Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the anxieties and processes surrounding shopping in 'one pound' high street retail as a way of coping with (and narrating) economic uncertainty. It argues that 'one pound' buying is a form of 'delaying time' in the gradual acquisition of debt in commodity markets.

Paper long abstract:

One pound shops and retailers that offer discounted prices to the value of one 'pound' have ubiquitously settled as a shopping strategy in High Street streets in the UK and other parts of Europe. This paper explores the anxieties of calculating, spending and determining the value of everyday shopping in 'one pound' high street retail as a way of coping with economic un-certainty. It further compares ethnographic findings in London with similar ethnographic responses in Barcelona to examine differences in the construction of terms such as 'affordable', 'unnecessary', 'cheap' and the very notion of 'one pound' as a category of monetary value.

Taking an ethnographic comparative perspective to examine discussions about 'one pound' price fixing, the paper starts by asking as to what does actually constitute 'a pound buy'? And it argues that 'one pound' buying is more than conspicuous consumption, or a value we use when assessing the purchase of low-quality goods. I look at the 'one pound' as a heterocronic displacement, as a time-led narrative of risk-taking that is anchored in imprecise understandings of how we cope with economic decisions. One of such imprecise decisions, and thus an anxiety-inducing decision, is to delay 'spending' through buying for 'a pound'. I will contend that one pound buying is a form of 'delaying time', a kind of payment up-front that help us delay the precariousness of debt; a delay to help us find the time to appropriate the daily decision-making practices we make about 'spending' and 'having'.