Shopping and the Senses, 1800-1970 : A Sensory History of Retail and Consumption

This book demonstrates the primacy of touch, smell, taste, sight and sound within the retail landscape. It shows that histories of the senses, body, and emotions were inextricably intertwined with processes and practices of retail and consumption. Shops are sensory feasts. From the rustle of silk to the tempting aroma of coffee, the multi-sensory appeal of goods has long been at the heart of how we shop. This book delves into and beyond this seductive idyl of consumer sensuality. Shopping was a sensory activity for consumers and retailers alike, but this experience was not always positive. This book is inhabited by tired feet and weary workers, as well as eager shoppers. It considers embodied sensory experiences and practices, and it represents both a celebration and interrogation of the integration of sensory histories into the study of retail and consumption. Crucially, this book places breathing, feeling human bodies back into the retail space. (Publisher's synopsis) Acknowledgements Contents Notes on Contributors List of Figures Chapter 1: Introduction Sensorially Attentive Histories Shopping and the Senses Sensory Variety: Capitalism, Comfort, and Cacophony Works Cited Chapter 2: “To Rub the Nose in the Tea”: Smell, Taste, and the Assessment of Quality in Early Nineteenth-Century Tea Retail Report from the Select Committee on the Tea Duties Marketing Sensations Shopping for Taste Notes Works Cited Chapter 3: An Assault on the Senses: Cultural Representations of the Victorian Village Shop An Unpleasant Assault on the Senses A Welcome Stimulation of the Senses Works Cited Chapter 4: The Politics of Sitting Down: Women, Cafés and Public Toilets in Dublin Suburbia, Omnibuses and Sitting Down Restaurants, Coffee Houses and Café Culture in Dublin Cafés, Orientalism and Respectability Public Lavatories, Women and Public Space Works Cited Chapter 5: Comfort and Safety: An Intersensorial History of Shopping Streets in Nineteenth-Century Amsterdam and Brussels Windows and Pavements A New Sensorium Shopping in Practice Conclusion Reference List Published Primary Sources Cited Newspaper Articles Archival Sources Visual sources Chapter 6: The Cry of Silk: Erotomania and Fetishism in Au Bonheur des Dames Works Cited Chapter 7: “Behind the Scenes of a Retail Shop”: Sensory Experiences of Living-In, c. 1880s–1920s Living Spaces and Material Culture Work, Rest, and Play Sociability or Seclusion Public Health and Consumer Anxieties Works Cited Chapter 8: Synergy and Dissonance of the Senses: Negotiating Fashion Through Second-Hand Dealing, Jumble Sales and Street Market Trading in 1930s East End London The Consumer and Class Vacationing Locality and Locale Multisensory Persuasion Negotiating Fashion: Visual Appearance and Haptic Experience Disruptive Retailing: Cross-sensory Communication Conclusion Works Cited Oral Histories Periodicals Census Records Secondary Sources Chapter 9: “A Seductive Weapon ... a Necessary Luxury”: Shopping for ‘Designer Perfume’ During the Interwar Period Designer Perfumes and Their Packaging The Sensory Experience The Boutiques The Perfumeries A Seductive Weapon, a Necessary Luxury Works Cited Chapter 10: Be My Baby: Sensory Difference and Youth Identity in British Fashion Retail, 1945–1970 The Importance of Sensory Difference to the Teenage Consumer Fashion Boutiques and the Boundaries of Sensory Pleasure Beyond the Boutique: Disseminating Youth Identity Through Sensory References Conclusion Works Cited Index