Page 116 - Purchasing Power Black Kids and American Consumer Culture

Hemmed In and Shut Out . 101
Stores like Bob's remain on the whole free from the class and race
tensions that characterize Newhallville children's relationships with
stores outside the neighborhood. Rather, they are places to discuss and
air these tensions, to recount stories that illustrate the ways in which the
boundaries of race and class, in particular, are erected and maintained in
shops outside the neighborhood. Kids do not enter Bob's on the defen-
sive, expecting him to single them out because they are black, or because
they do not have money. Rather, they can expect to enter into an atmo-
sphere that speaks of and to the experience of being black in America,
whether to see a notice about racism taped to a post, or to hear a story
about conflict between plantation owners and black household servants.
Though Newhallville children are reminded of "their place" by Bob as
he asserts his right to monitor and control their behavior, he exercises
that right from a position that is understood to be located within the
community by both children and their parents.
Places like Bob's, most of which are black-owned and -operated in
Newhallville (some are owned and operated by Latinos), are not gener-
ally regarded by older residents as contributing to the area's downslide,
though limited stock and high prices for food staples, household sup-
plies, and tobacco constitute serious shortcomings from the adult con-
sumers' point of view. These issues are much less problematic for chil-
dren who, when making purchases for themselves, primarily buy snacks
and drinks. Not only are these items inexpensive, each costing less than
a dollar, but their prices throughout the city are fairly consistent. In con-
trast, cigarettes downtown cost $1.20 at the time of my research, and
$1.60 in Newhallville, where people often would buy a pack and sell
single cigarettes for a quarter to offset the expense.
Stores like Bob's are strategically located within a couple of blocks of
the neighborhood elementary and junior high schools, and nearly all
Newhallville children walk to school. Kids stop in to buy candy, chips,
and drinks both on their way to school in the morning and when return-
ing home in the afternoon. My research has shown that children are not
often included in the shopping excursions of their caretakers, whether to
the supermarket or farther afield; even back-to-school clothes shopping
trips rarely include the children (often teenagers) for whom the clothes
are being bought. Bob's is the store that children visit most often and
with which they have the most familiarity. Children as young as five or
six, if they live within a couple of blocks, may go there alone during the
day on errands or to buy something for themselves. Certainly by the
time children are ten years old, as the children in this study were, they
go to local stores at least once or twice a week, if not every day.