Media Representations of Retail Work in America examines the ways in which retail workers have been portrayed in popular culture texts from the early 20th century to the 21st century.

The retail trade has undergone tremendous changes over the course of the twentieth century in the United States, and media narratives have reflected these changes. Media Representations of Retail Work in America explores representations of retail workers in popular media. Offering close readings of various texts including films, television shows, advertisements, and internet memes, Brittany R. Clark traces the development of the trade as a career opportunity that required a distinct set of skills in the early twentieth century until today, when the job has been deskilled and retail workers struggle with low pay and lack of benefits.

Chapter 1: Advertising the Empire: Selfridge Advertisements at the Turn of the Century

Chapter 2: Cinderella at the Palace of Consumption: Depictions of Retail on Film in the Early 20th Century

Chapter 3: The White Stuff: Passing Narratives and the Department Store in Lovecraft Country’s “A Strange Case”

Chapter 4: The Oleson’s Know Best: Little House on the Prairie’s Reflection of Cultural Distrust in the 1970s

Chapter 5: The Manchild Behind the Counter: Depictions of Retail on Film in the Late 20th and Early 21st Centuries

Chapter 6: I Was a Retail Salesperson: An Examination of Two Memoirs About Working in Retail

Chapter 7: Superstore: A Modern Working-Class Sitcom?

Chapter 8: I Hate My Job (But I Love Tweeting About It): Deconstructing Short-Form Narratives About Retail Work in Internet Spaces