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Making people buy and eat differently: lessons from the modernisation of small independent grocery stores in the early twentieth century

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  • Franck Cochoy

    (Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès, Toulouse, France)

Abstract

Food studies teach us much about foods and eaters, but despite theirimpressive coverage and richness, they pay little attention to what occurs betweenthe two: they tend to neglect the many market professionals and“market-things”thatact as a bridge between food products and consumers. This paper proposes to fill thegap by examining how the transformation of the grocery business and related tech-niques contributed to reshaping the food industry’s strategies, the content of foods andthe identity of eaters. This investigation was conducted by studying the trade magazineProgressive Grocerover the period 1922–1959. It shows how the journal promoted anew art of“making people buy and eat”. Grocers were invited to modify their practices,hence the eaters’experience, by implementing two different strategies: a movement of“betterment”of their previous service know-how and then a more radical movement of“replacement”of this know-how by the new“self-service”arrangement. By followingthese two movements, we understand how grocery professionals and techniques madeus buy and eat, but made us do so differently, to the extent that the grocery business andrelated devices changed foods as well as consumers’identities.

Suggested Citation

  • Franck Cochoy, 2018. "Making people buy and eat differently: lessons from the modernisation of small independent grocery stores in the early twentieth century," Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies, INRA Department of Economics, vol. 99(1), pages 15-35.
    • Handle: RePEc:rae:jouraf:v:99:y:2018:i:1:p:15-35
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lucien Karpik, 2010. "Valuing the Unique: The Economics of Singularities," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9215.
    2. Spellman, Susan V., 2016. "Cornering the Market: Independent Grocers and Innovation in American Small Business," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199384273.
    3. Cochoy, Franck & Dubuisson-Quellier, Sophie, 2013. "The sociology of market work," economic sociology. perspectives and conversations, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, vol. 15(1), pages 4-11.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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