This scale measures how likely a shopper believes it is that goods found at a secondhand retail space — a physical store or a temporary stall — will be a pleasant surprise and relatively valuable, despite having been previously owned by someone else. Ross, Bolton, and Meloy (2023) used it across all four studies in the article; the source of the scale was not stated and is assumed to have been created by the authors.
7-point semantic differential
Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.
Alphas were .75, .86, .79, and .78 for Studies 1 through 4, respectively (Ross, Bolton, and Meloy 2023, pp. 139, 141-143); only Study 2 met the site's usual .80 reliability threshold, so the below-threshold administrations are documented here for transparency. Using the Fornell and Larcker (1981) criteria, finding hidden treasure was confirmed in each study to be distinct from two other constructs — disorder of merchandise and risk perceptions — providing support for discriminant validity; AVEs ranged from .57 to .70, offering some evidence of convergent validity. Higher scores indicate greater expectation of finding "treasure." Items follow the stem "To what extent would shopping ___ reveal:"
Ross, Gretchen R., Lisa E. Bolton, and Margaret G. Meloy (2023), "Disorder in Secondhand Retail Spaces: The Countervailing Forces of Hidden Treasure and Risk," Journal of Retailing, 99 (1), 136-148.
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