Do you know who you are selling to? An ethnographic approach to upper-class shopping experiences in Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

An ethnographic approach to consumption practices of upper-class young-adult women in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, shows how shopping and selling experiences are seen as opportunities for owners, staff, and customers to build social relations. As a consequence, the belt of trust that is built through such transactions creates a network of stores, women, brands, and goods attached by strong reciprocity ties. This also produces a distinction between shops that are “cozy,” and the ones that are bureaucratic and “open to everyone.” Among such practices, informants reproduce the particular Brazilian rite of asking “Do you know who you are talking to?” to reinforce local social hierarchies and distinctions, a rite that was previously analyzed by the anthropologist Roberto DaMatta. While consumption practices are often seen as some sort of North Americanization of the world, we argue for the importance of ethnographic accounts that map local forms of appropriation and particular power dynamics.