Inside Toyland: Working, Shopping, and Social Inequality

by Christine L. Williams

Decisions regarding where to buy, how to buy, and what to buy are shaped by a complex of social, cultural, and psychological factors that sociologists are well equipped to analyze. Furthermore, I will argue that these consumer choices contribute to social inequality.

Objectives

Consumers make choices to enter one store and not another based in part on the images projected in advertisements.

Gender, race, and class distinctions all enter into the formation of ...

Workers are sorted into an organizational hierarchy and assigned specific duties according to th...

These internal practices shape how we buy: they determine with whom customers interact inside the store, which customers receive attentive service, and who ultimately benefits fro...

Both in the style of interacting and in decisions about what to buy, adults instruct children on the values and meanings of consumerism, which contai...

Throughout this book, I explain how shopping reproduces ...

this connection is not seamless or uncontested. Collective actions, on the part of both workers and consumer groups, have challenged these social inequalities of shopping in the past. I ...

Leisure shopping, like sociology, was a relativel...

Almost every worker in the store spoke Black English, including some of my white and Latina/o coworkers.

Union membership in the United States is at its lowest point in a hundred years, a reflection not only of the conservative political climate in America at the start of the twenty-first century but also of the interests of the big box retailers, who have unprecedented political and economic power, especially at the local level.

The same toys were sold at the Toy Warehouse and Diamond Toys,

the choice of where to shop is not always decided by the most convenience and the lowest price.

She argues that middle- and upper-middle-class consumers sometimes prefer to shop at expensive stores because doing so marks their social distance from lower-class, and thus presumably less refined, shoppers.

Rich Americans are willing to pay a premium for goods with a designer label purchased at specialty stores because these items symbolize their owner's super...

increasingly, we construct our identities and forge relationships through our purchases, not through our productive activity.

This book explores the social construction of shopping and the implications of consumer choice for social inequality.

how shopping in general and toy shopping in particular are implicated in reproducing gender, race, and class inequalities.

I argue that neither store represents a "better" choice for society: both reproduce social inequality, but...

consumerism as a pleasurable source of individual choice, a form of playfulness, and even a marker of political freedom. Certainly, marketing professionals, advertisers, and corporate executives fall into this category, but so do a number of postmodernist and feminist theorists. These theorists argue that because objects in material culture have no single set of meanings, producers cannot control how people use their commodities.

those who see consumerism as promoting opportunism, insecurity, and disenchantment. Here the dominant voices are from Marxists, globalization critics, and participants in simplicity movements, who view consumerism as inherently opposed to the achievement of fulfilling social relationships and meaningful lives.

New palaces of consumption draw us in with spectacle and entertainment but then trap us into a cycle of buying that inevitably leads to boredom, dehumanization, and loss of meaningful social relationships

The only solution to the problem, in this view,...

Just like any social trend, consumerism harms us all in some ways and benefits us in others.

In my view, history and social context are key to understanding the moral value of consumerism at any given time or place.

Under altered conditions, I suggest, shopping can contribute to a greater social good. Under current conditions, i...

I quickly learned that it was considered rude to ask about a coworker's background, since it was understood that no one intentionally sought a low-wage retail job.

It is a middle-class conceit to think that where you work is a reflection of your interests, values, and aptitudes. In the world of low-wage retail work, no one assumes that people choose their occupations or that their jobs reflect who they really are.

Over the past decades, workers in these jobs have experienced a loss of job security and benefits, a diminishment in the power of unions, and a lessening of the value of the minimum wage (McCall 2001).

McJobs are not careers; they are designed to discourage long-term commitment. They have short promotion ladders, they provide few opportunities for advancement or increased earnings, and the technical skills they require are not transferable outside the immediate work environment.

In addition to contributing to economic inequality, jobs in the retail industry are structured in ways that enhance inequality by gender and race.

I demonstrate how the working conditions at the two stores perpetuate inequality by class, gender, and race. The jobs are organized in such a way as to benefit some groups of workers and discriminate against others.

Those who make hiring decisions draw upon these kinds of racialized stereotypes of masculinity and femininity when appointing workers to specific jobs.

job segregation in retail work reflects the dynamic outcome of conflict between workers' desires, managers' interests, and customers' expectations.

The preference for white and light-skinned women as cashiers should be interpreted in this light: in a racist and sexist society, such women are generally believed to be the friendliest and most solicitous group and thus best able to inspire trust and confidence.'

Crossing over is a different experience for men and women. When a job is identified as masculine, men often will erect barriers to women, making them feel out of place and unwanted,

I never observed women trying to exclude men or marginalize men in "their" jobs. On the contrary, men tried to exclude themselves from "women's work."

We wanted flexible jobs, but the store wanted flexible workers.

Giant retailers do not cater to the needs of employees; their goal is to hire a constant stream of entry-level, malleable, and replaceable workers. This organizational preference for high turnover keeps labor costs down

The cultural capital needed to work retail simply doesn't transfer from one store to another, even in the same chain. Everyone who is new starts at the bottom.

Another reason why it is hard to leave once expertise is acquired is that, ironically, workers come to feel needed.

At the Toy Warehouse, most workers stayed no longer than three months. Those who stayed long term did so because that was where their family was.

national 20 percent wage premium that comes with union membership

Sadistic bosses are an unfortunate fact of life in many hierarchical work organizations

most jobs in retail pay low wages, offer few benefits, have high turnover, and restrict workers' autonomy.

the social organization of work in large toy stores also contributes to class, gender, and race inequalities.

Historically, unions have not successfully redressed exclusionary hiring and promotion policies that favor whites over racial/ethnic minorities and men over women; some even claim that unions have made these problems worse

the hierarchical and functional placement of workers according to managerial stereotypes results in advantages for white men and (to a lesser extent) white women and disadvantages for racial/ethnic minority men and women. These stereotypes are perhaps more deeply entrenched than low wages, based as they are on perceptions of customer preferences. Consumers therefore have a role in pressing for changes in these job assignments.

face-to-face public encounters with strangers typically rely on ritualized scripts to make them go smoothly.

I explore how the matrix of domination shapes, but does not fully determine, customer-worker interactions in the toy store. I focus on the interaction rules that govern the shopping floor and how they reproduce stereotypes about different groups. There are both formal rules, developed by corporations, and informal rules, developed by workers to protect their dignity and self-respect. I also discuss what happens when these rules are not followed and interactions break down into conflict.