With the emergence of the department store in the 19th century, commercialization of the shopping gaze and transformation of window shopping from a passive leisure activity into an active consumer practice occurred. A consumer today is not confined by the compulsory purchase of specialized merchandise but can only browse through it. The aestheticization of stores, window displays, and an endless choice of merchandise are key strategies for attracting individuals, which in most cases lead to an actual purchase. In the diploma thesis I am dealing with the phenomenon of clothing store window shopping, where I am trying to figure out reasons for such a practice. I am also studying the interactions and roles being played by employees on the one side and customers on the other. The main aim of thesis is the analysis of window shopping as a modern consumption practice, where I rely on Campbell's concept of longing and day-dreaming, which represents a driving force in a circle of individual's idealized imaginative pleasures. In the empirical part of my diploma thesis six clothing stores are being analyzed, which were divided according to the price range and the location, using the qualitative method of observation with participation and Goffman's dramaturgical model. The most important factors in the process of window shopping are the location, the layout of the store, the sales staff and the window shopper himself. The higher the price range of a store, the more window shopping and less actual consumption occurs causing the roles of the viewers grow more inconsistent. Window shopping plays a key role in constructing one’s self and their identity, which are continuously enacted by an individual and displayed to other people.
|
