Upwardly Mobile with No Place to Go: A Cross-Cultural Investigation into Consumers’ Constrained Consumption Experiences

Truck drivers are a vital link between nearly all producers and consumers in an increasingly integrated global supply chain environment. In spite of this viable market segment, little attention has been paid to this group as consumers. In an effort to better understand their consumption-related experiences, a cross-cultural qualitative study was conducted with truck drivers in the United States and Vietnam. It was discovered that truck drivers are highly mobile workers, yet significantly restricted consumers. In the spirit of grounded theory, the methodology used in the paper, the conceptualization of truckers’ restricted consumption was cast afield with that of similarly ghetto consumers.