Author : Thorstein Veblen
Publisher : Penguin UK
Page : 83 pages
File Size : 32,1 MB
Release : 2005-08-25
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0141964316
With its wry portrayal of a shallow, materialistic 'leisure class' obsessed by clothes, cars, consumer goods and climbing the social ladder, this withering satire on modern capitalism is as pertinent today as when it was written over a century ago.
Author : United States. Office of Price Administration
Publisher :
Page : 1786 pages
File Size : 29,38 MB
Release : 1946
Category :
ISBN :
Author : Laura J. Miller
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 328 pages
File Size : 43,12 MB
Release : 2008-09-15
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0226525929
Over the past half-century, bookselling, like many retail industries, has evolved from an arena dominated by independent bookstores to one in which chain stores have significant market share. And as in other areas of retail, this transformation has often been a less-than-smooth process. This has been especially pronounced in bookselling, argues Laura J. Miller, because more than most other consumer goods, books are the focus of passionate debate. What drives that debate? And why do so many people believe that bookselling should be immune to questions of profit? In Reluctant Capitalists, Miller looks at a century of book retailing, demonstrating that the independent/chain dynamic is not entirely new. It began one hundred years ago when department stores began selling books, continued through the 1960s with the emergence of national chain stores, and exploded with the formation of “superstores” in the 1990s. The advent of the Internet has further spurred tremendous changes in how booksellers approach their business. All of these changes have met resistance from book professionals and readers who believe that the book business should somehow be “above” market forces and instead embrace more noble priorities. Miller uses interviews with bookstore customers and members of the book industry to explain why books evoke such distinct and heated reactions. She reveals why customers have such fierce loyalty to certain bookstores and why they identify so strongly with different types of books. In the process, she also teases out the meanings of retailing and consumption in American culture at large, underscoring her point that any type of consumer behavior is inevitably political, with consequences for communities as well as commercial institutions.
Author : Wendy A. Woloson
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 405 pages
File Size : 11,72 MB
Release : 2020-10-05
Category : History
ISBN : 022666449X
Crap. We all have it. Filling drawers. Overflowing bins and baskets. Proudly displayed or stuffed in boxes in basements and garages. Big and small. Metal, fabric, and a whole lot of plastic. So much crap. Abundant cheap stuff is about as American as it gets. And it turns out these seemingly unimportant consumer goods offer unique insights into ourselves—our values and our desires. In Crap: A History of Cheap Stuff in America, Wendy A. Woloson takes seriously the history of objects that are often cynically-made and easy to dismiss: things not made to last; things we don't really need; things we often don't even really want. Woloson does not mock these ordinary, everyday possessions but seeks to understand them as a way to understand aspects of ourselves, socially, culturally, and economically: Why do we—as individuals and as a culture—possess these things? Where do they come from? Why do we want them? And what is the true cost of owning them? Woloson tells the history of crap from the late eighteenth century up through today, exploring its many categories: gadgets, knickknacks, novelty goods, mass-produced collectibles, giftware, variety store merchandise. As Woloson shows, not all crap is crappy in the same way—bric-a-brac is crappy in a different way from, say, advertising giveaways, which are differently crappy from commemorative plates. Taking on the full brilliant and depressing array of crappy material goods, the book explores the overlooked corners of the American market and mindset, revealing the complexity of our relationship with commodity culture over time. By studying crap rather than finely made material objects, Woloson shows us a new way to truly understand ourselves, our national character, and our collective psyche. For all its problems, and despite its disposability, our crap is us.
Author : Tad Skotnicki
Publisher : Stanford University Press
Page : 372 pages
File Size : 30,10 MB
Release : 2021-05-11
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 1503627748
When people encounter consumer goods—sugar, clothes, phones—they find little to no information about their origins. The goods will thus remain anonymous, and the labor that went into making them, the supply chain through which they traveled, will remain obscured. In this book, Tad Skotnicki argues that this encounter is an endemic feature of capitalist societies, and one with which consumers have struggled for centuries in the form of activist movements constructed around what he calls The Sympathetic Consumer. This book documents the uncanny similarities shared by such movements over the course of three centuries: the transatlantic abolitionist movement, US and English consumer movements around the turn of the twentieth century, and contemporary Fair Trade activism. Offering a comparative historical study of consumer activism the book shows, in vivid detail, how activists wrestled with the broader implications of commodity exchange. These activists arrived at a common understanding of the relationship between consumers, producers, and commodities, and concluded that consumers were responsible for sympathizing with invisible laborers. Ultimately, Skotnicki provides a framework to identify a capitalist culture by examining how people interpret everyday phenomena essential to it.
Author : United States. Office of Price Administration
Publisher :
Page : 1682 pages
File Size : 30,65 MB
Release : 1944
Category : Price regulation
ISBN :
Author : ACNielsen
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 373 pages
File Size : 31,31 MB
Release : 2014-06-09
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0471703591
In some parts of the world, especially in developing markets, category management today remains a stretch goal – a new idea full of untapped potential. In other areas, the original eight-step process that emerged in the late 1980’s forms the foundation of many companies’ approach to category management. In still others, particularly in developed countries like the U.S., the U.K., and others, refinements are being made – most of them designed to place consumer understanding front and center. New ideas are emerging – from "trip management" to "aisle management" to "customer management." Whether a new descriptor emerges to replace "category management" is yet to be seen. Even if that does happen, what won’t change is the overall objective – to help retailers and their manufacturer partners succeed by offering the right selection of products that are marketed and merchandised based on a complete understanding of the consumers they are committed to serving. This book, which explores both the state of and the state-of-the-art in category management, is for everyone with a vested interest in category management. It can serve such a broad audience because category management is about bringing a structured process to how executives think and make decisions about their businesses, no matter what information and information technology they have access to.
Author : Thomas Hudson
Publisher :
Page : pages
File Size : 42,38 MB
Release : 2018-11-15
Category :
ISBN : 9780997924428
Author : Joy Parr
Publisher : University of Toronto Press
Page : 394 pages
File Size : 23,11 MB
Release : 1999-12-15
Category : History
ISBN : 1487598114
Visions of life in the 1950s often spring from the United States: supermarkets, freeways, huge gleaming cars, bright new appliances, automated households. Historian Joy Parr looks beyond the generalizations about the indulgence of this era to find a specifically Canadian consumer culture. Focusing on the records left by consumer groups and manufacturers, and relying on interviews and letters from many Canadian women who had set up household in the decade after the war, she reveals exactly how and why Canadian homemakers distinguished themselves from the consumer frenzy of their southern neighbours. Domestic Goods focuses primarily on the design, production, promotion, and consumption of furniture and appliances. For Parr, such a focus demands an analysis of the intertwining of the political, economic, and aesthetic. Parr examines how the shortage of appliances in the early postwar years was a direct result of government reconstruction policy, and how the international style of 'high modernism' reflected the postwar dream of free trade. But while manufacturers devised new plans for the consumer, depression-era frugality and a conscious setting of priorities within the family led potential customers to evade and rework what was offered them, eventually influencing the kinds of goods created. This book addresses questions such as, who designed furniture and appliances, and how were these designs arrived at? What was the role of consumer groups in influencing manufacturers and government policy? Why did women prefer their old wringer washers for over a decade after the automatic washer was brought in? In finding the answers the author celebrates and ultimately suggests reclaiming a particularly Canadian way of consuming.
Author : Paul Lukas
Publisher : Three Rivers Press
Page : 200 pages
File Size : 24,1 MB
Release : 1997
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN :
From kitschy novelties and wildly unappetizing food products to beautifully functional items such as garlic presses and toothpick dispensers, Inconspicuous Consumption is a delightful celebration of the sometimes elegant, sometimes ridiculous fringes of our late-20th-century culture. 50 photos. 192 pp. Author interviews & national radio campaign. National publicity. 15,000 print.
