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This essay discusses the question “Consumer society gives people choice”. It will explain what a consumer society is and how through a period of time, the majority of people over took the minority of consumers in consumption of goods and services and how the industrial revolution made consumerism possible for the majority of the population. Secondly it will also discuss the concept of a seduced and repressed consumer. Finally, it will discuss if the growth of supermarkets have given the consumer a choice to shop in today’s high street or the supermarket. A consumer society is where consumers shop for either goods or services for their own leisure, choice or necessity and this has lead to society being more known by what it consumes rather than what is manufactured. However, pre industrial revolution, consuming was really only about the wealthy and those whose occupation defined their status. At this time expensive goods or services would have exceeded the working mans means to pay for what would have been deemed luxuries. The industrial revolution changed the balance of consumerism as it brought mass production of goods, which helped created the first department stores that were able to sell luxury goods at a more affordable price to a wider section of the community and created the grass roots of consumer shopping today. When manufacturing started to decline, people’s jobs, class and attitudes changed and people now bought for leisure and not just necessity, and this consumerism led to the way we shop today and it allowed consumers to have a choice and express their individual identity when shopping which became more of a social and personal activity rather than one of necessity. Social Scientist, Zygmunt Bauman believes that “people in contemporary Western societies can be broadly divided into two groups of consumers that he calls, in deliberately loaded terms, the seduced and the repressed”. (Making Social Lives, 2009, P25). In the industrial society it was only the wealthy and those with a status occupation who could effectively consume through their financial and social living. However, with the advent of the department store and the manufacturing of goods on a larger scale, the wealthy, and those who could afford to consume (minority), are now joined by the majority who can now afford to participate in the buying of goods and services. The industrial revolution gave consumers secure jobs, long term work and access to credit which in turn gave them the choice and freedom, previously denied, to be seduced into a consumer lifestyle. This now gave consumers the means to be able to express themselves and their lifestyles with the goods and services they sought. “There is another group in Bauman’s terms who are excluded from this consumer society or who are pushed to its margins. These people he calls the repressed”. (Making Social Lives, 2009, P28). Repressed consumers may feel excluded from some aspects of a consumer society as these people are likely to have a low income, be unemployed, disabled, sick and elderly and others may see them as less valued consumers because they are excluded from more expensive stores or physical access to shops or don’t know the language or cant use services due to their circumstances. Nevertheless, things have progressed since the advent of the department store and today’s consumer society gives the consumer a choice in where they shop and supermarkets being one of those choices as at least “90% of people actually use one of the big supermarkets at least once a month”. (Making Social Lives, 2009, Audio CD 1) while the Competition Commission, after a 2 year investigation, found that 94% of consumers had the choice of three different chains of supermarkets within fifteen minutes of where people lived. Helena Rimmer of Friends of the Earth believes that supermarket growth is driving trade away from our High Streets. Yet, Richard Dodd of the British Retail Consortium believes that supermarket growth is driven by customers as they like the price, range of goods, ease of getting to a supermarket, choice and the simplicity of having all the goods and services under one roof. Also, as most people now live in the suburbs and not the town centre, this is where supermarkets are locating, close to their consumers and as 870,000 people are employed by the four big supermarkets, Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury and Morrisons, the appeal of jobs is another incentive for people wanting a major retailer in their community. Although some independent shops on the high street are closing, other shops like farm shops, health food shops and convenience shops are surviving which also give consumers even more choices. In contrast, the growth of supermarkets may have taken that choice away from consumers, and Communities around the uk are coming together to oppose supermarket developments in their area because they see what the impacts will be on their local shops and local economy. An alliance called Tescopoly, which was founded in 2005 which is a group of development, environment and trade union organisations are trying to raise awareness and oppose the negative impacts of growing supermarket power and have a website which has over 200 local campaign groups and local community groups who are on there trying to oppose the supermarket planning applications in their area. According to Helena Rimmer from Friends of the Earth, “approximately fifty small shops, independent shops, close every week due to the impact of the supermarkets on High Streets and on town centres”. (Making Social Lives, 2009, Audio CD 1). This impact can represses our high streets because as less people use it, it is causing less choice for the consumer and as the big four retailers move back into the high street as convenience stores, they also gain a further share in the market and further restrict the shopping choice of consumers thus making the high street retailers having to compete “twice” with the supermarkets. This limits choice and diversity for the consumer further and the Federation of Small Businesses points out that since the year 2000 some 7,000 local grocery stores have been lost within independents closing at the rate of 2,000 a year whereas over the same period tesco, Sainsbury’s asda and morrisons have doubled the numbers of stores that they operate (Federation of Small Businesses, 2006). (Making Social Lives, 2009, P74). With the loss of small, independent businesses from the high street, consumers are being restricted in how and where they can go for their shopping. In conclusion, a consumer society is one where the purchase of goods or services are predominately for ones own leisure and not necessarily for necessity. The wealthy, who were in the minority, were the first consumers but with the industrial revolution, which brought the mass production of goods, the majority of people were now able to become consumers and this consumerism began to shape their identities rather than their status or wealth. This led to ideas (Bauman) that people who consume are either seduced or repressed by the way and the means of how we shop and as consuming is a major park of UK society, we become a consumer with an identity label. As the growth of supermarkets has altered the usability and choice of shops in our high streets, today’s consumers are faced with a choice of being seduced by what goods and services are on offer by a retailer and they will chose whether to shop or not to shop with that retailer and depending on circumstances, geography and ability, whether to shop solely at the supermarket or at the high street or for a wholly positive sum game, use both the high street and the supermarket. 1,251 words Making Social Lives, 2009, Chapter 1, P25, Milton Keynes, The Open University. Making Social Lives, 2009, Chapter 1, P28, Milton Keynes, The Open University. Richard Dodd, British Retail Consortium, Evidence in the Social Sciences, Making Social Lives, Audio CD1, 2009, Milton Keynes, The Open University. Helena Rimmer, Friends of the Earth, Evidence in the Social Sciences, Making Social Lives, Audio CD1, 2009, Milton Keynes, The Open University. Making Social Lives, 2009, Chapter 2 P74, Milton Keynes, The Open University.