Department stores today have sections that sell the following: clothing, furniture, home appliances, toys, cosmetics, gardening, toiletries, sporting goods, do it yourself, paint, and hardware and additionally select other lines of products such as food, books, jewelry, electronics, stationery, photographic equipment, baby products, and products for pets. Customers check out near the front of the store or, alternatively, at sales counters within each department. Some are part of a retail chain of many stores, while others may be independent retailers. In the 1970s, they came under heavy pressure from discounters. Since 2010, they have come under even heavier pressure from online stores such as Amazon. 

The origins of the department store lay in the growth of the conspicuous consumer society at the turn of the 19th century. As the Industrial Revolution accelerated economy expansion, the affluent middle-class grew in size and wealth. This urbanized social group, sharing a culture of consumption and changing fashion, was the catalyst for the retail revolution. As rising prosperity and social mobility increased the number of people, especially women (who found they could shop unaccompanied at department stores without damaging their reputation), with disposable income in the late Georgian period, window shopping was transformed into a leisure activity and entrepreneurs, like the potter Josiah Wedgwood, pioneered the use of marketing techniques to influence the prevailing tastes and preferences of society. QUESTIONS:

Q1:
1. Who was the potter in the story?
2. What was the potter's name?
3. What was the potter called?
Q2:
1. What did Josiah Wedgwood pioneer?
2. What did the potter pioneer?
3. What techniques did Josiah Wedgwood pioneer?
Q3:
1. Why did Josiah Wedgwood pioneer marketing techniques?
2. Why did Josiah Wedgwood pioneer certain techniques?
3. Why did Josiah Wedgwood make use of certain marketing techniques?
Q4:
1. What did Josiah Wedgwood want to influence with his techniques?
2. Josiah Wedgwood wanted to influence what?
3. With his marketing techniques, what did Josiah Wedgwood hope to influence?
Q5:
1. What kind of a business has several different sections?
2. What type of a store has many sections?
3. What kind of a store has many sections for customers to shop in?
Q6:
1. Where do customers pay in department stores?
2. In department stores, where do customers pay?
3. Where do people usually pay in department stores?
Q7:
1. Where else can one pay at a department store?
2. Other than the front of the store, where else can a customer go to pay?
3. Customers can pay where else in a department store?
Q8:
1. Do department stores get competition from discounters?
2. Do department stores face competition from stores that sell discounted outfits?
3. 
Q9:
1. When did department stores start getting competition from discounters?
2. When did stores start selling discounted outfits?
3. 
Q10:
1. Has the situation improved for department stores?
2. Competition wise, has the condition improved for department stores?
3. Do department stores face no competition anymore?
Q11:
1. Who is competing department stores nowadays?
2. Department stores face competition from who now?
3. Who is department stores' modern competition?
Q12:
1. What kind of a business is Amazon?
2. Amazon is what kind of a store?
3. Amazon is what type of an establishment?
Q13:
1. When were department stores first established?
2. When were department stores first started?
3. In what century were department stores started?
Q14:
1. What revolution spurred the growth of department stores?
2. The growth of department stores was boosted by what revolution?
3. Which revolution boosted department stores?
Q15:
1. Which social group flourished beacuse of the Industrial Revolution?
2. The Industrial Revolution aided which social group?
3. 
Q16:
1. Did the middle-class cause any further changes?
2. After the Industrial Revolution, did the middle-class cause more changes?
3. Did the middle-class further any other revolutions?
Q17:
1. Which sex primarily caused the retail revolution?
2. Which sex influenced the retail revolution more?
3. It was men or women who influenced the retail revolution more?
Q18:
1. What could women do without harming their reputation?
2. Because of department stores, what could women do without tarnishing thier reputation?
3. Women could do what in department stores without harming their standing in society?
