cultural and retailing developments that have led to changes in how people in the UK shop. The first of which was the formation of high streets that paved the way for the introduction and expansion of department stores in the late 19th century (Edwards, 2009). The department stores were “fantasy palaces” that, in addition to the visual pleasures of these purpose-built “seductive environments”, included facilities such as
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31 restaurants and tearooms, banks, ice rinks and picture galleries (Nava, 1997).
Shopping in fashionable city centres had been a pleasurable social activity for the upper classes prior to this period (Nava, 1997) and was central to Walter Benjamin’s notions of the flâneur as both participant and observer in Parisian shopping arcades (Miller, 1997). However, department stores expanded the practice of shopping for pleasure to include the middle classes. Thus they were able to “democratize luxury” by enabling the spread of a recreational attitude to purchasing (Nava, 1997;
Sassatelli, 2007). Notably, a department store was one of the public spaces (along with other sites such as galleries, libraries and restaurants) that it was considered respectable (or at least acceptable) for unaccompanied women to visit (Nava, 1997). This led to delineation of the public space and the private (the domestic sphere to which women traditionally were confined) and going shopping became a “new
feminine form of sociability” (Sassatelli, 2007). The development of consumer society has been attributed to the social and political transformations of that time, which were consequences of economic expansion and the rise of industrial capitalism (Edwards, 2009). Whether shopping expansion in the UK was the cause or effect of mass production is contested (Sassatelli, 2007) but it certainly coincided with the rise of shopping as a popular leisure activity (Edwards, 2009).
The next significant period of development in shopping practices occurred in the 1950s and 1960s, after a period of post-war austerity and following the demise of rationing. During this period there was a rapid growth in personal consumption as well as a spread of self-service shops and supermarkets (Hamlett, Alexander, Bailey, & Shaw, 2008). This so-called period of “mass consumption” saw an increase in the number of people (especially teenagers) with discretionary spending power (Jones et al., 2008). The sociocultural changes of this period led to lifestyle youth movements that were distinct for their generational differentiation (Jones et al., 2008). In other words, the ‘young’ wanted to be different from the ‘old’ of their parents’ generation in appearance, values and (consumer) attitudes. Indeed, it has been argued that many aspects of the third age (between the age of work and that of decline and
dependency) have their origins in the mass consumption established within post-war youth culture, with its emphasis on choice, autonomy, self-expression and pleasure (Gilleard & Higgs, 2005). Consequently, it may be that those who grew up spending freely earlier in life are more likely to continue to spend freely in later life (Jones et
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32 al., 2008) and to continually engage with a consumer lifestyle. This observation is particularly relevant when considering that this thesis includes people aged between 65 and 95 who will not necessarily be from the same cohort or generation and therefore would not have been brought up with the same consumer attitudes and values. For example, interviewees who grew up during the 1960s are likely to have different values and attitudes than those whose formative years were during the inter-war period. Furthermore, those third-agers of the baby boom generation (born 1945-1965) may be in a better financial position than earlier generations. It has been argued that they have had record rates of home ownership, will be able to draw out more from the welfare state than they contributed, and many have benefitted from generous occupational and private pension schemes (Sodha, 2015).
Nonetheless, whichever generation people belong to they would have been influenced by the spread of self-service shops and supermarkets in the 1950s and 1960s. Previously, household shopping involved visiting several high street stores (greengrocers, butchers, newsagents) and being served by a shopkeeper from the other side of a counter. Supermarkets changed the way in which people shopped both by providing the convenience of one-stop shopping as well as the practice of self-service (Edwards, 2009). Out-of-town shopping centres were introduced from the 1970s onwards and the subsequent decline of the high street has meant that the ability to go shopping became increasingly reliant on the ability to travel (Jones et al., 2008). Of course, the move to more out of town shopping sites and purpose-built malls took place earlier in other countries that rely more heavily on car ownership (particularly the US) and in which population density is lower than in the UK. Although these temporal differences have implications when considering research from other countries, it is worth noting that the location of shops, access to (and within) shops and how people shop will have changed considerably over the life courses of those now aged 65 and over.
Nowadays in the UK, the shopping landscape consists of blurred boundaries between what is a site for shopping and what is not. Examples of this are shops in hospitals and airports as well as the prevalence of cafés in shops, which can encourage the social aspect of shopping. Now is a period of disposable wares in which fast fashion and products with intentionally short lifespans encourage frequent upgrading, as explored in a recent BBC documentary (Peretti, 2014). It is possible to
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33 shop at any time of the day or night either virtually via websites or physically at 24- hour supermarkets. Yet, only a generation ago it was common for shops to close half a day in the week and all day Sunday. It has been argued that when opening hours were shorter shopping gave a temporal pattern to everyday life but that now
shopping is more likely to be fitted in around other activities (e.g. on the way home from work), which affects its meaning (Shaw, 2010). The possible devaluation (at a personal level) of shopping as an activity can be demonstrated by people’s
underestimation of the time they spend shopping. Using UK time use data, it has been found that although we typically spend about the same amount of time shopping, time is systematically underestimated by about half (Gershuny, 2000).
All this goes to show that shopping as an activity has changed and perhaps is underpinned by the changed relationship between supply and demand. Where and how people shop may be, in part, influenced by (past and present) identification with consumer culture, as well as by an individual’s financial means and the shopping facilities available to them. Although it is not the aim of this thesis to empirically test changes in shopping habits over the life course, in order to consider the meaning and value of shopping in a health context it is important not to divorce shopping activity from its sociocultural framework.
2.4.2 Shopping behaviour. It is important to stress that the majority of