No supermarkets. No Amazon. No fridges. So how did Victorians shop?

No supermarkets. No Amazon. No fridges. So how did Victorians shop?

 

Shopping in Victorian England was very different from today. Where you were able to shop depended on your class and your income.

Rich women were able to visit fashionable areas like Burlington Arcade or Regent Street in London. They were able to buy luxury goods like silk dresses, gloves, perfumes, jewellery, fine hats, and even imported foods. Department stores like Harrods and Whiteley’s had started to become more popular.  They offered a much larger variety of goods. Harrods became known for being able to selling almost anything. If you had enough money, they could reportedly get it for you, even exotic animals. Department stores completely changed shopping. Large window displays showed goods for sale and encouraged window-shopping.

For the middle classes, shopping was usually done in the growing high streets, filled with specialist shops. They could visit the butcher, baker, grocer, fishmonger, draper, milliner, and chemist all separately. Many goods were still weighed and measured by hand. Instead of grabbing items off the shelves, like we do today, customers usually asked the shopkeeper for what they wanted.

 

Not everyone went out shopping in Victorian England. Many sellers came to people’s doors. Milkmen, bakers, coal merchants, and pedlars regularly delivered or sold essentials like milk, bread, coal, and household goods. For some families this was a lot more convenient.

Poorer households or single people could sometimes buy small amounts of things like cheese or bread or even purchase items on credit, known as buying “on tick.” Although it could save a family from going hungry, it could also lead to debt, and being in debt in Victorian Britain was not something to be taken lightly.

Some poorer families even bought stale bread because it was cheaper than fresh bread and could still be used for meals like toast, puddings, or soups. There was also the well-known Victorian phrase “stale household bread.” For working-class families, shopping was much more about survival and budgeting. Many people lived day to day and bought small amounts of food because they had little or no storage and often no refrigeration. For the homeless, a penny could mean the difference between eating or having somewhere to sleep, with some paying just 1d for a place in a cheap lodging house.

Street markets were especially important. Costermongers (street sellers) sold fruit, vegetables, fish, pies, and other household goods. Markets were really noisy and crowded places. Costermongers were also known for using colourful slang, including back slang and rhyming slang, a coded language that helped them to communicate quickly and sometimes even secretly.

 

The Victorian Age started to see the rise of the consumer culture. The Industrial Revolution had made mass production much easier. As a result, many goods were cheaper and more available, making them more accessible to the lower classes, revolutionising shopping.

 

 

Do you think you would miss modern supermarkets and online delivery?