Window shopping only became possible once shops put in glass
Medieval shops were dim rooms with no glazed windows and little on display. Merchants kept stock at the back and fetched items only when asked, often serving through an opening onto the street. Browsing for fun had to wait for glass shopfronts, and the glass-roofed arcades of the late 18th century turned it into a pastime.
The English word comes from Old English sceoppa, a shed, booth or stall. Buying things is old, of course. Greeks shopped in the agora and Romans in the forum; Trajan's Market spread its shops over four levels. A Roman soldier's shopping list, written between 75 and 125 CE, turned up near Hadrian's Wall. In the Roman countryside, merchants even called at the gates of big estates so their owners never had to visit a market.
Early medieval Britons, by contrast, did little shopping, relying on their own farms and local swaps. By the late Middle Ages licensed market towns sold fresh food, and periodic fairs offered luxuries and entertainment. Outside the largest cities, customers walked into a craftsman's workshop to haggle, while peddlers and costermongers brought goods to remote homes. London had specialist mercers and haberdashers by the 13th century, but even in the 16th its shops were described as rude booths. Shopping was mostly a chore handled by women, and retailers were viewed with suspicion as middlemen who resold goods without adding value.
Attitudes flipped as a middle class grew in the 17th and 18th centuries. People with spare money bought Indian calico, Chinese silk, tea and porcelain, and sugar, coffee and tobacco from the Americas. Robert Cecil opened the New Exchange on the Strand in 1609 as a planned shopping venue, and shops became places to meet, rivalling the theatre. In 1714 Bernard Mandeville's Fable of the Bees scandalised readers by arguing that national prosperity rested on consumers' self-interest. Josiah Wedgwood staged lavish displays of his pottery for invited aristocrats, steering fashion as he went.
Glass changed the experience. Arcades spreading across Britain, Europe and the Antipodes let in daylight through their roofs and lined their walkways with long windows, so middle-class visitors could gaze at luxuries they might never afford. By the mid-19th century, strolling these arcades was a fashionable way to be seen. Today the browsing continues on screens, as online retailers compare prices and deliver straight to the door.
Source: Shopping
