Spending Spree: The History of American Shopping

By Cynthia Overbeck Bix

ISBN: 9781467710176

Publisher: Twenty-First Century Books (CT)
Publication Date:  November 1st 2013
Number of Pages: 88

Source: Local Library

Goodreads Summary: Love it or hate it, everybody shops. Shopping is an integral part of American life, but it hasn't always been so. From small, country general stores to the first shopping emporiums in New York, shopping grew and spread until now, in the twenty-first century, we stroll through malls that are larger than real-life main streets. Spending Spree traces the lively history of shopping in the United States, from the where the shops, department stores, discount barns, malls, and computer keyboards to the whys of consumer behavior.

My Rating:  

This is a non-fiction book all about the history of shopping that goes up until today & looks to the future. It was interesting to read about how shopping has evolved through the years and where the future is going.

We have general stores where you could barter for your items, to the evolution of malls and making shopping an all-day event for a lady to go and eat and socialize in addition to making purchases.

"Victor Gruen designed Southdale, the nation's first indoor mall. Disliking the isolation of U.S. suburban towns, he designed the mall as a community center, where people could socialize as well as shop. He used plants and waterfalls...to help create an attractive, leisurely environment." - Spending Spree, 51

We have super-centers and now the internet.

"You might call them [online shoppers] the 'new window shoppers': whenever they want something, from a flat-screen television to a 36 pack of toilet paper, they just open a new window in the web browser." - Spending Spree, 60 - Original quote: Megan McArdle, "The Future of Shopping," 2012

Recommend this book to anyone who likes to shop or is fascinated with the history of shopping.