Buying into the World of Goods: Early Consumers in Backcountry Virginia

FIVE: Setting the Stage, Playing the Part: Stores as Shopping Spaces

five Setting the Stage, Playing the Part Stores as Shopping Spaces 145 Perhaps you may think me wrong in sending [an order] for so many fine Goods espetially for Women, but I assure you they are much in demand, the Reason of which is the People that goes down the Country for these Goods generally is afraid of not bring[ing] those things which will please there Wives and Daughters and often willingly forgettes them entirely, whereas were the Articles that they Generally want in a Back Store . . . they could see them themselves. I’m certain that they would look no further for them. John Hook to William Donald, 1766 By the end of the eighteenth century, retail stores constituted the most common nondomestic buildings on the Virginia landscape—in towns, at crossroads, or on plantations. The precise lines of triangulation connecting merchant, customer, and artifact varied considerably and reflected the differences among the performers , the setting of the stage, and the store’s location in town or country. The richest matron and the poorest slave both faced a merchant across the counter in the store. To be consumers, wives stepped free from their husbands , slaves from masters, and girls from mothers, at least to a limited degree, and entered into a distinct relationship with the merchant, the market , and the world of goods. But men, too, stepped out of their more comfortable business identities to negotiate the vagaries of fashion and consumer choice. It is in this sense that stores served as stages on which people acted out larger cultural paradigms and developed new economic and social scenarios. Refocusing the lens one more time to examine the world of goods in the backcountry leads to the study of the store. The building’s form and finishing both shaped and responded to the dilemmas of social action in commercial life. The merchant had to display goods in a way that entreated purchase yet prevented damage, loss, or theft. In the process, he simultaneously worked to limit access for some and to encourage the entrée of others. His role was to make money. How he achieved his goal—and how well he performed —tells much about the larger world of Virginia society. As consumers became more particular about the kinds of things for sale, merchants also competed by providing better shopping experiences. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, having goods suitable to the market served as a basic predictor of a merchant’s success. A century later, a merchant needed to store, display, and actively present a wide array of fashionable amenities and luxuries to maintain patronage. He also had to provide an appropriate consumption arena—a fixed place of a recognizable form, one that controlled the access and movement of his customers but simultaneously released the powerful desires of consumption. The merchant took on a new character role, and a stereotypical figure thus emerged: the man behind the counter, willing to please. The shift in business practices brings to the fore a multitude of questions because the physical environs of shopping remain largely unstudied. Did men and women jostle at a counter? Were objects for sale draped about or enveloped in wrappers? How did the Virginia experience compare to the highly ornamented and sophisticated world of London shopping? How did Virginia structures evolve? What did it mean for a store to be “completely fitted up”?1 This chapter examines stores as both buildings and consumption spaces and then considers the quality of the experience of shopping in the Virginia backcountry. Architectural fieldwork—visits to measure and draw store buildings that still stand—and documents such as floor plans, building contracts , and insurance policies as well as correspondence supply considerable evidence of the size of the buildings and the room arrangement; placement of windows, doors, chimneys, shelves, and counters; and interior and exterior wall finishes. Activity in store accounts in combination with information gleaned from data contained in myriad personal, local, and state documents provide an image of the customers and their family relationships. Although the two sets of evidence do not fit neatly together, the spatial study forms the backdrop for functional use and the relations between merchant and customer and the account-based study allows the scenes of travel and family visits to emerge. Together they illuminate the experience of shopping in John Hook’s world. Consumption Spaces Vending consumer goods in Virginia required pragmatism. Although trade cards and prints intimate that London merchants mounted...