The greater openness of the valley to trade and especially to new products from the large towns and colonies generated new consumption habits and new behaviour on the part of the Périgordines from 1860 onwards.
These new habits led to the development of new sectors of activity with a multiplication, diversification and specialisation of trade in the small towns, which thus became « small kingdoms of modernity » in the eyes of the villagers.
The retail trades multiplied with grocery shops, increasingly specialised shops and department stores, symbols of modernity. In the same way, food trades such as butchers, bakers, butchers, pastry cooks and four-season merchants appeared as the standard of living of the population increased.
This increase in the number of craftsmen and tradesmen in the same area necessarily generated competition, and advertising, signs and other advertisements flourished on the walls and in the newspapers in an attempt to remedy this.
Illustrations :
– Postcard of the Place du Coderc in Périgueux and its market. Cliché Guichard ©Archives Départementales de la Dordogne, 2 Fi 3671.
– Photo-card of the Martin bakery around 1930 in Mussidan. 2014.9.8 Chica Collection © Musée André Voulgre
– Postcard of a grocery shop on the road from Sainte Foy to Mussidan in the 1930s. 2014.9.21 Chica Collection © Musée André Voulgre
– Postcard of a haberdashery, lingerie, hosiery shop rue de Lyon in Mussidan in 1914 2014.9.185 Chica Collection © Musée André Voulgre
– Postcard of the Boutant house, grocery shop, general food, clothing, delicatessen in Saint Laurent des Hommes in the 1920’s. ©Collection Escarment.
– Postcard of the rue de Lyon in Mussidan with the Ferrand pastry shop on the right in 1907. 2014.9.307 Chica Collection © Musée André Voulgre
– Photograph of a butcher’s shop in Lagut at Saint Front de Pradoux in 1898. Photo André Rigaillaud © Private collection
– Postcards from the clothing and textile shop Dumas then Jardel fils Au Progrès around 1900 and 1910. Chica Collection © Musée André Voulgre