Retail Nation: Department Stores and the Making of Modern Canada (review)

When Eaton’s department store closed its doors in 1999, Canadians mourned. The outpouring of sadness was tremendous, greater than most prime ministers have enjoyed in life or death. In this well written monograph, readers learn that Eaton’s, like its counterparts the Hudson’s Bay Company (hbc) and Simpson’s, was much more than a shopping destination for Canadians. It was part of the nation itself. For anyone interested in understanding the manner in which consumption, modernity, and nationalism became intertwined in Canada, Retail Nation is excellent. In this monograph, Donica Belisle “brings the history of Canadian consumer society to centre stage” (4) to show readers how and why mass retail and consumerism emerged in Canada between 1890 and 1940. In the process, she offers us a different perspective on the “making of modern Canada.”

Belisle argues that department stores were one of the most influential “agents of Canadian modernization.” (7) Using advertisements, catalogues, census data, company archives, newspapers, letters, and the Eaton’s Mail Order Oral History Project, she explains how Eaton’s, Simpson’s, and the hbc, as well as smaller regional establishments like Dupuis Frères, Morgan’s, and Woodward’s, became so important in the retail landscape. These stores, particularly Eaton’s which emerges as the undeniable giant of Canadian retail in this period, enjoyed tremendous power for two principal reasons: they were involved in all three areas of the consumer marketplace: production, distribution, and consumption; and, through marketing, they cultivated their identities as Canada’s stores, giving them emotional and patriotic significance. Once this relationship was established, retailers had the power to promote and sustain a particular idea of the country and its citizens, which celebrated white, European bourgeois culture, and heralded consumption as an essentially modern activity.

For historians of Canada, Retail Nation offers the first comprehensive study of the history of retail that explores the rise of mass merchandising and its impact on the lives of Canadians. Belisle positions the intellectual contributions of this book at a nexus between scholars who have understood consumption as necessarily exploitative and those who have uncovered the multiple ways in which it can be a context for protest and change. In doing so, she builds upon scholarship by Lizabeth Cohen, Joy Parr, Victoria De Grazia, Erika Rappaport and Cynthia Wright to develop a “less dichotomous” and more complex understanding of the history of consumption in Canada. This history emerges through individual stories, as well as the connections Belisle draws across time and place. We learn through comparison with other retailers both large and small, including the Bon Marché in France, Harrods in England, and Sears Roebuck in the United States, that the history of consumption and retail in this country is about industrialization, but also about the peculiarities of the Canadian context. Unlike department stores in other locations, Canadian retailers marketed to the urban petite bourgeoisie and working class. By buying in bulk, having a cash only policy (until 1930) and producing their own merchandise, Eaton’s kept prices (democratically) low. They aligned bargain days with paydays to encourage consumption. To tackle the geographical expanse of the country, they developed a highly successful branch and mail order catalogue system to market to consumers in far-reaching locations. As a consequence, between 1900 and 1920 Eaton’s enjoyed remarkable profits. In 1919, Eaton’s total sales were nearly $123,590,000, while Simpson’s earned $33,444,765, Macy’s $35,802,808, and Sears $235,000,000. In size, Eaton’s was second only to Sears in North America. The department store’s economic strength becomes even clearer when you consider per capita earnings. The population of the United States (100 million) dwarfed that of Canada (8 million). While some readers may find the study unmoored because of Belisle’s efforts to draw broad connections, I found her conclusions meaningful and thought-provoking.

While Retail Nation has many important things to say about the dynamics of gender and race, it is...