Tomáš Dvořák
Stores, Shops, and Grocers: The Location and Operation of Grocery Stores in Pre-1900 Prague
This paper deals with the reality of everyday shopping in Prague at the end of the 19th century, focusing primarily on grocery stores and using period documents from a directory for Prague and its new suburbs to create a detailed map of grocery stores around the year 1885. The primary goal is to eventually exhibit this map at the Prague City Museum. The operation of shops, from the point of view of both consumers and shop keepers is captured using excerpts from literary works of the period by Jan Neruda and Ignát Herrmann. While one of Neruda's feuilletons rather nostalgically recalls the engaging atmosphere of a grocery store, providing numerous details and highlighting its importance for the community of its customers, Herrmann's novel U snědeného krámu depicts a young shopkeeper and the complexities of operating a shop near Charles Square.
Keywords: grocers and merchants - 19th century Prague - Jan Neruda - Ignát Herrmann
design by Bedřich Vémola
