| Abstract: | The case study of Bresee's Department Store in Oneonta, NewYork, suggests that small-town department stores were not necessarilyfully "modern" by the early twentieth century. This articledemonstrates how modern, big-store, business methods came laterand documents how earlier modes of trade, such as credit andbartering, persisted into the early twentieth century, evenin non-rural, northern contexts. Preliminary findings suggestthat eliminating the urban bias in much historiography by includingsmall-town retailing practices may lead to a later periodizationof American consumer society. |
