RESEARCH ARTICLE
BMaking people buy and eat differently^:lessons
from the modernisation of small independent grocery
stores in the early twentieth century
Franck Cochoy
1
Received: 10 February 2016 /Accepted: 12 April 2017 /Published online: 29 June 2017
#
INRA and Springer-Verlag France 2017
Abstract Food studies teach us much about foods and eaters, but despite their
impressive coverage and richness, they pay little attention to what occurs between
the two: they tend to neglect the many market professionals and Bmarket-things^ that
act as a bridge between food products and consumers. This paper proposes to fill the
gap by examining how the transformation of the grocery business and related tech-
niques contributed to reshaping the food industry’s strategies, the content of foods and
the identity of eaters. This investigation was conducted by studying the trade magazine
Progressive Grocer over the period 1922–1959. It shows how the journal promoted a
new art of Bmaking people buy and eat^. Grocers were invited to modify their practices,
hence the eaters’ experience, by implementing two different strategies: a movement of
Bbetterment^ of their previous service know-how and then a more radical movement of
Breplacement^ of this know-how by the new Bself-service^ arrangement. By following
these two movements, we understand how grocery professionals and techniques made
us buy and eat, but made us do so differently, to the extent that the grocery business and
related devices changed foods as well as consumers’ identities.
Keywords Market-things
.
Retailing
.
Grocery business
.
Packaging
.
Equipment
.
Modernisation
JEL Classification M31: Marketing
.
L66: Food
.
L81: Retail and wholesale trade
Food studies tend to give priority to what occurs before or after the acquisition of foods on
the marketplace. With regard to what occurs beforehand, the emphasis is placed on
anthropological schemes and meanings (Levi-Strauss 2006), food habits and culture
Rev Agric Food Environ Stud (2018) 99:15–35
DOI 10.1007/s41130-017-0046-5
* Franck Cochoy
cochoy@univ-tlse2.fr
1
Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès, Toulouse, France
@Phil_Robichaud
@deepthiw
@JoseServera