Read complete books and articles on: Shopping

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12 of the Best Books and Articles on: Shopping

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Carried Away: The Invention of Modern Shopping » Read Now
by Rachel Bowlby. 279 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

Asserting that a history of shopping was, until recently, a history of women, Rachel Bowlby trains her eye on the evolution of the modern shopper. She uses a compelling blend of history, literary analysis, and cultural criticism to explore the rise of department stores and supermarkets of the United...
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Asserting that a history of shopping was, until recently, a history of women, Rachel Bowlby trains her eye on the evolution of the modern shopper. She uses a compelling blend of history, literary analysis, and cultural criticism to explore the rise of department stores and supermarkets of the United States, France, and Great Britain. Bowlby recalls the fascinating early days of these institutions. In the mid-nineteenth century, when department stores first developed, their fabulous new buildings brought middle-class women into town, where they could indulge in what was then a new activity: a day's shopping. The stores offered luxury, flattering women into believing that they belonged in a beautiful environment. It is here, Bowlby argues, that the idea of the modern woman's passion for fashion and shopping took hold. Developed in the twentieth century, supermarkets took an opposite tack: they offered functionality, standardization, and cheapness. However, Bowlby claims, despite their differences, the two institutions belong together as emblematic of their respective eras' social developments: the department store with the growth of cities, the supermarket with the proliferation of suburbs. With their dazzling lights and displays, both supermarkets and department stores were thought to produce in females an enhanced or trance-like state of mind. For readers who regard shopping as a spectator or participatory sport, and for those who wish to understand our culture and the psychology of women, or those who simply enjoy a witty, literate romp through the aisles, Carried Away is the perfect purchase.
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2.

Lead Us into Temptation: The Triumph of American Materialism » Read Now
by James B. Twitchell. 309 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

Coke adds life. Just do it. Yo quiero Taco Bell. We live in a commercial age, awash in a sea of brand names, logos, and advertising jingles -- not to mention commodities themselves. Are shoppers merely the unwitting stooges of the greedy producers who will stop at nothing to sell their wares? Are...
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Coke adds life. Just do it. Yo quiero Taco Bell. We live in a commercial age, awash in a sea of brand names, logos, and advertising jingles -- not to mention commodities themselves. Are shoppers merely the unwitting stooges of the greedy producers who will stop at nothing to sell their wares? Are the producers' powers of persuasion so great that resistance is futile? James Twitchell counters this assumption of the used and abused consumer with a witty and unflinching look at commercial culture, starting from the simple observation that "we are powerfully attracted to the world of goods (after all, we don't call them 'bads')." He contends that far from being forced upon us against our better judgment, "consumerism is our better judgment." Why? Because increasingly, store-bought objects are what hold us together as a society, doing the work of "birth, patina, pews, coats of arms, house, and social rank" -- previously done by religion and bloodline. We immediately understand the connotations of status and identity exemplified by the Nike swoosh, the Polo pony, the Guess? label, the DKNY logo. The commodity alone is not what we are after; rather, we actively and creatively want that logo and its signification -- the social identity it bestows upon us. As Twitchell summarizes, "Tell me what you buy, and I will tell what you are and who you want to be." Using elements as disparate as the film The Jerk, French theorists, popular bumper stickers, and Money magazine to explore the nature and importance of advertising lingo, packaging, fashion, and "The Meaning of Self," Twitchell overturns one stodgy social myth after another. In the process he reveals the purchase and possession of things to be the self-identifying acts of modern life. Not only does the car you drive tell others who you are, it lets you know as well. The consumption of goods, according to Twitchell, provides us with tangible everyday comforts and with crucial inner security in a seemingly faithless age. That we may find our sense of self through buying material objects is among the chief indictments of contemporary culture. Twitchell, however, sees the significance of shopping. "There are no false needs." We buy more than objects, we buy meaning. For many of us, especially in our youth, Things R Us.
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3.

Why We Shop: Emotional Rewards and Retail Strategies » Read Now
by Jim Pooler. 208 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library
4.

The Feminist Dollar » Read Now
by Phyllis A. Katz, Margaret Katz. 432 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

"You now hold in your hands the most important new shopping manual since "Consumer Reports", the most innovative travel book ever since the "Guide Michelin", and the most practical feminist handbook since Our Bodies, Ourselves....From now on, every home, office, or library reference shelf will be...
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"You now hold in your hands the most important new shopping manual since "Consumer Reports", the most innovative travel book ever since the "Guide Michelin", and the most practical feminist handbook since Our Bodies, Ourselves....From now on, every home, office, or library reference shelf will be incomplete without The Feminist Dollar". -- Letty Cottin Pogrebin, author of Deborah, Golda, & Me
The purchasing power of American women is potentially the greatest in the world. So why not support the rights of women while you shop? Fun to read, easy to use, and packed with the latest information available, The Feminist Dollar gives you the basic facts about gender fairness and equity as it is -- or is not -- practiced by corporations and governments, so that you can make informed decisions about the policies you want to support when buying merchandise and traveling abroad.
Among the almost 400 companies covered here that make and market the products you buy and use every day, you will discover which promote women, have generous child-care or family leave policies, or contribute to organizations that benefit women.
Also, you will find the FEM (Feminist Evaluation Measure) ratings of some of the states and countries to which you might travel. For product ratings at a glance, consult the Buying Guide, gathered at the end of the book for easy access while shopping. Use The Feminist Dollar for all your purchases. Pocketbook power is on the march!
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5.

Retail Attributes: Influence on Shopping Mode Choice Behavior, in Journal of Managerial Issues » Read Now
by Vicki L. Blakney, William Sekely. 18 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...Retail attributes: influence on shopping mode choice behavior. by Vicki L...however, are not as aware of the broader "shopping mode choices" of consumers. These...
6.

The Evolution of Shopping, in The American Enterprise » Read Now
by Philip Langdon. 4 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...The Evolution of Shopping. by Philip Langdon Almost...Wilbur Cross Parkway, where the serious shopping starts, the seemingly well-run but...across the street. In the...
7.

The Rise of Consumer Society in Britain, 1880-1980 (Chap. 3 "Shopping") » Read Now
by John Benson. 246 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...PART TWO CHANGES 57 3. Shopping 59 4. Tourism 82...because theyre the people who do the shopping, who spend most of the household budget...upon just three sectors of the...
8.

When Ladies Go A-Thieving: Middle-Class Shoplifters in the Victorian Department Store » Read Now
by Elaine S. Abelson. 294 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

This book focuses on middle-class urban women as participants in new forms of consumer culture. Within the special world of the department store, women found themselves challenged to resist the enticements of consumption. Many succumbed, buying both what they needed and what they desired, but also...
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This book focuses on middle-class urban women as participants in new forms of consumer culture. Within the special world of the department store, women found themselves challenged to resist the enticements of consumption. Many succumbed, buying both what they needed and what they desired, but also stealing what seemed so readily available. Pitted against these middle-class women were the management, detectives, and clerks of the department stores. Abelson argues that in the interest of concealing this darker side of consumerism, women of the middle class, but not those of the working class, were allowed to shoplift and plead incapacitating illness--kleptomania. The invention of kleptomania by psychiatrists and the adoption of this ideology of feminine weakness by retailers, newspapers, the general public, the accused women themselves, and even the courts reveals the way in which a gender analysis allowed proponents of consumer capitalism to mask its contradictions.
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9.

"Sadly Materialistic": Perceptions of Shops and Shopping Streets in Weimar Berlin, in Journal of Popular Culture » Read Now
by Deborah Smail. 21 pgs.

...Materialistic...": Perceptions of Shops and Shopping Streets in Weimar Berlin. by Deborah...children could play while their mothers were shopping. A uniformed nurse was...
10.

Retailing Triumphs and Blunders: Victims of Competition in the New Age of Marketing Management (Chap. 11 "In-Home Shopping: Retailing without Walls") » Read Now
by Ronald D. Michman, Alan J. Greco. 270 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

In today's world of galloping change, adjustment and anticipation have become ever more vital for retail operations. Many retailers have successfully anticipated change, while others have simply become relics of retailing history. Facing intense environmental competition, different types of retail...
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In today's world of galloping change, adjustment and anticipation have become ever more vital for retail operations. Many retailers have successfully anticipated change, while others have simply become relics of retailing history. Facing intense environmental competition, different types of retail institutions, whether a mass merchandiser or a hotel, find themselves confronting different types of challenges. The stories of a spectrum of retailers highlight the variables necessary for duplicating success and avoiding failure. This timely work provides a starting point for understanding the complexities and interrelationships in retail management.
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11.

Consumer Choice in the American Economy » Read Now
by Carolyn Shaw Bell. 432 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...Merchandising Revolution" 168 Shopping and Selecting 188 Paying...The Retailer and Consumer Shopping 304 chapter 9.Protection...The process of consumer choice and the...
12.

Shopping till They Drop - Their Self-Control, in Insight on the News » Read Now
by Gayle Hanson. 4 pgs.

Collections: Psychology, Entire Library

...Shopping till they drop - their self-control by Gayle Hanson For Darcy Mornhinweg Regan, the experience...drug. In fact, her addiction was to something completely legal and...