The wanderer in the supermarket: an examination of consumer culture in Cold War America

Abstract

ABSTRACT The supermarket is one of the ‘great retailing innovations of the twentieth century’. In Cold War America, it held a special ideological place through which capitalism could be promoted as the final, utopian stage of human economic development. Literary figures such as Don DeLillo and Alan Ginsberg played with this concept in their writings, both criticising its place within consumer culture and shedding light on its placement within America’s mythos. This paper explores the unique symbol of the American supermarket as a paradoxical end of culture, a tool of American propaganda, and a spiritual space in which the ‘American Spirit’ can continue to grow and inspire. Through a historical analysis of Cold War propaganda, and the supermarket's placement within it, and a literary analysis of American icons, such as Walt Whitman and Alan Ginsberg, the supermarket emerges as a site of complexity, alienation, and beauty; but certainly not the end of the American story.