Cellophane, the New Visuality, and the Creation of Self-Service Food Retailing

Ai Hisano ()
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Ai Hisano: Harvard Business School, General Management Unit

No 17-106, Harvard Business School Working Papers from Harvard Business School

Abstract: This working paper examines how innovations in transparent packaging, specifically cellophane, in the mid-twentieth century United States helped retailers to create full self-service merchandising systems, including selling perishable food. While self-service stores began appearing in the late 1910s, self-service was initially applied only to grocery and dry goods, such as canned foods and a box of breakfast cereals. It was not until after World War II that the majority of American grocers adopted self-service to meat and produce sections. Business historians have explored the development of this self-service merchandising from the perspectives of marketing strategies, store operations, and relationships between customers and store clerks. However, the significance of the development of cellophane as a new packaging material, and the role of packaging manufacturers in promoting self-service, has yet to be analyzed. This working paper fills this void by showing that the expansion of self-service operation and the increasing use of transparent packaging had a significant impact not only on how consumers purchased foods but also on how they understood food quality.

Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2017-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-dcm, nep-his and nep-mkt
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hbs:wpaper:17-106

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