Carried Away

In the Family Way: Bringing a Mother-Daughter (Matrilineal) Perspective to Retail Innovation and Consumer Culture

“…These transitions have been represented in a variety of ways such as through an understanding of technology and technological change (Bowlby 2000;Cochoy 2008;Schwarzkopf 2008), a theory of shifting social and cultural values (Agnew 2003;Keat et al 1994), a model of evolving identities (Kehily and Nayak 2008;Slater 1999), and through debates about the politics of consumption which highlight gender interactions, gendered identities and the actions and attitudes of women (Blomley 2006;Johnson 2008;Domosh 1996;Gregson and Crewe 2000).…”

“…This approach builds on critical insights into consumer culture which are framed by episodic and relatively linear approaches (Bowlby 2000;Crewe 2003;Chung et al 2001). These tend to narrate a progression from the past to present, privilege cohort effects (life and times or Zeitgeists), and limit the ability to view complex and dialectical relations (Davies 2011;Bertaux and Thompson 2007;Witkowski and Jones 2006).…”

“…Attention to shoppers' experiences and reactions in war time and post-war (Alexander et al 2008;Bailey et al 2010;Bowlby 1984;Zweiniger-Bargielowska 2000) redress the imbalance. The growing consensus is that self-service and the supermarket are important developmental pivots which irreversibly changed the relationship between grocer and shopper foodstuffs and the local (Bowlby 2000;Friedberg 2007;Duruz 2002), and repositioned grocery shopping away from being an unreflective and functional practice to one imbued with meaning, intentionality and identity (du Positive shopper reactions to self-service and the supermarket, such as novelty and autonomy, go some way to support a retailer centred view that self-service and the supermarket brought significant advantages and benefits for shoppers. More recently research on women's experiences from this period add a critical dimension to this view to show how this transition was also often characterised by a sense of confusion, worry, and unease about surveillance and alienation in the new sanitized, standardised and efficient episteme of the supermarket (duGay 2004;Bowlby 2000;Phillips et al 2005;Friedberg 2007;Issacs et al 2010).…”

Retail Innovation and Shopping Practices: Consumers' Reactions to Self-Service Retailing

“…A number of cultural histories of consumption have significantly increased our broad understanding of the impacts of the supermarket (see for instance Humphery, 1998;Bowlby, 2000;de Grazia, 2005). This paper looks in detail at a specific aspect of the reaction of consumers to the changing shopping environments of post-war Britain by analysing their reported attitudes and behaviours toward the purchase of fresh meat and greengrocery from self-service grocery stores and supermarkets.…”

Consumer Behaviour and the Life Course: Shopper Reactions to Self-Service Grocery Shops and Supermarkets in England c. 1947–75

“…Bowlby (2000) drawing on contemporary market research from the 1960s and 1970s, examines the burgeoning relationships between consumers and brands associated with the rise of self-service food retailing. Alexander et al (2009), focuses on the co-creation of self-service retailing and explores how consumers reacted to the proposition that they engage in altered patterns of value creation activities as part of the switch from counter service to self-service retail environments.…”