The Urge to Splurge: A Social History of Shopping

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

After a slow start during which Paquet tries too hard to get to the
historical roots of shopping, this review of how we got to the
shop-’til-you-drop era takes off for a fast-paced romp from farmers’
markets to eBay.

Paquet explains how supermarkets evolved, how arcades became malls, and
how catalogue shopping grew and faded. Along the way she includes
massive amounts of shopping-related facts and anecdotal information. For
example, when shopping carts were introduced customers had to be taught
how to use them. And it took a while for supermarkets and malls to
realize the value of providing parking lots. The huge, varied panorama
of shopping landmarks is covered: the introduction of fixed prices,
self-serve, scanners, vending machines, door-to-door sales, home
parties, the TV shopping channel, department stores, premiums, credit,
cash-and-carry, wedding registries, and Sunday shopping. The work
explores shopping as entertainment, tourism and shopping, shopping on
the Internet, the development of Christmas as a shopping festival, and
the practice of “self-gifting.”

The pace is great and the author’s style refreshingly light and
imaginative. The result is both a fun read and a valuable work of social
history.