Spree: A Cultural History of Shopping

by Pamela Klaffke

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 The history of shopping malls and department stores
The evolution of retail design
Inventions that made shopping 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 kleptomania, shopping addictions, anticonsumerism
The myths of 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. A Cultural History of Shopping is her first book.

Genres: Nonfiction, Pop Culture, History

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2003

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting!

[Victory Wong · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love to read the "history of" books so I was pleased to find this book but it didn't quite live up to expectations. Still it was cool to read about how shopping bags came about (before you were limited to what you could carry or throw on the back of your animal), shopping malls (what american's think of as malls-- indoor is not the original version) as well shoplifters, kleptomaniacs (not the same thing), haute couture, what people were shopping for, how selling toys became a big thing... And many more. Definatly interesting but the very clear deliniation of chapters was a little annoying. I guess I've read a number of very classy well written "history of" or "all abouts" and so I was expected it to be a little more polished is terms of the formatting. I guess it should be thought of in the same tone of "idiots guide to" in terms of the way it's set up, tone etc, which is fine but by no means high quality reading.

But these are small complaints really. I thought it was interesting and it distracted me from other books I have on my "currently reading" list and enjoyed it a great deal. I might even keep it, which I guess says a great deal (very tiny keep shelf space available). An interesting read, light but informative.

[DerinSezercan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about the history of shopping. The history of shopping malls, civilisations relations with shopping. The best part of the book is that the author is also a shopaholic. My best part was the auctions through ages. They haven't changed much and they sell things to get more money than usual but people go to auctions even if they know that they are paying more money than usual or they don't need to buy an expensive thing like that. This part talked about shopping and psychology so I loved it more than the others. I also loved the parts that were at the edges of the book and gave little informations about people or history.

[Lucy Morrison · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had some really informative and entertaining information, but it wasn't presented very well.

[Mills College Library]

306.3 K631 2003