Spree: A Cultural History of Shopping / Edition 1

by Pamela Klaffke

Overview

Ten years ago, Faith Popcorn declared "the end of shopping" in her bestselling book The Popcorn Report. But from the looks of things, shopping is as pervasive as ever; we are a culture obsessed and beguiled by the desire for consumer goods.

Journalist and shopping addict Pamela Klaffke documents the history of shopping, from a time when cattle were currency to the current age of contemporary shopping phenoms like QVC and eBay.

Topics covered include:

The history of shopping malls and department stores
The evolution of retail design
Inventions that made shopping easier: the cash -register (1884), the shopping cart (1936), the bar code (1952)
Information on the largest fashion retail chain (The Gap, 3,676 stores), the largest retail firm (Wal-Mart, with annual revenues of $191 billion), and the world’s largest mall (West Edmonton Mall, at 121 acres)
Shopping meccas and customs from around the world
The dark side of shopping: kleptomania, shopping addictions, anticonsumerism
The myths of shopping: Men Who Hate Shopping and Women Who Love Shoes

Full of fun and informative sidebars and photos, Klaffke’s book demonstrates that how we shop explains a lot about who we are.

Pamela Klaffke is a writer, editor, and media consultant. She is currently the literary editor of the Calgary Herald and her semiweekly column about popular culture trends can often be read in various newspapers across Canada. Spree: A Cultural History of Shopping is her first book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781551521435
Publisher:	Arsenal Pulp Press, Limited
Publication date:	11/01/2003
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	7
	Author's Note	9
i	Shopping Gets Its Start	13
ii	Consumers and Consumerism	25
iii	Inside the Retail World	41
iv	Shopping at Home	61
v	Never Pay Retail: Shopping for Bargains	89
vi	Second-hand Shopping	103
vii	Shopping for a Living	121
viii	Shopping and the Media	135
ix	The Fame Game	153
x	Shopping and Gender	165
xi	The Dark Side of Shopping	177
xii	Shopping the Globe	189
xiii	From the Crystal Palace to the Crystal Ball	203
	Bibliography	213
	Index	222