Donica Belisles Retail Nation Department Stores and the...

Donica Belisles Retail Nation: Department Stores and the Making of Modern Canada is a very brief and concise book. It is able to deal with the major social and economic topics from the early-twentieth century from the perspective of massive retailers. The book strictly focuses on the importance of these large departmental stores and how they impacted Canadian society and helped shape a consumer utopia. The book provides ample detail on its themes but is unable to give background information regarding certain topics. The author starts the book off with an introduction of Canadian retail stores and how they came into business relatively after the ones in US and Britain. However, the largest departmental stores such as Eaton’s, Simpson’s,†¦show more content†¦They knew that growing consumerism and advertising went hand in hand, so they began to advertise everywhere that they could. Even the appearance and bodies of their employees were used for means of marketing. In the last part of the book, the author talks about small retailers and co-operators and their views regarding the monopolized retailers. This part also talks about the mass retailing business from a broader perspective. It turns out that the government did not want to intervene in the retail business and they were only able to bring in a tax reform for these big businesses. Even today, mass retailers still dominate the consumer landscape. If I look at this book critically, there are a few things that I would like to point out. First of all, Donica Belisle did an amazing job in staying constant with the themes of the book, such as paternalism, consumerism and labour. Secondly, she manages to talk about the rise of mass retailers in great depth. And lastly, the book is very easy to understand as the flow of this book is remarkable. However, there are a quite a few concerns that I had with the text and content. There is no denying that Belisle outlined the main topics and concerns, but the department that she lacked was the background information. I constantly found myself researching topics such as consumerism prior to the World War, materialism, industrial capitalism and even the importance of vertical integration in the retailing business. MyShow MoreRelatedThe Canadian Retail Market Has A Complex And Multidimensional History1120 Words   |  5 PagesThe Canadian retail market has a complex and multidimensional history. Retail Nation: Department Stores and the Making of Modern Canada written by Donica Belisle, explores the journeys of major Canadian department stores such as Eaton’s, Simpson’s and HBC between the 1890’s and 1940’s. Specifically, she analyzes their development, morals and societal views from a feminist and paternalist perspective. These complex theories are coupled with both examples and clear explanations in order to gain a