Shopping as a Leisure

Shopping As a Leisure Activity

As I told you before, shopping has only recently emerged as a leisure activity. It is only as of late that people began to think of shopping as an activity to pass the time and not just as shops as a place they needed to go.{12} This is because people have begun to realize that commodities could be a luxury instead of just a necessity. Obviously my best customers are the wealthier upper-class and nobility.{13} Many of these customers spend "an idle hour" in my shop for conversation and to meet with friends. However, some of these customers take their "idle hour" too far. They tend to go from mercers shop to mercers shop spending their day just browsing around with no intention of buying anything. I don't even think they bring money. Daniel Defoe noted the same phenomenon in his "Complete English Tradesman" saying:

"I have heard, that some Ladies, and those too persons of good note, have taken their coaches and spent a whole afternoon in Ludgatestreet, or Covent Garden, only to divert themselves in going from one mercer's shop to another, to look upon their fine silks, and to rattle and banter the shopkeepers, having not so much the least occasion, much less the intention, to buy anything; nay, not so much as carry any money out with them to buy anything if they fancied it." {14}

A typical day in Cheapside. People strolling and riding around, taking time to stop and greet one another while browsing from shop to shop.

But, no matter how little they buy, we as shopkeepers can never act angry or annoyed at all the time we've spent with them. We must always remain calm and friendly towards the shopper. Once again, as Defoe said, "A tradesman behind his counter must have no flesh and blood about him, no passions, no resentment; he must never be angry; no not so much as seem to be so." {15} Even though some of these shoppers think they are clever by not bringing any money with them, I have still found ways to entice them into buying my fine fabrics. These types of customers are the challanging ones, they are the ones I save my especially enticing pieces of merchandise for. Many of them are unable to resist and they "lay out the money whether they have it or no, that is to say, buy, and send home for money to pay for it." {16}