6 - Consumers in a World of Scarce Goods

Summary

This chapter surveys consumer experience in an economy with a shrinking supply of consumer goods, explaining how consumers responded to the shortages, price controls and rationing. It explains social experience with queues and the motivations and rationale for food protests by ‘housewives’ to obtain more food, and the family strategies to exploit opportunities for getting food from relatives and connections in rural areas. It also examines how consumer hardship was represented in the daily press and the use of humour in cartoons about the black market, queues, and restaurants.