Shopping and the Senses: Retail, Browsing and Consumption in 18th‐Century England

Abstract

Interest in the senses has blossomed over the last decade, leading to numerous explorations of touch, smell, sound, taste and sight throughout history. Increasingly, historians are considering how this sensory methodology can enrich other fields of historical study. This article explores the potential for sensory history to open new avenues of thought in the field of urban consumption history. Focusing on the period of the so called 'consumer revolution', this article promotes a reassessment of shopping in 18th-century English towns. This intersection of consumption history and sensory history encourages us to rethink numerous aspects of the process of shopping in the 18th century, including browsing, gender, urban space and agency. This article begins by assessing the current state of scholarship in these two branches of historical enquiry, before considering how their juncture impacts research moving forward.An edition of the 'Weekly Entertainer', published in 1819, contained a story in which the narrator described the various motivations of women who went shopping in fashionable, urban shopping venues. He associated these motivations to shop with three particular impulses: necessity, idleness and to kill time. He went on to describe the experience of witnessing women going about the task of shopping:He who has the misfortune to accompany them in their shopping circle through the west end of town, must make up his mind to long waiting, and to seeing a thousand articles displayed, handled, looked at, commented upon, and returned to their drawers and shelves. 1 There are three important points to be taken from this account of shopping, which have informed and guided recent developments in both consumption and sensory history. 2 The first point is that shopping was a process rather than an act. It was a cultural phenomenon in which people participated, both out of desire and necessity. 3 Secondly, that the study of the history of retail and consumption should consider not only the fashionable and the novel but also the mundane needs of day-to-day existence. 4 Lastly, that sensory engagement with products through a process of browsing was integral to these various purposes. 5 This article brings together advances in two active and ongoing areas of research, exploring the intersection between consumption history and sensory history in the context of 18th-century England. Mark Smith has described the 18th century as a time when 'the senses informed the emergence of social classes, race and gender conventions, industrialisation, urbanisation, colonialism, imperialism [and] nationalism'. 6 Meanwhile, consumption historians have contentiously termed the period a 'consumer revolution'. 7 Importantly, this article draws upon the juncture between these two inf luential and significant areas of study, arguing that the inter-sensory skillset acquired through handling, smelling and viewing goods must necessitate a reassessment of the browsing process. This article will firstly tackle the gradually maturing work of sensory ...