Vulnerable desires: Impoverished migrant consumers in Turkey

Abstract

As a vulnerable consumer segment, economically deprived consumers have received scholarly attention (e.g. Baker, Gentry and Rittenburg, 2005; Hill and Stamey, 1990; Lee, Ozanne, and Hill 1999). Realizing differences in the consumption behaviors of economically betteroff and impoverished consumers, some researchers explored how poor consumers cope with economic restrictions in a world of abundance. Lewis (1970), for example, argued that poor consumers did not behave according to the dictates of higher-income people, while others claimed that consumption values were the same regardless of consumer’s level of income (e.g. Irelan and Besner 1966; Leeds 1971). On the one hand, poor consumers were seen as lacking the adequate level of income to provide themselves with proper consumption (e.g. Holloway and Cardozo 1969); on the other hand, they were perceived to be capable of finding their own ways to optimize their purchases in terms of assortments of products (e.g. Andreasen 1975). Overall, the expectation is that “necessities of survival” have to be met first; thus, most studies focus on understanding what constitutes the “basic needs” of the poor consumers (e.g. Hill 2002a; Richards 1966).