A History Of Shopping

First published in 2006. This study looks at eight centuries retail trading and shopping to answer the question of how people did tehir shopping in the past in England.

Tracing the cultural evolution of shopping from outdoor bazaars to suburban malls, this brazen look at the history and psychology of one of humankind's oldest pursuits considers the variety of reasons (and excuses) that drive the impulse to buy. An opulent collection of shopping places are described, including ancient markets, covered arcades of 18th-century France, gallerias of 19th-century Italy, and megamalls of 1950s America. Examples from literature and other sources explore the historically conflicted attitudes about shopping, it seems that fashionistas have always fought over the trendiest hemlines and hats. The development of buying options is detailed, from mail order catalogs and Internet stores to retail districts and massive supermarkets.

First published in 2006. This study looks at eight centuries retail trading and shopping to answer the question of how people did tehir shopping in the past in England.

Ka-ching! Ever stop to think how our modern-day shopping culture came to be? In the early 1800s, stores were few and far between in the United States. General stores supplied everything from fabric and flour to handsaws and clocks. As the country grew, mail-order catalogs arrived at homes across the country, Mom and Pop specialty shops sprang up along Main Street, and later, shopping malls and big box megastores thrived in the suburbs. Then online shopping arrived via the Internet and changed the consumer experience yet again! Buying behaviors also changed over time. For example, did you know you could barter for a pound of sugar at a general store in the early 1800s? Or that department stores in the 1900s added restrooms and ladies lounges to encourage women to shop all day long? Or that online shopping in the twenty-first century is a multibillion-dollar industry? Spending Spree takes readers on an amazing journey from farmlands to cyberspace to learn about the evolution of shopping in the United States.

Shopping emerged as a special pleasure and problem during the period between the revolutionary upheavals of the late eighteenth century and the opening salvoes of the Great War. New shops, new products, new class and gender ideologies, new standards of comfort and hygiene, and rising living standards for some meant that people, especially women, spent more time shopping and engaging in consumer-oriented activities beyond the walls of the shop. At the same time, social commentators, local and national authorities, economists and many husbands became concerned about the 'dangers' of shopping, believing that the department store was emancipating women and destroying society in the process. This volume explores shopping in the nineteenth century as a varied and embedded social, political, economic and cultural activity. It draws out the continuities with earlier periods as well as examining how the department store came to be seen as both symbol and generator of profound economic, social and cultural change. A Cultural History of Shopping in the Age of Revolution and Empire presents an overview of the period with themes addressing practices and processes; spaces and places; shoppers and identities; luxury and everyday; home and family; visual and literary representations; reputation, trust and credit; and governance, regulation and the state. Book jacket.

Since 1872 when traveling salesman Aaron Montgomery Ward realized he could eliminate the middleman and sell goods directly to his customers, Americans have had an ongoing love affair with the mail-order catalog, which continues undiminished even in today's online-driven world. The practical can find deals on furniture and clothing in L.L.Bean and Sears, the extravagant can consider his and hers matching helicopters, windmills, hot-air balloons, and submarines in the Neiman Marcus Fantasy Catalog; those looking to get their pulses racing can browse Victoria's Secret and Abercrombie & Fitch; while our inner swashbuckler can travel the world through the pages of the J. Peterman Owner's Manual where Moroccan caftans, Russian Navy t-shirts, and wooden water buckets from rural China entice the imagination. In Catalog: The Illustrated History of Mail Order Shopping, Robin Cherry traces the timeline of these snapshots from American history and discovers along the way how we dressed, decorated our houses, worked, played, and got around. From corsets to bell-bottoms, from baby-doll dresses and Doc Martens all the way to iPods, the history of these catalogs is the history of our lives and our culture. GIs during World War II were kept company by the models in the pages of lingerie catalogs; hockey goalies fashioned makeshift shin guards out of them during the Great Depression, and creative children across the country still play with homemade paper dolls cut from clothing catalogs. A number of celebrities got their start modeling for catalogs: Gregory Peck, Lauren Bacall, Katherine Heigl, Matthew Fox, and Angelina Jolie. Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan both got their first guitars from the Sears catalog. Organized into categories such as clothing, food, animals, and houses, author Robin Cherry explores the vivid stories behind Sears, Montgomery Ward, Lillian Vernon, Harry & David, Jackson & Perkins, and of course, 45 years of the Neiman Marcus Christmas Book. Insightful historical commentary places these catalogs in their social context, making this book a visual pleasure and a historically important piece of Americana.