Quality, value, satisfaction, trust, a

initial use of the word “convenience” in the marketing literature was as an adjective describing a
class of consumer goods. Many researchers have conducted studies covering the vast domain of
convenience goods, including convenience foods (e.g., frozen dinners, ready-to-eat cold cereal,
fast-food restaurants) (Crist 1960; Anderson 1972; Reilly 1982; Darian and Cohen 1995),
convenience time-saving durables (e.g., dishwashers, microwave ovens, washers and dryers)
(Anderson 1972; Reilly 1982), and time-saving services (e.g., child care, house cleaning
services, lawn care services) (Brown 1990).
Over time, the use of the word “convenience” has changed/evolved from a descriptor of
products into its own unique concept. The more complete definitions of convenience contain
one common element - they all view convenience as any attribute that reduces the non-monetary
costs associated with a product (Kelley 1958; Kotler and Zaltman 1971; Etgar 1978). For
purposes of this study, retail convenience (at its most general level of abstraction) is defined as
the consumer’s perceptions of time and effort costs associated with making a purchase. As the
reduction of time and effort costs is a motivating factor for consumers to seek convenience, these
concepts are described more fully below.
Time and Effort Literature
Time is a limited, scarce, and therefore valuable consumer resource (Jacoby, Szybillo, and
Berning 1976). As a limited, scarce, and valuable resource, consumers are always looking for
ways to save time, be it through convenience products, convenience services, convenience
durables, or more recently through convenience shopping. One reason why saving time has
become so important to consumers is because time, unlike money or other resources, is fixed and
therefore incapable of being expanded (Berry 1979; Gross 1987). According to Berry (2001,
p.136), “Superior retailers understand that people’s most precious commodity in the modern
world is time and do everything they can to save as much of it as possible for their customers.”
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