Environment and Planning D; Society and Space 1997, volume 15* pagan 87 112 The bargain^ the knowledge^ and the spectacle: making sense of consumption in the space of the car-boot sale Nicky Gregson Department of Geography, University of Shefileld, Sheffield S10 2TN, England; e-mail: HGrcgson@Shcffickl.ac.uk Louise Crewe Department of Geography, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, England; e-mail: Crcwc@gcography.nottingluim.ac.uk Received 1 February 1996; in revised form 29 May 1996 Abstract, We are concerned with making sense of the car-boot sale as an empirical and theoretical phenomenon. The paper is based on participant-observation field research, in-depth interviews, and site surveys and we start by challenging two of the most commonly held myths about car-boot sales; that these events arc all about 'shady rogues' disposing of volumes of dodgy gear onto an unsuspecting public, and that a preponderance of cheap goods means that ear-boot sales are domi- nated by 'tatt' and disadvantaged sectors of society. Having examined patterns of purchasing within the car-boot sale, we consider how car-boot-sale goers themselves construct and participate within the space of the boot sale. At one level, this construction is shown to involve the use both of accumulated and of local knowledge and to be open to interpretation as illustrative of competitive individualism. Another reading of the car-boot sale, however, and one central to understanding the enduring popularity of this phenomenon, is its transgressive nature. The space of the car-boot sale is argued to be one where people come to play, where the conventions of retailing are suspended, and where participants come to engage in and produce theatre, performance, spectacle, and laughter. We go on to examine the connections between the car-boot sale and the Bakhtinian notion of carnival, arguing that the car-boot sale needs to be read in multifarious ways: as a liminal space which encapsulates the carnivalesque, the festive, and the popular, which subverts convention and yet which, through its celebration of the free market and the unshackled individual, embraces facets of the dominant order. We then move on to comment on the broader significance of the car-boot-sale phenomenon for studies of consumption. 1 Introduction Our concern in this paper is with the car-boot-sale phenomenon in Britain, and specifically with examining what goes on within this space—with making sense of it, both empirically and theoretically. In so doing we hope, albeit indirectly, to give some insight into the massive and enduring popularity of such events in Britain in the 1990s. Car-boot sales, it is generally agreed, first appeared in Britain in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Situated primarily, although not exclusively, in fields, car parks, and/or open spaces on the urban fringe, and organised both by private sector promoters and by institutions such as schools and hospitals for fund-raising, these events involve the exchange of, for the most part, used household and personal goods. As such they connect with other similar spaces of secondhand exchange, notably jumble sales, flea markets, swap meets, and garage sales (Belk et al, 1988; Freedman, 1976; Gordon, 1985; Hermann and Soiffer, 1984; McCree, 1984; Maisel, 1976; Miller, 1988; Parrish, 1986; Razzouk and Gourley, 1982; Sherry, 1988; 1990; Soiffer and Hermann, 1987; Willis, 1990). In the case of car-boot sales, however, and as we have discussed elsewhere (Gregson and Crewe, 1994), sellers drive to a site where they pay a flat-rate fee to the promoter or organiser for a 'pitch' (usually of the order of £5-£7 for a car, more for a trailer and/or van), on which they park their car and from which they sell their goods (for the most part arranged on self-provided, do-it-yourself wallpapering or decorating tables of a style widely available from DIY superstores in the United Kingdom).