Back to the Shops The High Street in History and the Future

What will become of the shops? More than ever, the high street appears to be under mortal threat, its shops boarded up as the sad 'bricks and mortar' survivals of a pre-online retail world. But behind the bleak appearance, there is more to see.

Back to the Shops offers a set of short and surprising chapters, each one a window into a different shop type or mode of selling. Old shopping streets are seen from new angles; fast fashion shows up in eighteenth-century edits. Here are pedlars and pop-ups, mail order catalogues and mobile greengrocers' shops. Here too are food markets open till late on a Saturday night, and tiny subscription libraries tucked away at the back of the sweet shop.

Over time, shops have occupied radically different places in cultural arguments and in our everyday lives. They are essential sources of daily provisions, but they are also the visible evidence of consuming excess. They are local community hubs and they are dreamlands of distraction.

Shops are inherently spaces of imagination as well as of practicality. They belong with their own surrounding streets and town; they bring back the times and places of our lives. They linger in stories of all kinds, whether far-fetched or round the corner. From butcher to baker and from markets to motor vans—after reading this book, you will want to go back to the shops.

Rachel Bowlby, Professor of Comparative Literature, University College London

Rachel Bowlby teaches courses on the history and theory of consumer culture at University College London, where she is Professor of Comparative Literature. Prior to Back to the Shops, Rachel Bowlby has written a number of other books about shopping history, including Just Looking, about early
department stores, Shopping with Freud, and Carried Away, on the history of supermarkets and self-service.

Preface
Introduction: Bricks and mortar
Baker
Bazaar
Butcher
Chain stores
Chemist
Convenience
Counters
Credit and credibility
Customer loyalty
Fixed price
Florist
Furniture shop
Haberdashery
Household goods
Jeweller
Local shops
Mail order
Motor bus and motor van
Museum
Natural resources
Pedlar
Pop-up
Portable shop
Saturday nights and Sundays
Scenes of shopping
Self-service and supermarkets
Shopkeepers and assistants
Shopping centre
Shop windows
Sweet shop
Umbrella shop
Way out
Acknowledgements