On the Commodity Trail

Alison Hulme is a Teaching Fellow at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK; a Guest Lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK and University College Dublin, Ireland; and Visiting Fellow at University of Otago, New Zealand.

• PrefaceIntroduction: Eight Bargain Store Commodities and their Journeys1. The Dump: Shanghai and Tianjin as Graveyards and Birthplaces of Commodities2. The ‘Commodity City’: Yiwu, the World’s Factory of Bargains3. The Container Port: The Abundant Spaces of Felixstowe and Los Angeles4. The Bargain Store: Buying and Selling in the West’s Spaces of ‘Cheap’ Conclusion: … And Back to the Dump?BibliographyIndex

"This thin volume traces the origins of cheap plastic goods in UK bargain shops backward to their origins in China. Hulme begins the trail with waste scavengers in Shanghai, then moves through the ‘commodity city’ of Yiwu where low-end goods are made, container ports and terminals, British retail outlets, and, finally, a small sample of shoppers … the author’s real engagement is with social theorists and philosophers, from Appadurai to Žižek, with a generally Marxist approach to consumer society focused on the concept of ‘consumptive thrift.’ The book's most interesting part explores the social meaning of the ‘bargain.’ … the book would be very useful for graduate collections on globalization or theories of consumption. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students/faculty/professionals. - CHOICE - R. R. Wilk, IndianaHulme has created a thorough and intriguing ethnography ... [She] is to be commended for the respect, objectivity, and passion she brings to the various conversations across the journey. Furthermore, her writing style, one that includes historical ironies, and parallels between concepts and lived experience, have created a text accessible to a broad, curious readership. - LSE Review of Books - Susan Marie MartinThe book … belongs to a coetaneous class of research pushing the boundaries of ethnographic venturing … The book is erudite on the market economies of China and resplendent with careful empiricism. Close encounters with research subjects are a principal highlight. The book is easeful to read and evinces a mixture of empathy for, and inquisitive inquiry about, the fieldwork’s cast of characters. - Consumption Markets and Culture - Thomas Birtchnell, University of Wollongong, AustraliaOn the Commodity Trail is interesting, thoughtful, even important … The topic of discount stores and their relation to and impact on modern society, the book profitably shows, is one that anthropologists should investigate seriously. - Anthropology Review Database - Jack David Eller"