"Do you think the family is
important to society? But the Big Bazaar feeds, clothes, amuses; it replaces
families, in every respect but the single one of biological reproduction.
From womb to grave, it watches over you, supplying the necessities and
creating the unmet need. . . . Do you think factories are something to
know about? But the Bazaar is a factory: it has taken unto itself the several
phases of the economic circuit, and now contains them all. And it is also
a factory of smiles and visions, of faces and dreams of life, surrounding
people with the commodities for which they live, holding out to them the
goals for which they struggle. What factory is geared so deep and direct
with what people want and what they are becoming? Measured by space or
measured by money, it is the greatest emporium in the world: it is a world--dedicated
to commodities, run by committees and paced by floor-walkers"
(White Collar: The American Middle Classes, 1951,
p. 167).