Retail and Community: Business, Charity and the End of Empire

Retail has never existed in a vacuum. This interdisciplinary volume explores how English commercial, co-operative and charity retailing were shaped by and in turn influenced their social and political environments, from the local to the global, between the late nineteenth and early twenty-first centuries. Historians, sociologists, archivists and heritage professionals engage with current debates on the rise of modern business and the decline of the high street, class and credit, professionalisation in the voluntary sector, migration and the end of empire. This book will be a key resource to better understand retail and community in an era defined by social change, shedding new light on the enduring centrality of community relationships to modern retailers. Front Cover Retail and Community: Business, Charity and the End of Empire Copyright information Table of Contents List of Figures and Tables Notes on Contributors Preface 1 Retail and Community: English Experiences and International Encounters in the Long 20th Century Introduction Community in retail history Charity retail From the local to the global Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes 2 The Commodification of Japanese Culture in Transcultural Charity Bazaars: The Mikado Festival and Feast of Lanterns in Darlington, 1887 Introduction The charity bazaar and the fascination with Japan in late 19th-century Britain Japan and the North East of England Mikado Festival and Feast of Lanterns Virtual travelling Cross dressing Local community Japanese Shop Conclusion Notes 3 Hall and Spindler, Bespoke Tailors and Outfitters of Leamington Spa, 1878–1895: A Study in Retail Credit, Trust and Loyalty Introduction The town and the firm Customers and the credit they received Payment of debts Trust and loyalty Loyalty, long credit and social connection Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes 4 Shopkeeper and Educator: Aspects of the Co-operative Movement in England, 1870–1914 Introduction Principles and tensions Four Co-operative Societies The Co-op as retailer The Co-op and community The Co-op and education The Co-op and the Women’s Co-operative Guild Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes 5 ‘By the Army, for the Army’: The Salvation Army’s Early Retail Activities, Criticisms and Responses in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries Introduction A diverse range of retail activities Criticisms levelled against the Salvation Army’s retail activities: spiritual, social and economic dimensions Responses: the multifaceted benefits of the Salvation Army’s retail schemes Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes 6 A Labour of Love: The Role of Retail in Salvation Army Rescue Work for Women Introduction Rescue work and the development of industries in Salvation Army rescue homes Selling and marketing the products of industry Mail order and the developing Salvation Army press The impact of In Darkest England, and the Way Out ‘Salvation peddling: one of the least known wonders of The Salvation Army’ Shops, ‘mammoth Bazaars’ and sales of work Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes 7 Much More than a Gossip Shop: Black Country Independent Womenswear Retail, Family and Community Introduction The Black Country, Black Country Living Museum and living history interpretation E.A. and F.S. Hodson: general and fancy drapers E. Minett’s Representing retail and community relationships Consumer credit Women’s clothing retail and the social role of gossip The Hodson Shop, Minett’s and the 21st-century museum Conclusion Notes 8 Charity, Community and Trade: The British Charity Shop, 1940s–1970s Introduction The development of the charity shop The associational culture of second-hand selling Trading charities Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes 9 Empire of Charity: The British ‘Helping Hand’ in South African Charity Shops, 1971–1972 Introduction Charity shops in service of ‘the Cause’ From Britain to South Africa Empire of charity Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes 10 Race, Retailing and the Windrush Generation: Principle and Practice in the John Lewis Partnership’s Recruitment of Commonwealth Arrivals, 1950–1962 Introduction Racializing citizenship and belonging Democracy and diversity in the Partnership community Seeing colour on and off the shop floor Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes 11 Encounters at the Counter: Race, Class and Belonging in the British Asian Corner Shop Introduction Really from here Representations of Asian shopkeepers – familiar strangers ‘Presence’ of empire’s children ... Everyday difference Displacement Troubled hierarchies Entrepreneurial spirit or brutal necessity? A nation of (Asian) shopkeepers ... We are here because you were there ... Colonial space (inv)Asians – the postcolonial encounter at the counter Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes 12 ‘The Grocer Carried Me for Three Months’: Retail Support for Workers Involved in Extended Industrial Disputes Introduction Supermarket chains support the miners The 1951 New Zealand Waterfront Lockout Comparison, change and continuity They shall not starve Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes 13 Understanding the ‘Gift’ in the Post-Economic Downturn Charity Shop Introduction Charity shop economics, circa 1990–2010 Retail Gift Aid Retail Gifts in Kind The charity shop ‘gift’: a subversive moral economy Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes 14 Reflections Notes Index