title: Carried Away: The Invention of Modern Shopping
author:  Rachel Bowlby 
description: "Consumption is at once ecstasy and waste," writes cultural critic Bowlby (Shopping with Freud) at the outset of this engrossing history of postindustrial consumerism. She charts the century-old history of the lure of shopping through advertisements, professional literature (e.g., the trade journal Shelf Appeal), the constant re-imagining of the display window and of packaging, and literature (including Sister Carrie, Virginia Woolf's Orlando, Balzac's Lost Illusions and The Stepford Wives). Arguing that the modern concept of shopping (as opposed to buying necessities) is a product of the desire of a rising middle class to indicate social status with luxury items, Bowlby locates shopping at the center of modern life, citing a number of diverse and ubiquitous venues. She traces the history of the supermarket in the 1930s, analyzes the rise of Piggly Wiggly in the American South, charts the use of "pretty girls" in advertising and discusses a 1930s social theory holding that women, as purchasers, were responsible for the quality of goods sold. In an easy and engaging style, Bowlby (who teaches English, French and American studies at the University of York, U.K.) moves fluidly from quoting Alexander Pope to explicating the different sales tactics of early French and U.S. self-service markets. This deft mixture of sociology, cultural criticism and literary scholarship is an important contribution to feminist and cultural studies. (On sale: Mar. 15)</P><P>Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.</P>
zlib_text: 
  
  
  ![cover.jpg](../Images/cover.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### [Also by Rachel Brimble](../Text/005.html#a8)
  
  
  The Pennington’s Series
  
  
  A Shop Girl in Bath
  
  
  A Shop Gets the Vote
  
  
  A Shop Girl’s Christmas
  
  
  A Shop Girl at Sea
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # A WIDOW’S VOW
  
  
  ##
  
  
  ## Rachel Brimble
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [ ](057.html)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  AN IMPRINT OF HEAD OF ZEUS
  
  
  
  
  
  [www.ariafiction.com](http://www.ariafiction.com)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  First published in the United Kingdom in 2020 by Aria, an imprint of Head of
  Zeus Ltd
  
  
  Copyright © Rachel Brimble, 2020
  
  
  The moral right of Rachel Brimble to be identified as the author of this work
  has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of
  1988.
  
  
  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
  a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
  mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior
  permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
  
  
  Thi