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Point of Purchase: How Shopping Changed American Culture By Sharon Zukin ( Routledge )
Release Date: 2005-02-25
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Product Description
Why does shopping have such a powerful influence on our lives? As shoppers will attest, it provides a terrific balm for the soul. But shopping offers us an even greater bargain than that: as the public face of consumer society, it keeps the modern economy afloat, linking the family looking for jeans at Wal-Mart in California to factories in China and Bangladesh. As we push our wire carts around the supermarket or stroll through the mall, shopping provides a normal means of taking part in social life.
Accessible, smart, and expansive, Point of Purchase shows the incredible impact shopping has had on American life, stretching from the mid-19th century to today's shopping trends from the internet to Zagat guides. Unlike many social critics, Zukin does not condemn Americans for being so consumer-minded. Rather, she explores why shopping has become so central to our lives: the rise of consumer culture, the never-ending quest for better value, and shopping's ability to help us improve our social statusand attain new social identities.
Point of Purchase presents shopping as the pursuit of the American dream, where low prices define our concept of democracy, brand names represent our search for a better life, and designer boutiques embody the promise of an ever-improving self.
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Shopping culture & social changes in America ( jeslyn1996 )
Such an aspiring read.I can't put the book down once I opened the chapter on critics and consumer reviews and quickly sprawled my way through the preceding and following chapters.Be it scholarly review,news clip montage,personal story,or uncunning anecdotes,the book is intellectual,breezy,accessible...and so much more on the subject.
One thing I have to point out.Despite of my faith in the quality and entertainment value of the writing style at my first few attempts I couldn't pass through the beginning few pages.Now it seems all clear that the story is more or less weighed down by much relevant yet also dated information by diving in history of shopping culture in America.For the sake of gripping my short span attention I do wish the author would reorganize the chapters and stuff this bit of information at a less elevated position of the book.
A book of great value without imposing or forcing the author's viewpoint at any level.A worthy Saturday night spent staying in with a chic & intimate cultural scroll spreading on my laps.
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Gotta Go, There's a Sale at the Mall ( takingadayoff )
In Point of Purchase, author Sharon Zukin explores why we shop and how it affects us, individually and as a society. She looks at the history of shopping, from a brief look at ancient Roman olive oil shops in Pompeii to a more elaborate history of department stores in New York. All that is interesting, but I found the sections on current shopping the most intriguing.
Zukin explores superstores and warehouse stores, then moves on to internet shopping. She discusses Amazon.com and eBay, even examining the merits of allowing customers to review the products for sale. It seems all reviews are good for sales, even negative reviews, since anything that keeps you on the site yields more sales.
One of the most gripping sections of Point of Purchase is the interview with a young Hispanic New Yorker who describes his venture into Tiffany's to buy his girlfriend an expensive gift. The interactions between him and the security guards, the sales clerks, the other customers, as well as the way he tells his story and the way the interviewer retells it are material for an entire article or book itself.
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Tracing the history of American shopping ( mwbookrevw )
New in paperwork is an excellent social history, Sharon Zukin's Point Of Purchase: How Shopping Changed American Culture. Zukon is Broeklundian Professor of sociology at Brooklyn college and City University of New York: her background in cities and culture lends well to an analysis of shopping as the American dream ideal, tracing the history of American shopping from mid-19th century to modern shopping trends. A fascinating social history evolves.
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