“Stage fright” at self-checkout. WCU prof helps author study
CULLOWHEE–A WCU professor is one of three authors of a study published in Services Marketing Quarterly and reported on in Daily Finance that shows that consumers suffer from various levels of “stage fright” when they use self-checkout machines at grocery stores.
An excerpt from the Daily Finance story:
” … if there was just one other person waiting in line behind them, (consumers) felt more pressured and less confident and were less likely to use the machine again or recommend it to others.
“It’s almost like stage fright,” said Michael Capella, assistant professor of marketing at Villanova University, one of the study’s authors.
Another:
A recent study from London-based consultants Retail Banking Research estimated the number of self-checkout machines in the U.S. will grow to nearly 192,000 in 2011, more than tripling the 59,000 that were in use in 2007, when the recession started.
Read the Daily Finance story here.
Download the report here.
Tags: Cullowhee, Western Carolina University
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“Stage fright,” eh? “More pressured…less confident”? It sounds like something similar to the “performance anxiety” that occurs when I detect guys lining up behind me in the men’s room. I hate it when that happens, but it might be a good subject for study by one of those WCU researchers.
I couldn’t figure how to work “urinal” into the headline …
Once, I had scanned about half a cart’s worth of things when a line suddenly formed behind me. I completely froze and peed in my pants. They had to carry me out of Ingles. No biggie.
That reminds of the Presidential campaign in 1996. The burning question to the candidates was “boxers or briefs?”
Bob Dole answered, “Depends.”