The Retail Phrenology, 2003

The RetailPhrenologist, 2003, performance art booth, Artropolis The Retail Phrenologist is available for psychic retail consultation, ad therapy, plastic therapy, auto-hypnosis, neuro-transmitter and hormonal analysis of impulse shopping habits and to administer a hemispheric brain test for shoppers.

The Booth contains:
free range shopping cart for clients to sit in during their head reading. wallpaper created from photo transfers from Phrenology Proved, Illustrated and Applied by Orson and Lyman Fowler, published in 1840. The History of the Shopping Cart + more 23 heads, calipers and various head measuring devices, 7 pieces of identi-wear selectively worn by the Retail Phrenologist; each a tribute to The Primary Purchasing Agent [Consumer Theorist name for the female head of the household who purchases 86% of all household goods.] divorced: stockings constructed from bed-sheets and a used leg depilatory kit mother: 18 foot dress constructed from felted dryer lint, ending in one baby bottle nipple first wife: burdock burr covered kitchen apron, "she1s in the kitchen" second wife: french maid apron covered in burdock burr, "she1s in the bedroom" Freudian slip: girdle riveted with 20 pairs of men1s underwear straight jacket: the heterosexual restraint jacket constructed from a wedding dress and tuxedo jacket. Unfashionable: an evening gown fashioned out of 128 shoulder pads.

The History of the Shopping Cart

Sylvan Goldman, owner of the Standard Humpty Dumpty grocery market in Oklahoma City revolutionized retail business with his patented shopping cart in 1937. Goldman wanted his customers to purchase more than they could carry. Initially, he hired floor employees to help customers with an extra shopping basket. In a moment inspired by a folding lawn chair, Goldman created the first shopping cart, a folding metal frame with handles and wheels that housed two baskets. He advertised his new invention for several weeks, purposefully piquing curiosity by not mentioning the name and saying "never carry a single grocery item again."
When the day of the unveiling of his invention arrived, customers refused to use them. Men felt that their masculinity was being questioned and women said "groceries were not babies". The following week Goldman hired 6 actors of varying ages to "pretend" to shop with the shopping carts, and one "very pretty" actor to greet shoppers at the door and point out the number of shoppers using the handy new invention. By 1940 there was a 7year waiting list for Folding Carrier Baskets and Goldman had a multi-million dollar business. Today there are 30-35 million shopping carts in North America alone.