This study overturns the assumption that it is commerce that works by logical economic models while culture is invoked to explain the behaviour of the international consumer.

Paths to mass consumption: historical perspectives / Frank Mort -- Culture of restraint: the British chain store 1920-39 / Janice Winship -- The commercial domain: advertising and the cultural management of demand / Frank Mort -- In pursuit of the professional ideal: advertising and the construction of commercial expertise in Britain 1953-64 / Sean Nixon -- The birth of value / Daniel Miller -- 'Mother swapping': the trafficking of nearly new children's wear / Alison Clarke -- Narratives of consumption and the body in the space of the charity/shop / Nicky Gregson, Kate Brooks and Louise Crewe -- Consumption without scarcity: exchange and normativity in an internet setting / Don Slater -- Consumption, audiences and commercial culture / Peter Jackson -- Imagined cuisines: 'nation' and 'marketing' as organising structures in Norwegian food marketing / Marianne Lien -- Reflexivity, reading and gender in the retail book industry / Paul Stallard -- Ambivalence in men's lifestyle magazines / Nick Stevenson, Peter Jackson and Kate Brooks -- Uncle Sam invades? / Michelle Lowe -- Four myths in search of foundation: the restructuring of US food retailing and its implications for commercial cultures / Neil Wrigley -- From Victor Gruen to Merry Hill: reflections on regional shopping centres and urban development in the US and UK / Michlle Lowe -- Streets of style: fashion designer retailing within London and New York / Christopher M. Moore.