Editing Shopping (section)

===Shopping for pleasure===
The modern phenomenon of shopping for pleasure is closely linked to the emergence of a middle class in the 17th and 18th-century Europe. As standards of living improved in the 17th century, consumers from a broad range of social backgrounds began to purchase goods that were in excess of basic necessities. An emergent middle class or [[bourgeoisie]] stimulated demand for luxury goods and began to purchase a wider range of luxury goods and imported goods, including: Indian [[cotton]] and calico; silk, [[tea]] and porcelain from China, spices from India and South-East Asia and tobacco, sugar, rum and coffee from the New World.<ref>Braudel, F. and Reynold, S., ''The Wheels of Commerce: Civilization and Capitalism, 15th to 18th Century,'' Berkeley, CA, University of California Press, 1992</ref> The act of shopping came to be seen as a pleasurable pastime or form of entertainment.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

By the 17th-century, produce markets gradually gave way to shops and shopping centres; which changed the consumer's shopping experience.<ref>Cox, N.C. and Dannehl, K., ''Perceptions of Retailing in Early Modern England,'' Aldershot, Hampshire, Ashgate, 2007, p,. 129</ref> The New Exchange, opened in 1609 by [[Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury|Robert Cecil]] in the [[Strand, London|Strand]] was one such example of a planned shopping centre. Shops started to become important as places for Londoners to meet and socialise and became popular destinations alongside the theatre. [[English Restoration|Restoration]] London also saw the growth of luxury buildings as advertisements for social position with speculative architects like [[Nicholas Barbon]] and [[Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex|Lionel Cranfield]].
[[File:The Fable of the Bees (1705).jpg|thumb|right|[[Bernard Mandeville]]'s work ''[[The Fable of the Bees]]'', which justified conspicuous consumption.]]
Much pamphleteering of the time was devoted to justifying conspicuous consumption and private vice for luxury goods for the greater public good. This then scandalous line of thought caused great controversy with the publication of [[Bernard Mandeville]]'s influential work ''[[Fable of the Bees]]'' in 1714, in which he argued that a country's prosperity ultimately lay in the self-interest of the consumer.<ref>Peck, Linda, "Consuming Splendor: Society and Culture in Seventeenth-Century England", Cambridge Press, 2005; Gunor, B.,  "A Research Regarding the Importance of Bernard Mandeville's Article: The Fable of Bees," ''Journal of Art and Language'', Vol. 5, pp 521–536, 10.7816/idil-05-22-01</ref>

These trends gathered momentum in the 18th century, as rising prosperity and social mobility increased the number of people with disposable income for consumption. Important shifts included the marketing of goods for individuals as opposed to items for the household, and the new status of goods as [[status symbol]]s, related to changes in fashion and desired for aesthetic appeal, as opposed to just their utility. The [[pottery]] inventor and [[entrepreneur]], [[Josiah Wedgewood]], pioneered the use of marketing techniques to influence and manipulate the direction of the prevailing tastes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.quarc.de/fileadmin/downloads/Coming%20to%20live%20in%20a%20consumer%20society%20%28chapter%202%29.pdf|title=Coming to live in a consumer society|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130810222240/http://www.quarc.de/fileadmin/downloads/Coming%20to%20live%20in%20a%20consumer%20society%20%28chapter%202%29.pdf|archive-date=2013-08-10}}</ref> One of his preferred sales techniques was to stage expansive showcases of wares in this private residences or in a rented hall, to which he invited the upper classes.<ref>McKendrick, N., Brewer, J. and Plumb . J.H., ''The Birth of a Consumer Society: The Commercialization of Eighteenth Century England,'' London, 1982.</ref>

As the 18th-century progressed, a wide variety of goods and manufactures were steadily made available for the urban middle and upper classes. This growth in consumption led to the rise of 'shopping' - a proliferation of retail shops selling particular goods and the acceptance of shopping as a cultural activity in its own right. Specific streets and districts became devoted to retail, including the [[Strand, London|Strand]] and [[Piccadilly]] in London.<ref name="BLibrary">{{cite web|url=http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/georgians/material/materialculture.html|title=Material Culture: Getting and Spending|publisher=British Library}}</ref>
[[File:Royal Arcade, Sydney, 1892 from Photographs of Sydney and New South Wales, ca.1892-1900 New South Wales Government Printer.jpg|thumb|Royal Arcade, Sydney, 1892]]
The rise of window shopping as a recreational activity accompanied the use of glass windows in retail shop-fronts. By the late eighteenth century, grand shopping arcades began to emerge across Britain, Europe and in the Antipodes in what became known as the "arcade era."<ref>Lemoine, B., ''Les Passages Couverts'', Paris: Délégation à l'action artistique de la ville de Paris [AAVP], 1990. {{ISBN|9782905118219}}.</ref> Typically, these arcades had a roof constructed of glass to allow for natural light and to reduce the need for candles or electric lighting. Inside the arcade, individual stores were fitted with long glass exterior windows which allowed the emerging middle-classes to window shop and indulge in fantasies, even when they may not have been able to afford the high retail prices.<ref>Byrne-Paquet, L., ''The Urge to Splurge: A Social History of Shopping,''ECW Press, Toronto, Canada, pp. 90–93</ref>

Designed to attract the genteel middle class, retailers sold luxury goods at relatively high prices. However, prices were never a deterrent, as these new arcades came to be the place to shop and to be seen. Arcades offered shoppers the promise of an enclosed space away from the chaos of daily street life; a place shoppers could socialise and spend their leisure time. As thousands of glass covered arcades spread across Europe, they became grander and more ornately decorated. By the mid nineteenth century, promenading in these arcades became a popular pastime for the emerging middle classes.<ref>Woodward, R.B., [https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/11/travel/11culture.html "Making a Pilgrimage to Cathedrals of Commerce"], ''New York Times,'' 11 March 2007,</ref>

In Europe, the Palais-Royal, which opened in 1784, became one of the earliest examples of the new style of shopping arcade, frequented by both the aristocracy and the middle classes. It developed a reputation as being a site of sophisticated conversation, revolving around the salons, cafés, and bookshops, but also became a place frequented by off-duty soldiers and was a favourite haunt of prostitutes, many of whom rented apartments in the building.<ref>Mitchell, I., ''Tradition and Innovation in English Retailing, 1700 to 1850,'' Routledge, Oxon, p. 140</ref>  In London, one of the first to use [[display window]]s in shops was retailer, [[Francis Place]], who experimented with this new retailing method at his tailoring establishment in [[Charing Cross]], where he fitted the shop-front with large plate glass windows. Although this was condemned by many, he defended his practice in his memoirs, claiming that he:
:sold from the window more goods...than paid journeymen's wages and the expenses of housekeeping.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2TEEaCrPiWsC&q=Robertson%27s+Book+of+Firsts:+Who+Did+What+For+the+First+Time|title=Robertson's Book of Firsts: Who Did What for the First Time|author=Patrick Robertson
|year=2011|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|access-date=2013-02-07|isbn=9781608197385}}</ref>

Retailers designed attractive shop fronts to entice patronage, using bright lights, advertisements and attractively arranged goods. The goods on offer were in a constant state of change, due to the frenetic change in [[fashion]]s. A foreign visitor commented that [[London]] was "a world of gold and silver plate, then pearls and gems shedding their dazzling lustre, home manufactures of the most exquisite taste, an ocean of rings, watches, chains, bracelets, perfumes, ready-dresses, ribbons, lace, bonnets, and fruits from all the zones of the habitable world".<ref name="BLibrary" />
[[File:Au Bon Marché (vue générale - gravure).jpg|thumb|240px|left|{{lang|fr|[[Le Bon Marché]]|italic=no}}, founded in Paris, offered a wide variety of goods in "departments" inside one building, from 1851.]]