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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the types of social responsibility actions that small local retailers implement in their local community and to explore their underlying motivations and perceived benefits. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative research method is used to explore small local retailers’ social responsibility practices and underlying motivations. Owners/managers of small apparel retailers in the USA were interviewed and their responses transcribed and analyzed. Findings Findings highlight that local retailers are active in giving back to their community using various means from monetary donations to promotion of community events. Such contributions to their local community are largely driven by their affection for the community, and the motivation is to maintain a good reputation. It was also found that episodes of giving were also triggered externally by customers, local organizations, and local events. Small retailers’ social responsibility contributions to the community are typically not undertaken in an effort to stimulate sales, profits and/or customer traffic. Rather, local retailers find their experiences enjoyable and their contributions build a sense of connection to the community. These retailers enjoy an extra sense of enrichment and perceive social benefits accrued from actively engaging in social responsibility within the community. Originality/value Much has been written about social responsibility from a manufacturing and large retailer viewpoint, but there is a dearth of information on small local retailers. This study explores the understanding of small businesses’ social responsibility practices from a local retail perspective and provides valuable insights about retailers approach to social responsibility in relation to their local community.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore retail format choice among male shoppers, using desired store attributes and shopping orientations as predictors of format choice.Design/methodology/approachMale shoppers in the USA (n=560) were surveyed via the internet. Multiple regression was used to evaluate the data.FindingsThe findings identify distinctive predictors of male patronage across several retail formats including department stores, discounters, category killers, dollar stores and internet only stores.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings identify desired store attributes and shopping orientations of frequent male patrons of several retail formats. The information provided is useful for advancing the retail format choice literature as well as for retailers to better understand male patrons. Future research could examine patronage of newly developed retail formats and include situational variables that could provide additional predictive power for retail format choice among males.Practical implicationsThis research provides retailers with specific knowledge to identify males who are likely to frequent specific retail formats based on desired store attributes and shopping orientations.Originality/valueThis exploratory study uses desired store attributes and shopping orientations to profile male shoppers of several retail formats in the USA. The research is unique because the investigation of retail format choice among males has been very limited.

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