Part 2 THE HOUSEHOLD

The final chapters take a different perspective on consumer behaviour, with the main focus on the economic and social behaviour in individual households. This enables us to examine what it was about everyday life that led to consumption of domestic goods. Consumption patterns are the aggregates of individual decisions, and the ‘unit of consumption’ was the household. It is therefore essential to have some perception of domestic behaviour to understand consumption, just as it is necessary to understand the firm in order to understand production.