Abstract

Our contribution relays the results of an empirical research aiming to explore consumer behaviors and routes occurring within consumption sites, by a comparative study in two opposite settings, an indoor and peripheric shopping mall and an outdoor central urban street. Using ob- servational and ethnographic data, the purpose of our research was to offer a tentative descriptive pattern of types of different consumer routes and activities, out of which to provide interpretive insights of consumer practices and develop hypotheses about individuals' interpretations of consumption settings. Further, as a pilot study, it was also conceived as a test of the use of various qualitative technique to be refined in follow up studies. The comparative analysis of the material suggested to identify eight types of practices, differently recognized in the two settings: Transit; Mission; Sequence; Combined visit; Circuit; Browsing; Zapping; Walking. Each type corresponded to a different way of achieving con- sumption practices, doing shopping, moving through the space.