While female responsibilities for family meal remain ubiquitous norm in fact requires, as DeVault (1989) points out, an invisible work of coordination: commercial underpaid domestic work (Glazer 1993). Mass retailers made a shift from the small stores to large supermarkets and restructured how women should act inside the stores (Deutsch 1999: 143). During postwar times consumption was an expansion of citizenship. At the beginning of the XX century people in The United States recognizes grocery shopping as labor, and activity that is time consuming, intense and was full of negotiations over price and quality (Deutsch 2012). The increasing dominance of the capitalist labor process, especially after World War II, new divisions of labor through the work transfer (Glazer, 1993) that obscured the connection between capital production and daily life. In doing so, also obscured women’s work helped by the infrastructure of customary expectation of family, conceptual inadequacy of considering domestic labor private, schemes from chains stores for force consumption and state programs
While United States experienced high economic growth and a considerable economic boom, grocery shopping was not considered work anymore, although still take a considerable amount of time. During this time Supermarkets stores were portrayed as the symbol of the success of American model but in an apolitical form, numbing the minds of consumers as social actors but emphasizing their individuality by advertising the attractiveness of freedom of choice.
During 1930-1931 grocery chains dealt with failing prices and profits, the stores start to pay more attention to women. In example Deutsch (1999) states that Kroger, National Tea Company and A&P began to develop d...
... middle of paper ...
...Glazer, N. Y. (1993). Women's paid and unpaid labor: The work transfer in health care and retailing. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Herrmann, A. (2002). Shopping for identities: gender and consumer culture. Feminist studies: FS, 28(3), 539.
Hinrichs, C. C. (2000). Embeddedness and local food systems: notes on two types of direct agricultural market. Journal of rural studies, 16(3), 295-303.
Humphery, K. (1998). Shelf life: supermarkets and the changing cultures of consumption. Cambridge University Press.
Koch, S. L. (2013). A Theory of Grocery Shopping: Food, Choice and Conflict. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Koch, S. L., & Sprague, J. (2014). Economic Sociology vs. Real Life: The Case of Grocery Shopping. American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 73(1), 237-263.
Veblen, T. (2005). The theory of the leisure class; an economic study of institutions. Aakar Books.
RNRA Team, “Supermarkets, Fresh Produce and New Commodity Chains: What Future for the Small Producer?” Hot Topics: February, 2004.
In America today, race/ethnicity, class categorization, and gender inequalities are just some of the most controversial issues that have created social division in every facet of our society. Gender inequality for one, remains a significant issue from the past up to this day. Looking at history, women have struggled to gain equal rights as well as equal pay against their male counterpart. As described in her book, “Cutting into the Meatpacking Line”, Deborah Fink detailed the inequalities against women and ethnic groups in the meatpacking plant where she had a first-hand experience as a worker. Furthermore, capitalism played an important role in the inequalities in race, gender, culture, and ethnicity, and it has also legitimized the disparities
Over the years, the American department store has developed and evolved as not only a commercial business but also a cultural institution. While it has weathered many storms and changes since its inception and throughout history, its most predominant enemy has been a change in the lifestyle of the American people (Whitaker, 2013). As the customer’s needs and wants have shifted, department stores have struggled to keep up with demands. It has been argued that the decline of the department store has been ongoing for the last 50 years (Whitaker, 2013). This dissertation aims to understand how the department store has historically played a role in consumer culture and spending, and additionally, how this has evolved and changed in today’s retail market. Although department stores may not be able to take all the credit for inventing modern shopping, they certainly made its conventions and conveniences commonplace. They set a new standard for the way the consumer should expect to be treated, the type of services that should be provided, and the convenience that should attend the process of acquiring the necessities and niceties of life all in one place. They made shopping into a leisure pastime. This environment meant shopping was a means of freedom to look around, pick up objects with no obligations to buy. As one historian remarked, department stores: “encouraged a perception of the building as a public place, where consumption itself was almost incidental to the delights of a sheltered promenade in a densely crowded, middle-class urban space” (Whitaker, 2006). Although this perception and view of the department store has changed over the years, this paper aims to follow the trail of how and why that happened.
The two works of literature nudging at the idea of women and their roles as domestic laborers were the works of Zora Neale Hurston in her short story “Sweat”, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Whatever the setting may be, whether it is the 1920’s with a woman putting her blood, sweat and tears into her job to provide for herself and her husband, or the 1890’s where a new mother is forced to stay at home and not express herself to her full potential, women have been forced into these boxes of what is and is not acceptable to do as a woman working or living at home. “Sweat” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” draw attention to suppressing a woman’s freedom to work along with suppressing a woman’s freedom to act upon her
Kessler, Andy. "The Rise of Consumption Equality." The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, 03 Jan. 2012. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.
Modern feminists might gasp if I assert patriarchy once allowed efficient economic organization, but the tools of modern political economy unveil the mystery of why inegalitarian gender norms were once economically efficient. Evolving modes of production and material constraints necessitate an efficient division of labor guided by socialized gender norms that adapt to economic macroconditions. Gary Becker and Torben Iversen understand an economic division of labor differently given their different historical-material conditions. In his “Theory of the Allocation of Time,” Becker models an ideal economic division of labor with the household as a single entity seeking maximum utility. Men specialize in marketable skills due to a comparative advantage in hard labor; women specialize in general household skills and motherhood. Iversen’s concept of an efficient division of labor does not view the household as a single entity and instead views the individual as the basic economic unit—less gendered social norms result. Thus, as society evolves from agricultural to industrial and then to postindustrial modes of production, gender norms adapt to society’s needs and wants to yield efficient divisions of labor. When material macroconditions advance, households restructure gender norms and behavior out of demand for a more efficient division of labor. In this paper, I argue the evolution of the modes of production alters power dynamics in household bargaining, which force gender norms to conform to market demands for a revised division of labor.
...ed the lifestyle of Canadians. Their effect on Canadians contributed to the making of our consumer capitalist society. While department stores introduced several innovative ideas to the business world, their negative impact significantly contributes to our materialistic lifestyle. Donica Belisle’s “Retail Nation: Department Stores and the Making of Modern Canada” clearly define these aspects and describe the mass retailers relationship between the public, its stakeholders and Canada’s national identity. The author’s well researched information and various perspectives of a situation support her arguments effectively. In conclusion, Donica Belisle’s book excels in its presentation as it is well written and well organised. She successfully communicates her main points and eliminates bias by presenting both sides of a story, making this a good book for others to read.
When America became an industrialized country, women began to loose their importance. Since many products could be bought cheaply, there was no longer any need for women to make things such as butter, yarn and other household items. ...
Solomon, M. R. (2012). Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hall.
As early as the nineteen fifties women were identified and targeted as a market. In a consumer culture the most important things are consumers. Advertisers convinced homemakers that in order to be a “good” wife and mother you must have their products and appliances to keep a clean and perfect home. The irony of this ploy is that consumers must have money to buy, and so trying to improve their quality as homemakers, off into the workforce women went. This paradox left women ...
"Women Go to Work." American Decades. Ed. Judith S. Baughman, Et Al. Vol. 3: 1920-1929. Detroit: Gale, 2001. U.S. History in Context. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.
Challenges in Today's U.S. Supermarket Industry. 2014. Challenges in Today's U.S. Supermarket Industry. [ONLINE] Available at:http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa479076.aspx. [Accessed 31 March 2014].
Sassatelli, R. (2007). Consumer Culture: History, Theory and Politics, London: Sage, Page 30, Page 126, Page 132, Page 133
UK’s exit from the European Union following the Referendum on 23rd June 2016 has exerted tremendous and profound impact on UK grocery industry. Many experts warn that devalued sterling will force the prices to go up and bring a tough time for the industry. However, Lidl, a German no-frills supermarket, has emerged to be the fastest growing supermarket with a 12.2 percent increase on sales from June to August (Denton, 2016). In the early 90’s, Lidl opened its first UK store. Insisting on providing qualified products with low prices, it has expanded rapidly in UK and owns more than 640 stores now. It also won the 2016 Good Housekeeping Awards as the Best Supermarket (Lidl, 2016). With no doubt, Brexit greatly changes the business
No longer just a place to buy food, the supermarket has become a place to cash a check, buy a birthday card, or pick up some tulip bulbs. These new extras are all centered on the idea of convenience. We all hope to find a few extra moments in our days, so supermarkets offer us a way to save time. I'll be the first to admit that buying three things at the same store is nicer than driving across town. Saving time can definitely be a good thing.