Supplyin' Demand

“Although retail is the link between manufacturers and consumers, retailers treat the commercial logic of supply as quite separate from the symbolic representation of goods to the public.”

With the proliferation of big box working-class shopping havens such as Walmart or Target, the logic of supply becomes a means of representing goods. The Target “box,” essentially a warehouse, represents its goods much like any well-organized stockroom would. Despite its slogan (“Expect More, Pay Less”), customers have learned to expect nothing more than what they are presented with. In this example, the symbolic representation of commodities has been sacrificed (or has adapted) in favor of a literal representation of the source of Target’s low prices – in other words, mass production discounts made evident by the sheer volume of merchandise displayed on the store’s shelves.
The convergence of the systems of portrayal and the mechanisms of supply is symptomatic of what Hannigan refers to as the “McDonaldization of society.” Efficiency (stockroom layout), calculability ( % savings), predictability (mass production), and control (the product of the above three, which allows the big box store to function smoothly with only low-level employees at the helm) are the four pillars Hannigan mentions as supporting the operational model of McDonalds, or any similar establishment. On the flip side, boutique stores, which thrive on personal interaction and celebrity treatment, conceal much of their merchandise behind closed doors, thereby widening the gap between visible supply and representation of demand for that supply – a kind of commercial legerdemain, which tries to justify higher prices through exclusivity.