Page 112 - Purchasing Power Black Kids and American Consumer Culture

Hemmed In and Shut Out . 97
community were able to engage in a wide range of activities, sanctioned
and unsanctioned, related to local businesses. Stephen Taylor Sr., whose
son participated in this research, recalled his own hijinks related to the
local dairy plant, which used to maintain a store selling cut-price prod-
ucts. In the afternoons he and his friends would ride their bikes to the
fence near the dumpster where the man who ran the dairy store would
put the containers of out-of-date ice cream. The boys would climb up
over the fence, dive into the dumpster, and retrieve the melting ice
cream, running back to the fence, often pursued by the angry cries of the
store manager. Others recalled being able to buy warm donuts from a
nearby bakery on the way to school or running errands for their parents
to various local stores.
Today children still run errands to the small groceries that dot the
neighborhood, picking up small items that might be needed at home, or
more often buying themselves inexpensive drinks and snacks. Because of
the shrinkage of local businesses, children have fewer opportunities than
in the past to do important family-related chores—picking up the dry
cleaning or running to the hardware store. They also have fewer oppor-
tunities for engaging in the kind of spontaneous mischief that Stephen
Taylor Sr. remembers from his own childhood. Whether or not any or
all of these activities may be viewed as desirable, the ultimate result is
that the variety of activities now available to children in terms of engag-
ing in the consumer sphere has been transformed. Today small groceries
are among the predominant commercial sites remaining in Newhallville
and are arguably the most important consumer venue visited and pa-
tronized by neighborhood kids.

Local Groceries
When I asked kids where they spent their money in the neighborhood,
they'd answer "B and K," or "Bob's," or "Moody's," the main small gro-
ceries in the area. But when I asked them what they did there, much in
the same way that they often refused to talk about school because it was
a "boring" topic of conversation or because "we didn't do anything,"
Newhallville kids rarely waxed poetic on the subject of Bob's. Their si-
lence was actually significant and shows the degree to which Bob's is part
of their daily and hence unremarkable landscape. In contrast kids could,
at almost any moment it seemed, launch into vivid descriptions—real or
imaginary—of downtown shops and shopping.
Bob's store has two aisles and a refrigerator case. Bob also sells cold-
cuts and subs, which he makes fresh and to order; there is a grill for