Spree: A Cultural History of Shopping - Softcover

Klaffke, Pamela

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1551521431 ISBN 13: 9781551521435

Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2003

Synopsis

Ten years ago, Faith Popcorn declared "the end of shopping" in her bestselling book The Popcorn Report. But from the looks of things, shopping is as pervasive as ever; we are a culture obsessed and beguiled by the desire for consumer goods.

Journalist and shopping addict Pamela Klaffke documents the history of shopping, from a time when cattle were currency to the current age of contemporary shopping phenoms like QVC and eBay.

Topics covered include:

The history of shopping malls and department stores
The evolution of retail design
Inventions that made shopping easier: the cash -register (1884), the shopping cart (1936), the bar code (1952)
Information on the largest fashion retail chain (The Gap, 3,676 stores), the largest retail firm (Wal-Mart, with annual revenues of $191 billion), and the world’s largest mall (West Edmonton Mall, at 121 acres)
Shopping meccas and customs from around the world
The dark side of shopping: kleptomania, shopping addictions, anticonsumerism
The myths of shopping: Men Who Hate Shopping and Women Who Love Shoes

Full of fun and informative sidebars and photos, Klaffke’s book demonstrates that how we shop explains a lot about who we are.

Pamela Klaffke is a writer, editor, and media consultant. She is currently the literary editor of the Calgary Herald and her semiweekly column about popular culture trends can often be read in various newspapers across Canada. Spree: A Cultural History of Shopping is her first book.

About this title

About the Author:

Pam is a writer, editor, and media consultant. She is currently the literary editor of the Calgary Herald and her semi-weekly column about popular culture trends can often be read in various newspapers across Canada.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Author's Note:

Love it or loathe it, shopping is an important part of our everyday lives. This is nothing new. For centuries, humans have engaged in some form of shopping, whether it be the early days of trade and barter or this season’s search for the perfect dress at the local mall.

Originally, we shopped because we had to, but by the late 1800s, shopping Ð particularly at big city department stores Ð had become a gathering place for women, a social salon of sorts.

In the 1900s, the popularity of shopping as a leisure activity grew, and by the time mall culture emerged mid-century, shopping was already eating up a significant amount of our spare time. The relatively mundane and generally miserable tasks of shopping for food or socks or household appliances aside, a new kind of shopping had appeared and we found ourselves shopping because we wanted to.

Fifty years later, it’s more difficult than ever to accurately characterize our complex relationship with shopping.

For some, shopping is art; for others, it’s a sport. It can be a vice and it can be a cause. Some love it. Some hate it. Rarely is someone indifferent.

Over the course of thirteen months, I spent much of my time delving into the checkered past of the popular pastime, unearthing all kinds of surprises along the way. I discovered true tales of Victorian shoplifters and department store wars, rummaged around (figuratively, anyhow) for shopping skeletons in Imelda Marcos’ expansive closets, and even happened upon infomercial parody pornography.

I explored the origins of home shopping parties, the image of the shopper in cinema, and the lure of discount shopping, cobbling together the nuts-and-bolts history of shopping, as well as odd and unusual trivia (who knew psychics have been used to nab shoplifter, or how superior shopping skills are revered in Southeast Asia?). I will never think of shopping in the same way ever again.

Spree itself is an oddity, much like some of the stranger facts in this book. It was intended as a comprehensive history lesson, but one that was designed to appeal to shopaholics, pop culture aficionados, and armchair historians alike Ð anyone who’s curious as to how shopping grew from something we needed to do, to something we wanted to do, to the sport it resembles today.

Enjoy.

Pamela Klaffke

About this edition

• Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1551521431
• ISBN 13: 9781551521435
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256