This article reconstructs consumers' experiences during the Great Depression, using observations of their behavior as preserved in archival reports. Where possible, archival photographs were collected to provide supportive visual documentation of particular aspects of consumption. The four themes resulting from the analysis of these data are (1) the effect of a lack of employment opportunities and protection on depression-era consumption, (2) deterioration of living accommodations and goods needed to sustain life and health, (3) return to self-sufficient modes of production, and (4) collective/communal action. Broader implications for marketers are discussed. We still pray to be given each day our daily bread. Yet there is too much bread, too much wheat and corn, meat and oil and almost every other commodity required by man for his subsistence and material happiness. We are not able to purchase the abundance that modern methods of agriculture, mining and manufacture make available in such bountiful quantities. Why is mankind being asked to go hungry and cold and poverty stricken in the midst of plenty?
One of the most controversial public policy debates of the present decade involves entitlement programs for the poor. Many of these programs originated during the widespread poverty of the Great Depression. The authors reconstruct what consumers experienced during the Great Depression through a primary analysis of observations of consumer behavior, which are preserved in archival reports, and a secondary analysis of letters expressing the consumers’ plight that the consumers themselves authored and sent to various government officials. The four themes resulting from the analyses of these data are (1) consumption conditions, (2) labor as an expendable resource, (3) class and ethnic conflict, and (4) return to self-sufficient modes of production. The broader implications of these historic events for consumer researchers interested in current poverty issues and public policy are provided in the conclusion.
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