Purchase Motivation in the Customers of the Neighborhood store: An Ethnographic Study in the Department of Atlántico (Colombia)

Abstract

In Colombia, there are traditional businesses such as the Tienda de Barrio, where the inhabitants come to consume massive and popular products, the basis for their family economy, and it has also been established as a meeting point and epicenter of conversations for these communities. This article develops an ethnographic study with the support of anthropology, managing to extract the characteristics of the purchase motivations in the customers of the neighborhood store in the Department of Atlántico; to achieve this, 30 in-depth interviews were conducted on the analysis of a 127-page transcript, with the triangulation of secondary sources and field work. As a contribution, the study determined the emergence of a generality about the characteristics of purchase in customers, and five concepts that frame the motivation to buy in customers, which are: convenience, need, opportunity, rewarding experience, and familiarity, based on close relationships that are part of the daily life of the neighborhoods, as an experience of value and cultural identity.