The Utopia of Consuming: Brief History of Food Retail in Recife

Abstract

In order to discuss the evolution of the retail food market in Recife and understand its relationship with the consumer between the mid-nineteenth century and the 1960s, the article conducts a bibliographic review of academic papers and books on retail, as well as an analysis of supermarket advertising published in the Diário de Pernambuco in the 1950s. Based on the ideas of Michel de Certeau, the purpose of the essay is to understand the ways in which the distribution of food produced in the countryside of Pernambuco was transformed over time. This study is made through the analysis of the first street fairs and public markets. It also addresses how the old grocery stores emerged, as well as supermarkets, a model brought from the United States and a symbol of the new way of consuming, disseminated by the media as efficient, cheap, practical and, above all, modern. To this end, we investigate the genesis of this type of business in its native country and how it has changed the consumption habits of North Americans. Finally, it is intended to discuss the trajectory of supermarkets and understand the differences and similarities between the models of self-service retail food in Brazil and in the United States from 1850 to 1960.