Shopping as an Entertainment Experience
Introduction
Since the middle of the nineteenth century, the act of shopping has
increasingly involved much more than the simple purchase of goods and services.
From its modem manifestation in the arcades and the department store to the
overwhelming atmosphere of the mall, the notion of shopping, in its
contemporary sense, has come to be an activity of leisure and entertainment that
is as important and participated in as going to a movie, having dinner out, or
simply strolling in a park (Schor 1: 107). According to a special issue of
Consumer Reports, more than a third of those surveyed said that they considered
shopping their hobby (Twitchell 245). Shopping is now ranked as a primary
leisure activity. This means that people go to the mall just as often, if not more
so, than doing anything else. “Going out” is often synonymous with going
shopping or going to the mall. Americans, according to The Economist, spend
more time in malls than virtually anywhere else after eating, sleeping, working,
and watching television (Bryson 217, 218).
Shopping, in its modem sense, is intimately linked to the rise of leisure.
It was after the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance that leisure and
entertainment first became codified. The ability to think above the fundamentals
of life and to move beyond mere subsistence came with more stability and a better
economy.
The creation of shopping as an entertainment experience is a
postmodernist phenomenon. It is predicated on the rise of leisure, which in turn,
has merged with the unleashing of consumption from its traditional parameters
(Sheilds 6). Historically, consumption—or shopping—was heavily regulated as
an activity, and the sites and times where consumers engaged in the process of
shopping were quite defined (Sheilds 6). For example, until quite recently, one
could not shop in Toronto on a Sunday.
It is virtually impossible to conceive of the Western world without some
reference to shopping. Thomas Hine feels that this is such a pervasive syndrome
that he has coined the term “buyosphere” to define this process. What Hine
means by the “buyosphere” is that the popularity of shopping and all of its
manifestations, encompassing “physical and virtual places” also extends to a
unique “state of mind.” Hine suggests that this goes beyond stores and must
include everything from websites to fashion magazines (Hine xv).
Prior to the 1840s, most people simply bargained for and bought what
they needed-if one could not personally produce the object. But, h contrast to
simply buying, shopping requires time, thus it may be considered a leisure
activity because of its supposedly unhurried nature. Shopping means looking,