Sociological Study of Women's Shopping Behavior in Stores in Tourist Areas (Case Study: Women's Shopping Behavior in Department Stores in the Coastal Cities of Mazandaran)

The purpose of this research is the sociological study of women's shopping behavior in large stores in the coastal and tourist cities of Mazandaran. The views of Giddens, Veblen, Simmel, and Weber were chosen as the theoretical framework.

Design/methodology/approach: 

The research method is a survey and the unit of analysis is the respondent (women over 15 years old). The sampling method is a multi-stage cluster and the sample size is 384 according to Cochran's formula. The tool for data collection is a researcher-made questionnaire.

The findings show that there is a positive and direct relationship between the variables of the use of mass communication tools, globalization, religiosity, consumption values, age, and the degree of relative deprivation with the degree of women's shopping behavior. There is a significant negative and inverse relationship between education and social class with the amount of purchasing behavior. Moreover, there is no significant relationship between the amount of education and change in the style of covering.

The results of the average comparison test show that there is a significant difference between the amount of shopping behavior of women according to the city of residence and marital status. The amount of shopping among young married women is more than single women. Regression analysis shows that 50.7% of the changes in women's shopping behavior are related to independent variables. The most explanation of the variance and changes of the dependent variable of women's shopping behavior respectively belonged to the variables of consumption values and social identity.

Originality/value: 

This research is the first study that investigates the shopping of women tourists in the tourist areas of Mazandaran province