In the history of twentieth-century retailing, two narratives seem to form the prevailing conventional wisdom. One is the story of the decline of small retailers who particularly in the latter half of the century fell prey to processes of capitalization, concentration, and rationalization in the retail market. The other prominent narrative emphasizes the global success of “modern” retail forms from chain-stores and self-service supermarkets to shopping centers and big-box discounters. Both stories portray a picture in which small, local shops - nearly inevitably - lost out to super-sized and global competition. But is this truly the whole story?

This panel seeks to question one-dimensional narratives of decline and global homogenization, by shifting the focus of retailing history from the well-known success stories of department stores and giants such as Wal-Mart, to the much more diverse and complex history of small independent stores. Their numbers and importance in the industry as a whole did decline over the course of the twentieth century, but despite many dire predictions small shops have shown surprising resilience as well and they continue to exist to the present day – albeit in a variety of new and changing forms. In 2007, "small grocery retailers" still accounted for a substantial 24.5% of total US sales volume (World Retail Data and Statistics 2008/2009). At the same time, the historical perspective suggests that retailing has always been an economic sector in which short-term failure rather than long-term-success were the norm, even in the seeming Golden Age of the corner grocer at the beginning of the twentieth-century. The independence of shopkeepers, furthermore, was even in the best of times frequently more precarious, their economic situation more marginal than their image suggested. Still, with changing consumption habits and technological innovations small stores again and again found new markets, pioneered new retailing formats or achieved success in catering to those ignored by larger competitors. The panel seeks to survey the changing landscape of small retailing and to explore the nature and meaning of independence for small retailers from a comparative perspective.

We invite papers that look at breakdowns and ruptures as well as the surprising resilience of small business formats throughout the twentieth century in the United States and elsewhere. We especially welcome proposals with a comparative or transnational perspective and those which would broaden the scope beyond food and textile retailing. Possible topics could include, but are not limited to:

- Small retailers in new or niche markets (e.g. eco-products, fair trade …)

- New retail formats and business strategies (e.g. gas station sales, superettes, internet shops …)

- Varied forms of independence (e.g. franchise retailing, voluntary chains …)

- Comparisons of national and regional retail “cultures” (e.g. regional differences, attitudes towards service and quality ...)

- The role of migration and immigrants as retail entrepreneurs (e.g. ethnic assortments, knowledge transfer ...)

- Gender relations and family dynamics in retailing businesses (e.g. male/female products, generational transition ...)

- Small shops in Socialist economies (e.g. varying supply chains, subvention of the public large-scale competitors ...)

Please, send a one-page abstract of the proposed paper with a title and a CV to Uwe Spiekermann and Jan Logemann at the German Historical Institute, Washington, by September 15th (logemann@ghi-dc.org).