Let’s go to the fair? A study about the motivations to frequent flea markets

Abstract

This work aims to develop and validate a scale to measure the reasons why

consumers frequent flea markets, alternative markets that grow and prevail;

nonetheless, they are forgotten by the area of consumer bahavior. The study

was carried out in two flea markets, in the region of Santiago and Temuco,

Chile. The data were subjected to Exploratory Factor Analysis and, subsequently,

the obtained structure was tested by using Confirmatory Factor

Analysis. The differences of location and socioeconomic levels were also explored

by using ANOVA. The results indicate that the scale reached satisfactory

levels of reliability and validity as the variables were grouped into two

constructs related to hedonic and utilitarian motivations. Although in all social

levels is observed the predominance of utilitarian reasons as motivations

to attend the fairs, in despite the hedonic reasons, the lower socioeconomic

levels show stronger hedonic motivations. Similar result is observed at regional

level, where the Fair of Temuco presents higher hedonic outcomes than

the Fair of Santiago.