Kirk Explains the Psychological Ownership Phenomenon

Gothamist has quoted Colleen Kirk, D.P.S., professor of marketing and management, in an article analyzing 787 Coffee, a Puerto Rican chain of coffee shops in New York, Puerto Rico, and Texas. The business is known and beloved for selling iced drinks only in plastic pouches—which some consumers say resemble children’s drinks and others critique for looking like colostomy bags.

Kirk weighed in on the pouches having gone viral on social media, explaining the popularity is likely due to the “psychological ownership” phenomenon. She says customers feel like they “own” the bag because they can more easily manipulate the plastic, can often better carry it, and have a hand in the “disposal process” when they recycle or reuse it. The bags “satisfy consumers’ motivations for control and ownership in multiple ways.”