{"id":46,"date":"2025-05-05T13:19:53","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T17:19:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/?p=46"},"modified":"2025-05-05T13:19:53","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T17:19:53","slug":"markets-malls-and-mail-orders-a-history-of-change-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/05\/05\/markets-malls-and-mail-orders-a-history-of-change-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/","title":{"rendered":"Markets, Malls, and Mail Orders: A History of Change \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">It is challenging to foresee economic and social trends. Today, the use of a fork is expected when eating. Few realize that before 1850, many Americans did not use forks. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/arts-culture\/a-history-of-western-eating-utensils-from-the-scandalous-fork-to-the-incredible-spork-64593179\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">In 1004 AD, a Greek princess marrying a Venetian prince was ridiculed for using a fork<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">. Most Europeans used a knife, spoon, and fingers.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Likewise, markets have significantly changed over the last few hundred years. In Medieval times, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/pubs.aeaweb.org\/doi\/pdfplus\/10.1257\/jep.28.4.169\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">craft guilds with government officials\u2019 support restricted access to various occupations<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, which enriched craft guild members and political elites. Gradually, their power eroded, allowing new market entrants and lower production costs. With <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/hbr.org\/2014\/12\/the-problem-with-guilds-from-silversmiths-to-taxi-drivers\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">occupational licensing, we are experiencing the return of guild-like institutions<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, which reduce competition, increase income to guild members, and often require approval for innovation.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Until the late <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bigcommerce.com\/blog\/retail\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">1800s, most retail firms were small family-run operations. Large department stores were founded in the late 1800s due to better transportation and larger cities. James Ritty invented the first cash register in 1883 and called it the<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> incorruptible cashier. This helped firms better determine if they were making a profit. In the late 1800s, <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org\/pages\/779.html\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Chicago was a mail-order retail center with firms like Sears and Montgomery Ward<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u2014t<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">hese firms cut out the middleman and brought consumer goods directly to rural and small-town families.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">In the 1950s, indoor shopping malls emerged. Big box retailers such as Walmart appeared in the 1960s. Today, online shopping is taking market share from brick-and-mortar retail outlets, increasing from <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.statista.com\/statistics\/379112\/e-commerce-share-of-retail-sales-in-us\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">about 6% of total retail sales in 2014 to about 16% in 2022<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">. The growth of e-commerce is like the growth of mail-order firms in the late 1800s when transportation and mail delivery improvements made it possible for firms to lower the costs of selling directly to customers. But first, they had to gain the trust of consumers. As consumers became more comfortable buying through the mail, competitors entered the market, which was ultimately dominated by a few firms, notably Sears and Montgomery Ward. Similarly, today, Amazon has gained consumer trust through consumer comments about products and consumer guarantees and warranties.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Economic principles such as transportation costs, institutions, and trust in sellers help us understand changing market conditions. However, when or where there will be changes are uncertain. Likewise, social trends are challenging to predict; we cannot even be sure what kind of utensils people will use in 200 years. As Yogi Berra said: \u201cIt&#8217;s tough to make predictions, especially about the future&#8217;.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is challenging to foresee economic and social trends. Today, the use of a fork is expected when eating. Few realize that before 1850, many Americans did not use forks. In 1004 AD, a Greek princess marrying a Venetian prince was ridiculed for using a fork. Most Europeans used a knife, spoon, and fingers.\u00a0\u00a0 Likewise, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[462],"tags":[483,480,472,473,320,476,465,470,482,147,464,487,466,469,471,97,475,468,479,467,486,481,474,477,463,478,484,485],"class_list":["post-46","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-microeconomics","tag-amazon","tag-brick-and-mortar","tag-cash-register","tag-chicago","tag-consumer","tag-consumer-good","tag-craft-guilds","tag-department-store","tag-e-commerce","tag-economics","tag-fork","tag-future","tag-guild","tag-guild-member","tag-james-ritty","tag-market","tag-montgomery-ward","tag-occupational","tag-online-shopping","tag-political-elites","tag-prediction","tag-retail","tag-sears","tag-shopping-mall","tag-social-trends","tag-walmart","tag-warranty","tag-yogi-berra"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Markets, Malls, and Mail Orders: A History of Change \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz - Econ Briefs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/05\/05\/markets-malls-and-mail-orders-a-history-of-change-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Markets, Malls, and Mail Orders: A History of Change \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz - Econ Briefs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It is challenging to foresee economic and social trends. 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