The Signs Of Shopping By Anne Norton

The game of chess is a very complicated and intricate dance between the two players, in our case the consumers and the retailers. The retailers can beat their customers “in this game of shopping” by understanding the cultural reasoning behind why people shop. Anne Norton explains in her essay “The Signs of Shopping” that companies can't survive on just selling customers products anymore, they need to sell their brand/label and the culture of their company. “Everybody, from the architect critic at the New York Times to kids in the hall of a Montana school, knows what Ralph Lauren means. The polo mallet and the saddle… evokes the upper class.” (Norton 88). This line is a perfect example of how companies won't only sell you one product, like