Sign Consumption in the 19th-Century Department Store

Abstract

The department stores of the 19th century continue to fascinate social theorists. This article will expand on the work of two such theorists, Laermans and Featherstone. Extending Laermans’ and Featherstone’s analysis, and applying the early work of Baudrillard, this article will assert that through the manipulation of visual merchandising, the 19th-century department store’s managers constructed a world of sign-consumption where goods were not only consumed for their use- or exchange-value, but also were consumed as signs of luxury, exoticism and excess. By asserting that highly developed forms of sign-consumption existed in the 19th century, this article challenges the view that symbolic consumption in spaces such as shopping malls is particular to the contemporary or postmodern age.