"The Market That Just Grew Up": How Eaton's Fashioned the Teenaged Consumer in Mid-twentieth-century Canada

This thesis focuses on the emergence of the teenaged consumer as a market segment in Canada during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. It challenges the notion that teenagers were of little interest to retailers until economics and demographics shaped the more numerous and prosperous post-war teenagers of...

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Main Author:	Rollwagen, Katharine E
Other Authors:	Gaffield, Chad
Language:	en
Published:	Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa 2012
Subjects:	Canada twentieth century teenagers childhood growing up students Eaton's department store advertising advisory councils clothing speciality sizes retail mail order catalogues consumer magazines Chatelaine Mayfair Canadian Home Journal gender Canadian census
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10393/23314 http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-6051

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spelling	ndltd-uottawa.ca-oai-ruor.uottawa.ca-10393-233142018-01-05T19:01:24Z "The Market That Just Grew Up": How Eaton's Fashioned the Teenaged Consumer in Mid-twentieth-century Canada Rollwagen, Katharine E Gaffield, Chad Canada twentieth century teenagers childhood growing up students Eaton's department store advertising advisory councils clothing speciality sizes retail mail order catalogues consumer magazines Chatelaine Mayfair Canadian Home Journal gender Canadian census This thesis focuses on the emergence of the teenaged consumer as a market segment in Canada during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. It challenges the notion that teenagers were of little interest to retailers until economics and demographics shaped the more numerous and prosperous post-war teenagers of the Baby Boom generation. Using evidence from corporate records and analysis of mail order catalogues, the study examines how department store retailer, the T. Eaton Company, Limited, began to cultivate a distinct and lucrative teenaged consumer in the 1930s, and thereby began shaping the teenaged consumer. The thesis contextualizes the case study of Eaton’s by exploring the varied expectations that adults had of young people at the time, using census records and magazines (Chatelaine, Canadian Home Journal and Mayfair) to explore concerns about young people’s transition to adulthood. It then focuses on how Eaton’s made a concerted and sustained effort to attract teenager customers to its catalogue and stores. Analysis of its semi-annual catalogue highlights the emergence of specialized clothing size ranges and styles, revealing that Eaton’s increasingly viewed the teenaged years as an important in-between life stage. Eaton’s also instituted teenage advisory councils to both glean market trends and provide a venue for what it considered education for novice consumers. Eaton’s presented consumption as a way to prepare young people for adult roles, legitimizing teenaged participation in the consumer marketplace and contributing to wider debates about when and how teenaged Canadians should reach maturity. 2012-09-25T11:56:17Z 2012-09-25T11:56:17Z 2012 2012 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/10393/23314 http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-6051 en Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
collection	NDLTD
language	en
sources	NDLTD
topic	Canada twentieth century teenagers childhood growing up students Eaton's department store advertising advisory councils clothing speciality sizes retail mail order catalogues consumer magazines Chatelaine Mayfair Canadian Home Journal gender Canadian census
spellingShingle	Canada twentieth century teenagers childhood growing up students Eaton's department store advertising advisory councils clothing speciality sizes retail mail order catalogues consumer magazines Chatelaine Mayfair Canadian Home Journal gender Canadian census Rollwagen, Katharine E "The Market That Just Grew Up": How Eaton's Fashioned the Teenaged Consumer in Mid-twentieth-century Canada
description	This thesis focuses on the emergence of the teenaged consumer as a market segment in Canada during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. It challenges the notion that teenagers were of little interest to retailers until economics and demographics shaped the more numerous and prosperous post-war teenagers of the Baby Boom generation. Using evidence from corporate records and analysis of mail order catalogues, the study examines how department store retailer, the T. Eaton Company, Limited, began to cultivate a distinct and lucrative teenaged consumer in the 1930s, and thereby began shaping the teenaged consumer. The thesis contextualizes the case study of Eaton’s by exploring the varied expectations that adults had of young people at the time, using census records and magazines (Chatelaine, Canadian Home Journal and Mayfair) to explore concerns about young people’s transition to adulthood. It then focuses on how Eaton’s made a concerted and sustained effort to attract teenager customers to its catalogue and stores. Analysis of its semi-annual catalogue highlights the emergence of specialized clothing size ranges and styles, revealing that Eaton’s increasingly viewed the teenaged years as an important in-between life stage. Eaton’s also instituted teenage advisory councils to both glean market trends and provide a venue for what it considered education for novice consumers. Eaton’s presented consumption as a way to prepare young people for adult roles, legitimizing teenaged participation in the consumer marketplace and contributing to wider debates about when and how teenaged Canadians should reach maturity.
author2	Gaffield, Chad
author_facet	Gaffield, Chad Rollwagen, Katharine E
author	Rollwagen, Katharine E
author_sort	Rollwagen, Katharine E
title	"The Market That Just Grew Up": How Eaton's Fashioned the Teenaged Consumer in Mid-twentieth-century Canada
title_short	"The Market That Just Grew Up": How Eaton's Fashioned the Teenaged Consumer in Mid-twentieth-century Canada
title_full	"The Market That Just Grew Up": How Eaton's Fashioned the Teenaged Consumer in Mid-twentieth-century Canada
title_fullStr	"The Market That Just Grew Up": How Eaton's Fashioned the Teenaged Consumer in Mid-twentieth-century Canada
title_full_unstemmed	"The Market That Just Grew Up": How Eaton's Fashioned the Teenaged Consumer in Mid-twentieth-century Canada
title_sort	"the market that just grew up": how eaton's fashioned the teenaged consumer in mid-twentieth-century canada
publisher	Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
publishDate	2012
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10393/23314 http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-6051
work_keys_str_mv	AT rollwagenkatharinee themarketthatjustgrewuphoweatonsfashionedtheteenagedconsumerinmidtwentiethcenturycanada
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"The Market That Just Grew Up": How Eaton's Fashioned the Teenaged Consumer in Mid-twentieth-century Canada

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