A Conceptual Stress‐Coping Model of Factors Influencing Marketplace Engagement of Visually Impaired Consumers

Visually impaired consumers often suffer one of the worst marketplace stresses when processing product information. Despite there being around 314 million blind or visually impaired people worldwide, today's marketplace does not yet adequately address these stresses. This study develops and tests a theoretical model of how visually impaired consumers cope in marketplace engagement and discusses how companies and policymakers can help to increase marketplace engagement.     

The changing role of fairs in the long eighteenth century: evidence from the north midlands1

Despite the recent interest of historians in retailing and distribution, little attention has been paid to fairs. It has often been assumed that by 1800 they were mainly occasions for entertainment. Using a range of sources and focusing mainly on the north midlands, this article argues that many fairs remained significant during the eighteenth century for agricultural marketing, some business and financial transactions, and retailing. By the early nineteenth century, rapidly changing economic conditions, coupled with changed attitudes, threatened these traditional roles and fairs had to adapt or face inevitable decline.     

Does Calculating Retirement Needs Boost Retirement Savings?

Calculating retirement savings needs is often viewed as an essential first step in retirement planning. Yet, little empirical evidence exists to support the value of this activity. This case study examines the connection between calculating retirement savings needs and retirement savings through analysis of an online survey of benefits‐eligible employees at a large Mountain West university. Controlling for a variety of possible covariates, and using an instrumental variable approach, the case study shows that having estimated a retirement savings target increases self‐reported retirement savings. The results provide support for financial educators and planners in their efforts to encourage people to estimate their retirement needs early in the retirement planning process.     

THE DEADWEIGHT LOSS OF COUPON REMEDIES FOR PRICE OVERCHARGES*

Consumers injured by price overcharges often are awarded coupons that can be used for a limited period of time to purchase the good at a price below that which prevails after the overcharge has been eliminated. Coupon remedies cause a deadweight loss by inducing excessive consumption by consumers with relatively low demand during the remedy period. The magnitude of the loss can be comparable to that caused by the price overcharge. As demand variability goes to zero, the deadweight loss from coupon remedies goes to zero. Eliminating the expiration date for the use of coupons does not eliminate the loss.     

Social Forums,Social Movements and Social Change: A Response to Peter Marcuse on the Subject of the World Social Forum

This response to Peter Marcuse situates his reading of the World Social Forum in the larger ‘space versus movement’ debate that has been raging among the WSF’s organizers. The author argues that this debate signals: (1) a power struggle over its future; (2) profound disagreement over the character of its power, which is itself based in conflicting understandings and visions of power and change in the contemporary period more generally; (3) at the heart of this last conflict is a yet more basic one about the status of multiplicity and diversity — in understanding power(s), in building resistance(s), in creating alternatives, in crafting solidarities, in imagining other possible worlds as les raisons d’être of the Social Forum. Drawing on the historical experience of feminism, the author proposes an alternative reading of the meaning of the Social Forum grounded in more multivalent understandings of power, movements and change, and argues that, in the evolving practice of the World Social Forum, a new democratic imaginary — post‐liberal and post‐Marxist — is taking shape and, with it, other possible futures are coming into view. Cette réponse à Peter Marcuse replace son explication du Forum social mondial dans le débat plus vaste ‘espace et mouvement’ qui a enflammé les organisateurs du FSM. En effet, ce débat met en évidence plusieurs aspects: une lutte de pouvoir pour son avenir; un désaccord profond quant à la nature de son pouvoir, s’appuyant lui‐même sur des appréhensions et visions contradictoires du pouvoir et du changement dans la période contemporaine, de manière générale; au c?ur de cette opposition, en existe une autre encore plus fondamentale sur la situation de multiplicité et de diversité, pour comprendre le ou les pouvoirs, élaborer une ou plusieurs résistances, créer des alternatives, tisser des solidarités, imaginer d’autres possibilités de monde comme les raisons d’être du Forum social. S’inspirant de l’expérience historique du féminisme, l’article propose une autre lecture du Forum social, fondée sur des compréhensions plus polyvalentes du pouvoir, des mouvements et du changement; de plus, il affirme que, dans le cadre de l’exercice évolutif du Forum social mondial, prend forme un nouvel imaginaire démocratique — post‐libéral et post‐marxiste — et, qu’avec lui, se dessinent d’autres possibilités d’avenir.     

The influence of various factors on the main meal format served in New Zealand households

The traditional main meal served in New Zealand households has been based on that of the British, i.e. a meat-based main course that includes potatoes and other vegetables followed by a dessert. In recent years consumption figures for meat suggest that New Zealanders are making changes in their diets. This study investigates whether this change has involved a change for New Zealanders in the format of their meal. It also examines the factors that influence meal choices. It was found that cultural traditions are strongly associated with meal format and that the meal format varies most for those who hold strong ecological beliefs. This finding suggests that nutrition educators attempting to bring about changes in a population's diet should institute changes within accepted meal formats.