The equitable consumer: shopping at the Co-op in Manchester

This article looks at the Manchester and Salford Equitable Co-operative Society in the period from the nineteenth century through to 1914. Products, packaging, advertising and store design are considered in order to examine whether, and in what ways, co-operative ideologies were reflected in the experience of shopping at this particular co-operative society. It is suggested that in practice the co-op's design policy was increasingly influenced by commercial pressures from a competitive market-place, despite debates within the movement as to how its ideology should relate to issues such as advertising and store design. However, the conclusion is that this does not mean that more complex ideas and ideologies were absent from customers' experience of shopping at co-op. In fact such ideas functioned alongside other considerations in the everyday purchasing decisions of the co-operative shopper in Manchester