ABSTRACT
It is impossible to isolate the history of retailing from the study of other aspects of economic, social and cultural change and the historiography reflects which connections historians have chosen to make from time to time. When retailing first became a topic of serious study, much attention was paid to the relationship between industrialization and the development of retailing facilities, particularly with regard to the food supply of large towns.2 A similar interest in the implications of the development of large towns is reflected in studies by historical geographers into the location of retailing outlets.3 Other historians have focused on particular developments in retailing like the department store,4 multiple outlets,s the co-operative movement,6 and mail order.? In the last few years Benson and Shaw have opened up a new direction in the history of retailing, stressing the importance of comparative studies. 8
All these topics, except possibly the last, were seen to be relevant to an industrialized and urbanized people, and as a result virtually all studies were concerned primarily if not exclusively with the nineteenth century or even the
twentieth. Furthermore, apart from a few notable exceptions,9 most attention has been devoted to economic and social change; until recently much less has been directed towards investigating the relationship between retailing and cultural change. The introduction of such concepts as 'Consumer revolution' and 'consumerism' initiated a shift towards the cultural implications of retailing and it is to the development of ideas of consumer revolution that we now tum.
