Teaching Wedding Rules
- 1 February 2002
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Journal of Contemporary Ethnography
- Vol. 31 (1) , 33-67
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241602031001002
Abstract
Salespeople must educate their customers and teach them to be good consumers of products. To maximize sales and minimize potential problems, salespeople must also develop strategies to control their customer's behavior. To examine the “generic social process” of gaining control over customers, the author focuses on the bridal shop to show how workers attempt to establish themselves as professionals. In the world of bridal wear, workers and brides must maintain extensive contact over many months. Bridal workers strive to gain control over their brides' behavior by presenting a professional self. By establishing familiarity with their clients and demonstrating their expertise, bridal workers can give orders to their customers and chastise them when they deviate from appropriate behavior without fear that the customer will not return.Keywords
This publication has 12 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Boundaries of Professionalization: The Case of North American Funeral DirectionSymbolic Interaction, 1999
- Maintaining Professional Identity: Doctors’ Responses to ComplaintsSociology of Health & Illness, 1998
- The Effect of Friendship on Decisions: Field Studies of Real Estate TransactionsHuman Relations, 1996
- PAMELA'S PLACEGender & Society, 1996
- The Sacred and the Profane in Consumer Behavior: Theodicy on the OdysseyJournal of Consumer Research, 1989
- Generic Social ProcessesJournal of Contemporary Ethnography, 1987
- The Milkman and his Customer: A Cultivated RelationshipUrban Life and Culture, 1972
- Some Contingencies of the Moral Evaluation and Control of Clientele: The Case of the Hospital Emergency ServiceAmerican Journal of Sociology, 1972
- The Practice of Law as Confidence Game Organizational Cooptation of a ProfessionLaw & Society Review, 1967
- Janitors Versus Tenants: A Status-Income DilemmaAmerican Journal of Sociology, 1952