Liquor, tobacco, processed food, and sugary snacks: this is the range of products in convenience stores, which dominate the retail landscape in impoverished neighborhoods in the United States. Using ethnographic research conducted in Chicago and Detroit, in Convenience Stores as Social Spaces: Trust and Community in Deprived Neighborhoods in the U.S., Cosima Werner examines the contested meanings of such stores and the ways in which they are construed as social spaces within these neighborhoods. At first glance, convenience stores appear to be the opposite of social spaces: cameras capture every interaction of shoppers, security personnel keep their eye on suspicious behavior, and bulletproof glass may even separate the employees from the clientele. Although many security measures, language barriers, and cultural differences are obstacles to building trust, trustful relationships are essential for many shoppers to have access to resources such as loans, food, drinks, or information to make ends meet. Drawing on concepts of trust and mistrust that are inherent in social atmospheres and looking at relations between various people and their practices, this book analyzes the various meanings of convenience stores as social spaces.
Cosima Werner is postdoctoral fellow in the Geography Department at Kiel University.
List of Tables and Figures Acknowledgments Introduction: At the Store Chapter 1: Social Spaces and the Meaning of Trust Chapter 2: Practices of Convenience Food Shopping Chapter 3: Spatialities of Convenience Stores Chapter 4: The Neighborhoods' Decline Chapter 5: The Muddle of Daily Life Chapter 6: Practices of Social Distinctions Chapter 7: Practices of Trust: Relations between Immigrant Shop Owners and Black Clientele Conclusion: Convenience Stores as Social Spaces Epilogue - Back at the Store Appendix: People in this Study References About the Author
Werner provides us with a radically new, open rendition of an age-old bugaboo in the struggling U.S. city, the corner liquor store. Rich ethnographic analysis reveals a vision of these stores tied to complicated human needs and aspirations which too few urbanists have recognized. This is a must read for anyone seeking to understand the complexities of daily urban life in the current U.S. city. -- David Wilson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
