If You Stand in the Checkout Line of Any Discount

Multiple Choice

If you stand in the checkout line of any discount store, you'll see a very odd assortment of items on display: disposable razors, batteries, ballpoint pens, playing cards, trail mix, USB drives, and so on. Retailers call these items "impulse buys," meaning that although people may not come to the store looking for cards, pens, or trail mix, when they see them near the checkout, they'll buy them. An attitude researcher might say that people buy these items because __________.

A) consumers' attitudes toward such utilitarian items are emotionally based
B) these items reflect people's social identity concerns, so they will deliberate quickly about whether to purchase them
C) attitudes toward these items may be highly accessible
D) intentions are relatively unimportant when people engage in deliberative behaviors like purchases