Selling Out or Buying in?: Debating Consumerism in Vancouver and Victoria, 1945-1985

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Michael Dawson

Selling Out or Buying in?

Debating Consumerism in Vancouver and Victoria, 1945-1985

Michael Dawson

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English

University of Toronto Press
19 May 2018

Economics & Business; Business & management; Business studies: general; Business & management: study & revision guides; Business innovation

Until the late 1950s residents of Vancouver and Victoria negotiated a shopping landscape that would be unrecognizable to today's consumers: most stores were closed for at least half the day on Wednesdays, prevented from opening during the evenings, and were banned from operating on Sundays. Since that decade, however, British Columbians, and Canadians generally, have made significant strides in gaining greater and easier access to consumer goods.

Selling Out or Buying In? is the first work to illuminate the process by which consumers' access to goods and services was liberalized and deregulated in Canada in the second half of the twentieth century. Michael Dawson's engagingly written and detailed exploration of the debates amongst everyday citizens and politicians regarding the pros and cons of expanding shopping opportunities, challenges the assumption of inevitability surrounding Canada's emergence as a consumer society. The expansion of store hours was a highly contested and contingent development that pitted employees, owners and regulators against one another. Dawson's nuanced analysis of archival and newspaper sources reveals the strains that modern capitalism imparted upon the accepted and established rhythms of daily life.

By: Michael Dawson
Imprint: University of Toronto Press
Country of Publication: Canada
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 13mm
Weight: 360g
ISBN: 9781487521868
ISBN 10: 1487521863
Pages: 277
Publication Date: 19 May 2018
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction Santa’s Lament Chapter 1 Conflict: Restricting & Liberalizing Store Hours Chapter 2 Community: Tourism, Leisure, and the Quest for Civic Prosperity Chapter 3 Leverage: The Rhetoric and Reality of Chain Store Dominance Chapter 4 Morality: Women, Families & Consumer Convenience Chapter 5 Regulation: Evasion and Enforcement Chapter 6 Ideology: The Cold War and the Public Sphere Chapter 7 Religion: Sunday Shopping’s Multiple Battlegrounds Conclusion Bibliography

Michael Dawson is Professor of History and Associate Vice-President (Research) at St. Thomas University.

Reviews for Selling Out or Buying in?: Debating Consumerism in Vancouver and Victoria, 1945-1985

"""Dawson is optimistic about our own agency to break out of the prison house of consumerism..."" -- Dr. Matthew J. Bellamy * BC Studies, online * ""This well-researched engaging monograph uncovers the complex debates over store-hour restrictions that shaped the retail landscape of Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia, in the post-Second World War period."" -- Vicki Howard, University of Essex * Histoire Sociale/Social History, vol 52 no 105, May '19 * ""Thick descriptions of the kind presented by Dawson are valuable, and, when written engagingly, as this study is, they make for a pleasant read."" -- David Monod, Wilfrid Laurier University * <em>University of Toronto Quarterly: Letters in Canada 2018</em> *"