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Francis Piron: Francis Piron is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Marketing and International Business at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Murray Young: Murray Young is Professor of Bethel College, Mishawaka, Indiana, USA.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT: The authors are listed alphabetically and have contributed equally to this article.
The return of merchandise to retailers is problematic. Some consumers return products that perform unsatisfactorily, others return goods that have fulfilled the purpose for which they were purchased. The latter behavior can be called retail borrowing. The decision to borrow is usually made prior to the purchase of the product but it can also be formulated concurrent with the purchase or in the post-purchase phase. From the borrower's perspective, the behavior provides access to a needed product for a short-lasting, specific occasion at no direct cost.
Definition of the phenomenon
Retail borrowing may have originated when retailers first accepted returned merchandise to gain a competitive edge and better satisfy their customers. It was alluded to as early as the 1970s (Zabriske, 1972-73; Jolson, 1974; Greenberg et al., 1979) in writings on shoplifting and other forms of consumer fraud. During the 1990s, retail borrowing was recognized as a potentially significant shopper behavior in both scholarly (Gardner et al., 1999; Burns and Brady, 1996) and trade publications (Sentinel-Record, 1996; Schulz, 1993). Interestingly, the phenomenon has yet to be formally defined.
We advance the following conceptual definition. Retail borrowing occurs when a non-defective product is returned for a refund subsequent to its use for a specific purpose. On occasion, to comply with stores' policies that favour merchandise exchange over refunds, the borrower will have to settle for an exchange or a credit. Retail borrowing may be illustrated by a consumer who buys a dress for a date and then returns it to the store after usage or by another consumer who buys a suit and returns it after a job interview. Retail borrowing may also occur via a product exchange. In this situation, a consumer who fulfils a short-lasting, specific need for an item, say formal attire, returns and exchanges it for another with longer-lasting satisfaction, say more casual wear.
Extent of the phenomenon
Zabriske (1972-73) found that while 77 percent of 134 merchandise returns at a department store were "routine", 12...