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Journal of Consumer Culture
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The Discursivities of Difference

Retro retailers and the ambiguities of ‘the alternative’

Louise Crewe

University of Nottingham, louise.crewe{at}nottingham.ac.uk

Nicky Gregson

University of Sheffield, n.gregson{at}sheffield.ac.uk

Kate Brooks

University of Sheffield, kate{at}mare.demon.co.uk

This article is concerned with retro retailing; specifically with how retro retailers talk about themselves, their shops and the commodities they sell. Retro retailing is argued to exist in a profoundly ambiguous space, between the mainstream and the alternative (as imagined). Whilst retro retailers operate in self-styled ‘alternative’ shopping spaces and talk about themselves and their work in ways that are readily identifiable with others who work in the creative industries, in terms of an imagined alternative, these ways of talking are simultaneously interwoven with facets of the mainstream-as-imagined. This article looks at the ways retro retailers negotiate these tensions and ambiguities. More broadly, it reflects on the importance of analyses of talk within research on the creative industries and on the alternative/mainstream boundary, focusing particularly on the limitations of this boundary as an imaginary for thinking through difference.

Key Words: the alternative • creative industries • fashion retailing • retro • second-hand • talk

Journal of Consumer Culture, Vol. 3, No. 1, 61-82 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/1469540503003001931
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