consumerism

The Trump superstore!

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Yes, such a thing exists. It is located in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Here is Jenny Powers at Business Insider: When I was in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, I spotted a billboard advertising a Donald Trump superstore. My...

Historian Lizabeth Cohen on why Americans love to shop

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Here is the Harvard historian‘s recent interview with NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly: KELLY: We’re glad to have you with us. I want to go back and try to figure out how this started that Americans became such champion consumers. And...

Is Wawa about to plant a flag in Sheetz country?

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Unless you live in Pennsylvania and the surrounding area you probably have no idea what the title of this post means. Get up to speed here: It looks like Wawa is starting to make some inroads into Sheetz country. Here...

The history of back-to-school shopping

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Here’s a relevant piece. Erin Blakemore of JSTOR Daily offers a brief history of back-to-school shopping. A taste: Saddle shoes and sweaters, milk bars and ballerina flats. In the mid-twentieth century, you could find all four at college shops: pop-up...

Preachers and sneakers

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Someone needs to start a new show called “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous Megachurch Pastors.” Too bad Robin Leach isn’t still alive. Over at The Washington Post, Sarah Pulliam Bailey has a piece on Ben Kirby and his Instagram...

From *Nebraska* to Jeep ads

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Tony Norman is right about the Springsteen Super Bowl ad. Watch it again: Here is his Pittsburgh Post-Gazette column on the ad: This is not Bruce Springsteen’s best work. Those of us of a certain age were immediately compelled to...

American families are boycotting Publix

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Boycotts are as old as the republic. As historian T.H. Breen taught us in his book The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence (and several other seminal articles on the 18th-century British consumer revolution), shopping, or the...

Episode 77: The Art of Living

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How shall we live? Where do we find the resources for living well? In this episode, historian Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn examines the reappearance of ancient philosophical thought in contemporary American culture. She argues that we need to take back philosophy as...

Why Do People Need More Toilet Paper?

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Will Oremus’s piece at Marker makes perfect sense. A taste: There’s another, entirely logical explanation for why stores have run out of toilet paper — one that has gone oddly overlooked in the vast majority of media coverage. It has...

Is Capitalism Good for Us?

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Here is a very interesting debate between Mary Hirschfeld and Eugene McCarraher at Villanova University. Hirscheld is the author of Aquinas and the Market: Toward a Humane Economy.  McCarraher is the author of The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the...

What Would George Washington Think About President’s Day Sales?

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According to historian David Head at USA Today, Washington would have loved President’s Day sales! Presidents Day, like most American holidays, is a celebration of shopping. But unlike holidays such as Christmas or Thanksgiving, where the commercial spirit is a corruption...

“Why you slummin’ in the city in your fancy heels”

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(Note:  The quote in the title of this post comes from “The Schuyler Sisters,” a song in the musical Hamilton). Check out Kimberly S. Alexander‘s post on shoes and patriotism: For many, in the decade leading up to the American Revolution, one’s...