10 - ‘Les Vénus des comptoirs’: Feminism and Shopping in the 1920s

Summary

The early 1920s are associated in France with monetary difficulties and financial crisis. And yet, the economy of the country underwent one of its most intense phases of growth and for many citizens this proved to be a period of great prosperity. ‘The 1920s was probably the first decade to proclaim a generalised ideology of affluence’, asserts Don Slater, adding, ‘The 1920s appear as the first consumerist decade […] it is in this period that all the features which make up consumer culture take on their mature form.’ Moreover, at this time can be discerned in certain sectors the beginnings of mass consumption. Mechanisms for consumer credit were pioneered by Citroën in 1919 with SOVAC (Société pour la vente à crédit d'automobiles); in 1924 Renault followed suit with DIAC (Diffusion industrielle automobile par le crédit) and in 1927, Thomson set up a corresponding arrangement, CREG (Crédit électrique et gazier), to assist with the acquisition of household electrical appliances. Supported by the development of such incentives, enhanced sales permitted industrial investment in mass production techniques, and lower manufacturing costs in turn brought about reductions in prices. The result of this mutually reinforcing process was a new emphasis in the marketplace. The situation is clearly set out in an article of 1929:

So greatly has potential output been increased by the application of machinery to manufacture that the limits of operation are now set rather by the number of customers who can be found to buy than by any difficulty in securing men and machines to make the goods. […]