Shopping is a social and cultural aspect that has various effects. Notably, shopping entails various aspects, which affect the manner in which people carry out shopping. Class is a fundamental aspect of shopping that determines the choice that people will make with regard to shopping. Essentially, different people lead different lifestyles and this translates to the processes that they undertake in their shopping. Class is inscribed in shopping in a distinct way. Essentially, the kinds of lifestyle that people leader determine their shopping behavior (Shaw, 2010, p. 115). Class has categories as understood with the society. Essentially, there is the high class, the middle class and the low class, these groups lead different lifestyle. As such, their shopping behavior differs significantly. Notably, shops, as private institutions can, and indeed, they help in delivering a range of public goods or services. This also entails some of the equality promised by citizenship, in certain ways that help in ‘holding us together.
It is clear that class is an embedded part of shopping. Notably, where people live is where they do most of their shopping. Still, there are residential districts that are socially mixed while many others are not. In places where we have districts and shops mixed, there is usually no let up since shops will in most cases be badged by class through their names, addresses, frontages, and stock as well as by their type. Different types of shops including the pie shop, betting shop, charity shop among other kinds of shops have differing working class associations. Considering Britain for instance, only a select few shops have the royal crest inscribed on their entrances indicating that at some time they sold goods to a member or some members of the royal family (Shaw, 2010, p. 119). This also indicates that the members of the royal class were so pleased that they gave the right to the shop owners to display the Crest to the particular shop. This also indicates that any passersby should consider their eligibility to enter the shops so that they ensure that they indeed fit in. it is not only shops that have such budges as it is clear that different forms of shopping usually have particular class associations. This has the implication that street markets are badged in a manner that a particular class group will be fitting in the particular market street while others may not necessarily fit.
Essentially, the issue of shopping therefore has its divisions with regard to the class that fits to shop in a particular manner or in certain places. Shopping also occurs through the looking class. This implies that people in the shopping supermarkets or shops will occasionally peep onto others’ shopping baskets and hence be able to classify the shoppers based on what they eat. Notably, a common phrase, which goes, “you are what you eat” is indeed obvious when people are in the supermarket and peeping into their supermarket baskets you find the sort of items that fits into a particular class (Shaw, 2010, p. 115). Therefore, class is a significant aspect, which is very prominent in shopping. However, the social and cultural perspectives prevalent among different folks will at times be deterministic of the shopping behavior indicated by the shoppers. Various social aspects, which dwell on the issue of class divisions, determine what people shop, where they shop, and how frequently they shop. In most cases, People within the same social class or set up usually dwell in the same regions. In this regard, they will have similar habits towards shopping so that what they shop, and how frequently appear to follow a special pattern. Still, the cultural aspects prevalent within a particular social class determine what the people will shop. As such, some people do not consume particular products due to religions, beliefs and other factors. For this reason, they will display a certain behavior with regard to shopping based on the type of goods that they consume.
Bibliography
Shaw, J. 2010. Shopping- social and cultural perspectives. Cambridge: Polity.
Pamela, K. K. (004. Spree: A Cultural History of Shopping. Herizons, 18(2) , pp 3-33.
