Shopping Books

As a teacher, one learns to live on a modest salary; stretching the dollar becomes an art more than a science. However, this book provided me with ways to make even my most stringent budget seem like my cup had run over! Everything from trimming household bills to discounts at retail stores. It even helped me buy my first car for less than my husband bought his (and they're the same make/model!). A top-notch resource for the financially challenged or penny-wise!

This book is great it teaches the very importatnt moral that says that one should not judge a book by it's cover!The cubs new music teacher seems a little tough but after knowing the true her they find out shes a real softie for rock and roll!

Some of the information in this book is now quite outdated (1990s) but there are indeed golden nuggets and general pearls of wisdom in this book. I think the author should come out with a revised edition for 2008. I'd definitely buy the revised book!

The best thing about "Carried Away," is the research Bowlby has done on marketers' changing models of shoppers' consciousness. She deftly shows that these models are empty of any true psychological insight, but instead entirely bound up with the culture and the time and the economic circumstances in which the models were devised. The worst thing is that she spends too much time researching British marketing publications from the 50s and 60s. The US has always been the hot molten center of marketing and retail trends -- a fact which Bowlby readily acknowledges throughout most of the book -- thus the inclusion textual readings from old British marketing journals seems to have everything to do with Bowlby being a professor in England and her original publisher being British, and nothing to do with whether this information is really appropriate.

But this is a relatively minor annyonance in what is really quite a witty, interesting look at the rise of the supermarket and the concomitant creation of new packaging, new advertising, new models of the shopper consciousness. Bowlby is at her best here, giving us an historical perspective of shoppers (mostly women in the early days of supermarket shopping) who,depending on the theorist, are believed to be extremely suggestible given certain conditions, or extremely rational no matter what the conditions. For instance, in the 50s, that era of mass outputs and mass consumption and McCarthyism, some social critics like Vance Parkard posited that advertisers were "hidden persuaders" using sophisticated brainwashing techniques to sell weak-minded women things they did not really need. But in the 60s and 70s, the model of shopper consciousness shifted. Suddenly, the shopper -- still nearly always seen as a woman -- was in charge, "with it," "sophisticated." The rise of the "power brand" in the 80s -- a time during which the appeals of certain brands were apparently so overwhelming that even the sophisticated 70s shopper succumbed -- swung the pendulum back to the weak-minded model. Bowlby neatly lampoons the variations these psycological models have gone through since the rise of the supermarket, but notes that ultimately, this bipolar model is still intact.

I particularly recommend "Carried Away" to marketers, especially young marketers who have never seen the vacillation in the models of shopper consciousness. Take it to the next marketer's conference you attend. It's the perfect antidote to those enlessly dull days spent listening to hour after hour of case studies in which consumers are uniformly described as "sophisticated," or "savvy." Bowlby's light touch and eye for the absurd will help you keep all the tepid, instrumetally tainted "shopper psychology" in perspective.

This is a great guide for finding GREAT stuff. It contains some standard information about sample sales, Opera tickets and hair salons. What sets this book apart is the information about finding and furnishing an apartment. The fabric and furniture suggestions are the best I've found in any shopping guide, plus these places do indeed exist AND so do the prices.

This book was purchased as a gift for a friend with whom I go shopping. Before wrapping the gift, I had to read the book. It was filled with all the emotions from sadness to humor. At times it was like a walk down memory lane. It was a delightful book to read. It gave interesting information and tips. I would recommend this book to all shoppers.

As a woman buying a car it can be an intimidating experience. Everyone tells you to take a man with you to negoitiate, I say take this book! It provides you with info on the lemons to avoid, safety records and even gives you a base price to negoitiate. The car dealers quake in their boots and grumble under their breath, but you get the best deal for you money when you go prepared!

If you think conspicuous consumption is a modern trend, or that globalization and outsourcing are recent phenomena, historian Linda Levy Peck has news for you. In this study, she explains that the English folk of four centuries ago were ever eager to keep up with the Joneses by blowing some of their disposable income on silks, paintings, chocolate and other pricey items that weren't exactly necessities. Indeed, their appetite for the finer things helped pave the way for today's mass materialism and international trade. A taste for fancy goods isn't so new, nor is debate over what shopping means to the structure of society. Levy Peck's professorial prose is dense, but her theme is eye-opening. We recommend this overview to anyone who'd like to understand what motivates consumers now and has motivated them for centuries.

This book is a well written piece of information centering on past power center development. It is a little outdated currently; however, it does show the pitfalls and highpoints of a large number of quite successful power center development projects. Unfortunately it does not cut much below the surface of these projects and offers little practical advice. Good for understanding past projects in a slightly different time and market. I would not recommend it to anyone searching for a how-to book since it is little more than facts and numbers about past projects and not ideas.

This is a great book for people who need to analyze shopping centers (I'm an appraiser). However, I believe there will be a new addition of this book out in 2006.