Drawing upon historical research, contemporary academic treatments of children's geographies and some preliminary observations of a few `children's' retail settings in the USA, this article concentrates on building an analytic of commercialized children's spaces. An account of the construction of retail departments specifically for children in USA clothing stores in the 1930s offers an insight into two intersecting spatial dimensions: aspirational and proprietary spaces. These, in turn, inform how versions of the `child consumer' shape, and have been shaped by, spatially situated market considerations.
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