Timing is money: managing the floor in sales interaction at street-market stalls

This article considers 'pricing', that is, offers and requests for the price of sales items, as a communicative practice deployed by vendors and customers during sales interaction on street markets. It examines the organisation of sales interaction by pursuing the question of how and when...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of marketing management 2014-10, Vol.30 (13-14), p.1448-1466
Main Author: vom Lehn, Dirk
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
communicative practice
focused ethnography
pricing
Pricing policies
sales interaction
Sales management
street markets
Studies
timing
Vendors
video
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Summary:This article considers 'pricing', that is, offers and requests for the price of sales items, as a communicative practice deployed by vendors and customers during sales interaction on street markets. It examines the organisation of sales interaction by pursuing the question of how and when market participants, vendors and customers alike, embed offers and requests for price information within their interaction. The analysis suggests that pricing is deployed as a technique to manage the 'floor' and the interaction at the stall. For example, offers for items are being tailored to customers' display of interest and commitment to particular items, and requests for price information are deployed in ways that challenge anticipated offers, that is, offers that are about to be made by a vendor. The data, field observation and video-recording have been gathered at market stalls in London and Berlin.
ISSN:0267-257X
1472-1376
DOI:10.1080/0267257X.2014.941378