Convenience
Convenient procedures, products and services are those intended to increase ease in accessibility, save resources (such as time, effort[1] and energy) and decrease frustration. Convenience is a relative concept, and depends on context. For example, automobiles were once considered a convenience, yet today are regarded as a normal part of life.
Examples
Service conveniences are those that save shoppers time or effort, and includes variables such as credit availability and extended store hours.[1] Service convenience pertains to the facilitation of selling both goods and services, and combinations of the two.[1]
Convenience goods are widely distributed products that "require minimal time and physical and mental effort to purchase."[1]
Convenience food and convenience cooking spare the consumer effort in preparation of a meal while providing high levels of energy and pronounced, if mostly artificial, flavour.
Convenience stores at filling stations sell items that have nothing to do with gasoline/petrol, but purchasing at that location can save the consumer time compared to another trip to a grocery store. Conveniences such as direct deposit can save companies and consumers money, though this may or may not be passed along to the consumer.
Some conveniences can become nuisances when they break down or don't function correctly. It costs time and money to fix items of convenience when they break down, and may cause much greater costs if something else that depends on them cannot take place.
The Amish (such as the Pennsylvania Dutch) shun many modern conveniences, including electricity.
See also
- Canadians of convenience
- Consumerism
- Convenience function (computing)
- Convenience package (automobiles)
- Convenience store
- Convenience translation (finance)
- Critique of technology
- Flag of convenience
- Gamaekjip
- List of convenience stores
- Marriage of convenience
- Modern conveniences
- Public convenience – term for a public toilet
- Social construction of technology
- Technology
- Technology and society
References
- 1 2 3 4 Berry, Leonard L.; et al. (July 2002). "Understanding Service Convenience". Vol. 66, No. 3. Journal of Marketing. pp. 1–17. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
Further reading
- Tierney, Thomas F. (1993). The Value of Convenience: A Genealogy of Technical Culture. SUNY Press. Retrieved June 10, 2012. ISBN 079141244X
- Shove, Elizabeth (2003). Comfort, Cleanliness and Convenience: The Social Organization of Normality. Berg. Retrieved June 10, 2012. ISBN 1859736300
- Holton, Richard H. (July 1958). "The Distinction between Convenience Goods, Shopping Goods, and Specialty Goods". Vol. 23, No. 1. Journal of Marketing. pp. 53–56. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
- Bhatnagar, Amit; et al. (November 2000). "On risk, convenience, and Internet shopping behavior". Volume 43 Issue 11. Communications of the ACM Magazine. pp. 98–105. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
- Glanz, Karen; et al. (October 1998). "Why Americans Eat What They Do: Taste, Nutrition, Cost, Convenience, and Weight Control Concerns as Influences on Food Consumption". Volume 98, Issue 10. Journal of the American Dietetic Association. pp. 1118–1126. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
- Danziger, Pamela M. (2004). Why People Buy Things They Don't Need. Ithaca, NY: Paramount Market Publishing. ISBN 0-9725290-4-7.
External links
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The dictionary definition of convenience at Wiktionary