Compares the shopping behavior of Chilean consumers with those in the USA. Chilean mall visits were driven, first and foremost, by purchase; in contrast, consumers in the USA visited their mall for more diverse reasons, largely revolving around entertainment. In addition to shopping motives, our data revealed noticeable differences between the two populations in their way of selecting the mall, their shopping characteristics, and purchase patterns. In the final analysis, however, when the shoppers in Chile and the USA left their respective malls, at least four-fifths of each group had made some kind of purchase, whatever their initial shopping motivation.

This paper compares the shopping behavior of Chilean consumers with those in China. Both Chinese and Chilean mall visits are driven, first and foremost, by purchase; however, consumers in Chile tend to be less single minded than their Chinese counterparts. Differences also exist between the two populations in their way of selecting the mall, shopping characteristics, and purchase patterns. Most importantly, Chinese shoppers relied more on their mall visits than Chileans in searching for information and finalizing their purchase decisions; at the same time, they were much more cautious in committing themselves to a purchase.In the present study, we chose to investigate consumers' shopping behaviors within two Pacific Rim countries: China and Chile. Chile was chosen because this country is leading the way to a free-market economy in Latin America, and it is well positioned for global business (Reuss 1997). Chile is not only economically vibrant, it was also the pioneer country in slashing import taxes, eliminating trade barriers, and encouraging foreign investment and foreign ownership. More importantly, Chile's accession to the NAFTA