice of shopping (making it meaningful in a new way), the re-skilling of the consumer (developing new competencies needed for its performance), and the re-materialization of the store (changing the material arrangement that makes this mode of shopping possible). This suggests that the promotion of alternative modes of sustainable shopping is a complicated matter that requires a profound understanding of the practice of shopping.

Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joreco:v:50:y:2019:i:c:p:258-265

DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2019.05.016

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