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Mail Order Retailing in Britain
A Business and Social History
Richard Coopey, Sean O'Connell, and Dilwyn Porter
258 pages
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4 halftones and 6 tables
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234x156mm
978-0-19-829650-8
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Hardback
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27 January 2005
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This item is printed to order. Items which are printed to order are normally despatched and charged within 5-10 days.
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- First business and social history of the mail order industry in Britain
- Explores the social networks that mail order companies used in building their businesses
- Examines business supply chain, logistical, and technical developments that were pioneered in mail order companies
- Considers the role of the personal computer in late twentieth century mail order
Since its inception in the late 19th century, Britain's mail order industry both exploited and generated social networks in building its businesses. The common foundation of the sector was the agency system; Sales were made through catalogues held by agents, ordinary people in families, neighbourhoods, pubs, clubs and workplaces. Through this agency system mail order firms in Britain were able to tap social networks both to build a customer base, but also to obtain vital information on creditworthiness.
In this, the first comprehensive history of the British mail order industry, the authors combine business and
social history to fully explain the features and workings of this industry. They show how British general mail order industry firms such as Kay and Co., Empire Stores, Littlewoods, and Grattan grew from a range of businesses as diverse as watch sales or football pools. A range of business innovations and strategies were developed throughout the twentieth century, including technological development and labour process rationalisation. Indeed, the sector was in the vanguard of many aspects of change from supply chain logistics to computerization. The social and gender profile of the home shopper also changed markedly as the industry developed. These changes are charted, from the male-dominated origins of the industry to the growing influence of women both within the firm and, more
importantly, as the centre of the mail order market. The book also draws parallels and contrasts with the much more widely studied mail order industry of the United States.
The final section of the book examines the rise of internet shopping and the new challenges and opportunities it provided for the mail order industry. Here the story is one of continuity and fracture as the established mail order companies struggle to adjust to a business environment which they had partly created, but which also rested on a new range of core competencies and technological and demographic change.Readership: Academics and advanced undergraduates in the fields of business, economic, and social history;
Managers and employees of mail order companies
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Richard Coopey, Lecturer in History, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Sean O'Connell, Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Ulster, and Dilwyn Porter, Senior Research Fellow in the Department of History and International Studies at De Montfort University
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"Provides access to a fascinating aspect of British commercial history...This book is written in a clear and accessible language and provides a useful introduction to the history of mail order in Britain." - Enterprise & Society
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Introduction
1: General Mail Order Retailing in Britain: Origins and Development to 1939
2: The Evolution of Mail Order Retailing in Post-war Britain
3: Working Class Life, Consumer Credit, and the Making of Agency Mail Order
4: Mail Order Agency in Post-War Britain: The Agent, the Company, and the Consumer
5: Inside the Firm: Mail Order, Efficiency, and Rationalization - From Personal to Organizational Control
6: Disconnecting the Personal: Computers and Mail Order
7: The Next Shopping Revolution
8: Conclusion
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The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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