AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OF Brigitte Gaal Cluver for ...

destroys possessions, involuntary disposition occurs when a possession is used up,
legally or illegally transferred, lost, or destroyed.
Researchers have also investigated consumers’ disposition behaviors
regarding unwanted gifts. Findings supplement the taxonomies developed by Jacoby
et al. (1977) and Young and Wallendorf (1989). Researchers found that unwanted
gifts were commonly disposed of through the following channels: lateral cycling of
the gift, return of the gift to the retailer (Rucker, Balch, Higham, & Schenter, 1992;
Sherry et al., 1992), return of the gift to the giver, storage of the gift (Rucker et al.,
1992), or destruction of the gift (Sherry et al., 1992).
With regards to clothing disposal, Francis and Butler (1994) surveyed adult
female consumers and found that approximately three-fourths of subject usually
dispose of used clothing via donation to a charitable organization and approximately
one-fourth of the subjects usually dispose of used clothing by giving to friends. In
addition, a small amount of subjects usually opted to either sell their used clothing at
garage sales, save the clothing for potential future use, or use the clothing as rags.
Chun (1987) found that subjects in her study disposed of clothing in similar ways to
those subjects in Francis and Butler’s (1994) study. Koch and Domina (1999)
conducted a similar study. However, respondents did not indicate which method they
used most often. Rather, they indicated which disposal options they used at least
once within the past year. Of the 369 respondents, 88% used unwanted textile items
as rags, 87% donated textile items to the Salvation Army or Goodwill, 87% passed
textile items onto family or friends, 44% sold textile items in a garage sale, 42%
donated textile items to a religious organization, 35% modified and reused the textile
items, and 29% sold textile items through consignment.
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