Abstract
This paper investigates historical material to examine the formation of ‘modern consumers’. It examines the ways in which department stores developed different cultural, educational and entertainment strategies in order to produce consumers. One key aspect here was the development of a ‘consumer gaze’ which encouraged the ‘pleasures of seeing.’ Also important was the way in which department stores adopted strategies taken from world expositions and exhibitions on how to frame and present ‘the new.’ The paper also examines the embodied nature of the consumer gaze and the ways in which a new way of seeing was encouraged through both advertising and the actual practices within department stores.
