Editing Industrial Revolution (section)

===Clothing and consumer goods===
[[File:BLW Tea and coffee service, Staffordshire.jpg|thumb|[[Wedgwood]] tea and coffee service]]
Consumers benefited from falling prices for clothing and household articles such as cast iron cooking utensils, and in the following decades, stoves for cooking and space heating. Coffee, tea, sugar, tobacco, and chocolate became affordable to many in Europe. The [[consumer revolution]] in England from the 17th to the mid-18th century had seen a marked increase in the consumption and variety of luxury goods and products by individuals from different economic and social backgrounds.<ref>Fairchilds, Cissie. "Review: Consumption in Early Modern Europe. A Review Article". ''Comparative Studies in Society and History'', Vol. 35, No. 4. (October 1993), pp. 851.</ref> With improvements in transport and manufacturing technology, opportunities for buying and selling became faster and more efficient. The expanding textile trade in the north of England meant the three-piece suit became affordable to the masses.<ref name="Consumerism"/> Founded by potter and retail entrepreneur [[Josiah Wedgwood]] in 1759, [[Wedgwood]] fine china and porcelain [[tableware]] was became a common feature on dining tables.<ref name="Black"/> Rising prosperity and social mobility in the 18th century increased those with disposable income for consumption, and the marketing of goods for individuals, as opposed households, started to appear.<ref name="Black"/>

{{blockquote|With the rapid growth of towns and cities, shopping became an important part of everyday life. Window shopping and the purchase of goods became a cultural activity...and many exclusive shops were opened in elegant urban districts: in the Strand and Piccadilly in London, for example, and in spa towns such as Bath and Harrogate. Prosperity and expansion in manufacturing industries such as pottery and metalware increased consumer choice dramatically. Where once labourers ate from metal platters with wooden implements, ordinary workers now dined on Wedgwood porcelain. Consumers came to demand an array of new household goods and furnishings: metal knives and forks...rugs, carpets, mirrors, cooking ranges, pots, pans, watches, clocks, and a dizzying array of furniture. The age of [[mass consumption]] had arrived.|"[[Georgian era|Georgian Britain]], The rise of consumerism", Matthew White, [[British Library]].<ref name="Consumerism">{{cite news |title=The rise of consumerism |url=https://www.bl.uk/georgian-britain/articles/the-rise-of-consumerism |access-date=29 June 2021 |agency=British Library |archive-date=19 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210419170409/https://www.bl.uk/georgian-britain/articles/the-rise-of-consumerism }}</ref>}}

[[File:Winchester High Street Mudie 1853.jpg|thumb|[[Winchester]]'s High Street in 1853; the number of [[High Street]]s, the primary street for retail in Britain in towns and cities rapidly grew in the 18th century.]]
New businesses appeared in towns and cities throughout Britain. Confectionery was one such industry that saw rapid expansion. According to food historian [[Polly Russell]]: "chocolate and [[Biscuit#Confectionery biscuits|biscuits]] became products for the masses...By the mid-19th century, sweet biscuits were an affordable indulgence and business was booming. Manufacturers...transformed from small family-run businesses into state-of-the-art operations".<ref>{{cite news |title=History Cook: the rise of the chocolate biscuit |url=https://www.ft.com/content/5f890020-bba6-11e8-8274-55b72926558f |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/5f890020-bba6-11e8-8274-55b72926558f |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=23 August 2021 |work=Financial Times}}</ref> In 1847 [[J. S. Fry & Sons|Fry's]] of Bristol produced the first [[chocolate bar]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Mintz|first=Sidney|title=The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets|date=2015|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=157}}</ref> Their competitor [[Cadbury]], of Birmingham, was the first to commercialize the association between confectionery and romance when they produced a heart-shaped box of chocolates for [[Valentine's Day]] in 1868.<ref>{{cite book |title=Guinness World Records 2017 |date=8 September 2016 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hxAyDQAAQBAJ&q=cadbury+chocolate+boxes+1868&pg=PA90 |publisher=Guinness World Records |page=90 |isbn=978-1-910561-34-8 |access-date=3 September 2021 |archive-date=24 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324141123/https://books.google.com/books?id=hxAyDQAAQBAJ&q=cadbury+chocolate+boxes+1868&pg=PA90 |url-status=live }}</ref> The [[department store]] became a common feature in major [[High Street]]s; one of the first was opened in 1796 by [[Harding, Howell & Co.]] on [[Pall Mall, London]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/bespoke/story/20150326-a-history-of-the-department-store/index.html|title=A history of the department store|website=BBC Culture|access-date=15 September 2019|archive-date=11 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230811154701/https://www.bbc.com/culture/bespoke/story/20150326-a-history-of-the-department-store/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In the 1860s, [[fish and chip]] shops to satisfy the needs of the growing industrial population.<ref>{{cite news |title=The History of Fish and Chips |url=https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Fish-Chips/ |access-date=17 June 2024 |publisher=[[Historic England]] |archive-date=June 8, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230608152727/https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Fish-Chips/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Hawker (trade)|street seller]]s were common in an increasingly [[Urbanization|urbanized]] country. "Crowds swarmed in every [[thoroughfare]]. Scores of street sellers 'cried' merchandise from place to place, advertising the wealth of goods and services on offer. Milkmaids, orange sellers, fishwives and piemen...walked the streets offering their various wares for sale, while knife grinders and the menders of broken chairs and furniture could be found on street corners".<ref>{{cite news |last1=White |first1=Matthew |title=The rise of cities in the 18th century |url=https://www.bl.uk/georgian-britain/articles/the-rise-of-cities-in-the-18th-century |access-date=3 April 2022 |agency=British Library |archive-date=22 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220522225623/https://www.bl.uk/georgian-britain/articles/the-rise-of-cities-in-the-18th-century }}</ref> A [[soft drink]]s company, [[R. White's Lemonade]], began in 1845 by selling drinks in London in a wheelbarrow.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kotler |first1=Philip |last2=Armstrong |first2=Gary |title=Principles of Marketing |date=2010 |publisher=Pearson Education |page=278}}</ref>

Increased literacy, industrialisation, and the railway created a market for cheap literature for the masses and the ability for it to be circulated on a large scale. [[Penny dreadful]]s were created in the 1830s to meet this demand,<ref>{{cite book |last=Turner |first=E. S. |author-link=E. S. Turner |year=1975 |title=Boys Will be Boys |location=Harmondsworth |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-14-004116-3 |page=20}}</ref> "Britain's first taste of mass-produced popular culture for the young", and "the Victorian equivalent of video games".<ref name="Guardian">{{cite news |title=Penny dreadfuls: the Victorian equivalent of video games |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/30/penny-dreadfuls-victorian-equivalent-video-games-kate-summerscale-wicked-boy |access-date=12 March 2019 |work=The Guardian |archive-date=22 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181122215447/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/30/penny-dreadfuls-victorian-equivalent-video-games-kate-summerscale-wicked-boy |url-status=live }}</ref> By the 1860s and 70s more than one million boys' periodicals were sold per week.<ref name="Guardian"/> Labelled an "authorpreneur" by ''[[The Paris Review]]'', [[Charles Dickens]] used the innovations of the era to sell books: new printing presses, enhanced advertising revenues, and the railways.<ref name="Paris Review">{{cite news |title=The Sam Weller Bump |url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/04/14/the-sam-weller-bump/ |access-date=27 June 2021 |magazine=The Paris Review |archive-date=2 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210802164540/https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/04/14/the-sam-weller-bump/ |url-status=live }}</ref> His first novel, ''[[The Pickwick Papers]]'' (1836), became a phenomenon, its unprecedented success sparking spin-offs and merchandise ranging from ''Pickwick'' cigars, playing cards, china figurines, [[Sam Weller (character)|Sam Weller]] puzzles, Weller boot polish and jokebooks.<ref name="Paris Review"/> Nicholas Dames in ''[[The Atlantic]]'' writes, "Literature" is not a big enough category for ''Pickwick''. It defined its own, a new one that we have learned to call "entertainment".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Dames |first1=Nicholas |title=Was Dickens a Thief? |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/06/was-dickens-a-thief/392072/ |access-date=27 June 2021 |magazine=The Atlantic |date=June 2015 |archive-date=17 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210817111558/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/06/was-dickens-a-thief/392072/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Urbanisation of rural populations led to development of the [[music hall]] in the 1850s, with the newly created urban communities, cut off from their cultural roots, requiring new and readily accessible forms of entertainment.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cunningham |first1=H. |title=Leisure in the Industrial Revolution c. 1780-c. 1880 |date=1980 |publisher=Taylor and Francis |location=London |pages=164–70}}</ref>

In 1861, Welsh entrepreneur [[Pryce Pryce-Jones]] formed the first [[mail order]] business, an idea which changed [[retail]].<ref>{{Cite news |title=The mail-order pioneer who started a billion-pound industry |last=Shuttleworth |first=Peter |website=BBC News |date=25 December 2020 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55244397 |access-date=5 August 2021 |archive-date=27 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127002807/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55244397 |url-status=live }}</ref> Selling Welsh [[flannel]], he created catalogues, with customers able to order by mail for the first time{{mdash}}this following the [[Uniform Penny Post]] in 1840 and invention of the postage stamp ([[Penny Black]]) with a charge of one penny for carriage between any two places in the UK irrespective of distance{{mdash}}and the goods were delivered via the new railway system.<ref name="Mail order">{{cite news |title=Pryce-Jones: Pioneer of the Mail Order Industry |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/work/wales/w_mid/article_3.shtml |access-date=12 March 2019 |agency=BBC |archive-date=14 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414141603/https://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/work/wales/w_mid/article_3.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> As the railways expanded overseas, so did his business.<ref name="Mail order"/>