Cornering the Market: Independent Grocers and Innovation in American Small Business
Susan V. Spellman
Abstract
This book overturns nostalgic stereotypes of antiquated storekeepers, suggesting that nineteenth- and early twentieth-century grocers were important but unsung innovators of business models and retail technologies that fostered the rise of contemporary retailing. They wrestled with fundamental changes in the structures of retailing and commercial capitalism, including the development of mass production, distribution, and marketing; the growth of regional and national markets; the emergence of new organizational and business methods; and the introduction of retail technologies such as the cash ... More
This book overturns nostalgic stereotypes of antiquated storekeepers, suggesting that nineteenth- and early twentieth-century grocers were important but unsung innovators of business models and retail technologies that fostered the rise of contemporary retailing. They wrestled with fundamental changes in the structures of retailing and commercial capitalism, including the development of mass production, distribution, and marketing; the growth of regional and national markets; the emergence of new organizational and business methods; and the introduction of retail technologies such as the cash register. Yet today we know very little about the considerable achievements of small businessmen and their corner stores and even less about their major contributions to the making of “modern” commercial enterprise in the United States. Combining the archival sources and storekeepers’ stories along with sales records, credit reports, and legislative efforts, the book explores how evolving commercial, legal, and social institutions changed the course and development of the grocery trade. This story is told through grocers’ eyes, illuminating the day-to-day problems, challenges, and tasks associated with running small businesses and showing how local retailers made possible a national grocery trade.
Keywords:
capitalism,
grocers,
retail,
grocery trade,
commercial institutions,
legal institutions,
social institutions,
small businesses
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2016 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199384273 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: April 2016 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199384273.001.0001 |
