Packaging-free shopping: when retailers and consumers (re/mis)appropriate packaging functions

Fanny Reniou (), Elisa Robert-Monnot and Sarah Lasri
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Fanny Reniou: CREM - Centre de recherche en économie et management - UNICAEN - Université de Caen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - UR - Université de Rennes - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Elisa Robert-Monnot: THEMA - Théorie économique, modélisation et applications - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - CY - CY Cergy Paris Université
Sarah Lasri: DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: Purpose: Packaging-free shopping disrupts the usual retailing and consumption patterns in which packaging usually plays a central role. When manufacturers no longer offer predetermined packaging, how do retailers and consumers ensure packaging functions? Investigating the way packaging-free actors appropriate packaging functions during use is particularly important because they exert a new power over these functions, which can be challenging to appropriate. The purpose of this study is to contribute to a deeper understanding of why packaging-free shopping can be perceived as constraining. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing from the literature on packaging functions and adopting Miller's conceptual framework of appropriation, this research uses a qualitative method with a variety of discursive and visual data, including 54 interviews with experts from packaging-free product stores and consumers, 190 Instagram consumer posts and 428 in-store and at-home photographs. Findings: This research shows that packaging-free actors jointly appropriate packaging functions through two modes of appropriation (assimilation and accommodation) each encompassing distinct strategies and highlights the misappropriation that actors can experience, especially when prioritizing one function over another. Originality/value: This research contributes to the literature on packaging-free shopping, an emergent and growing trend that challenges conventional shopping models. The research reveals dark sides of packaging-free shopping - namely, the damaging effects on health and the environment and social exclusion. In particular, it discusses the ambivalence of the packaging-free shopping environmental function. This research also deepens insight into how individual acts of appropriation may lead to misappropriation.

Keywords: Packaging functions; Packaging-free shopping; Appropriation; Sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04882563v1
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Published in Journal of Product and Brand Management, 2025, ⟨10.1108/JPBM-09-2023-4723⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04882563

DOI: 10.1108/JPBM-09-2023-4723

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