Purchases and Wellbeing of Older and Younger Adults in Tomsk

Abstract

The present study assesses the wellbeing potential of material and experiential purchases among a group of Tomsk consumers. Four hypotheses are tested. 1) "Consumer preferences differ by age, gender, income level, education" turns to be confirmed; 2) "Purchases of gifts make people more happy than buying for themselves" demonstrated not very stable and weak correlation; 3) "Money spent on material purchases are perceived as a better decision than spent on experience" shows not very strong and statistically not significant correlation. 4) "Experiential purchases lead to more happiness" had no evidence to be proved. Further research is needed to investigate the phenomena more accurately.