Factors influencing the store patronage of a selected group of women employed in managerial and professional occupations in Northern Louisiana

The purpose of this study was to examine the patronage motives of career women employed in managerial and professional specialty occupations in northern Louisiana. This study investigated career women's demographic characteristics, shopping behaviors and store preferences in order to develop a shopper profile.

The sample consisted of 232 career women who completed a questionnaire developed by the researcher. The questionnaire was mailed and returned directly to the researcher for analysis of data.

The questionnaire consisted of 20 questions pertaining to shopping behaviors, store preferences and demographics. A null hypothesis was developed for each question. Frequency and percentage distributions were performed on all questions for descriptive purposes. The participants were grouped into three categories; (1) executive, administrative and managerial, (2) professional specialty, and (3) teachers. The Kendall's coefficient of concordance W was used to test for significant differences. All questions were crosstabulated using the chi-square goodness-of-fit test to look for significant differences among the responses within the three groups of occupations.

Most of the career women were married, aged 36 to 45 years, had a salary range of $15,000 to $24,999 and a household income of over $55,000. The majority had completed a graduate degree and worked 31--40 hours per week.

The clothing source shopped most often was the department store, followed by the specialty store/boutique and mail order catalog. No significant difference was found in the clothing source shopped most often among the three groups of career women. The career women specified that the return policy of a store was the most important store attribute. Highly significant differences were found in the most important store attribute and shopping in a department store, a specialty store/boutique and a mail order catalog. Highly significant differences were revealed in the most important choice of store inventory (selection of merchandise in the career woman's size) and shopping in a department store and a specialty store/boutique. No significant difference was found in the most important choice of store inventory and shopping by mail order catalog.