Essay Plan for Shannon Mack
TMA 02: Outline who the Winners and Losers are in Consumer Society

Material needing to be referenced and read:

* Learning Companion 2 * Chapters 1, 2 and 3 of ‘Making Social Lives’ * Assignment Booklet pages 18 to 20 * CD/DVD’s: * Preparing for Assignments – Developing Skills Audio CD * Evidence in the Social Sciences – Audio CD 1 * Rubbish Society – Audio CD 1 * Making connections: economics and politics – Making connections Audio CD * Reflections on Material Lives – Audio CD 1

Specific References:

* Allen, J. (2009) ‘One-stop shopping: the power of supermarkets’ in Taylor, S., Hinchcliffe, S., Clarke, J. and Bromley, S (eds) Making Social …show more content…

It was seen as a luxury to shop in such a store and in time, became a place to show off rank in society and wealth. People became obsessed with expressing their personality by their possessions and as Sussman, W. (2003) puts it: ‘Every person was to become a performing self’. For the shops who couldn’t afford to re-create themselves as Department Stores, this was a difficult time as their trade was and still is affected with people wanting to shop at more well known stores which have huge Marketing budgets and buying power.

Buying power is something which Supermarkets know of all too well. In my opinion they are big winners in society and in turn contribute to the rising number of ‘losers’ by their actions. It is a known fact that Supermarkets are in a very powerful position however they each have different ways of expressing this power and using it to their advantage. I shop at Waitrose with my reason being that they are not part of the top 4 supermarkets in the UK who expel the majority of grocery expense from our nation (Bevan, J., 2006). The rise in the development of these supermarkets puts a massive restriction on the growth of smaller shops and therefore reduces the choice that consumers have. In my opinion, it is only the Supermarkets who gain from this and we need to question if they are a force for the good of society or for the demise of it (Allen, J.,