Nostalgia in the Grocery Shop: A Typology of Brands from the Past

Abstract

This paper explores, within a historical and anthropological approach, a configuration of food brands from the past into the larger context of the local market, thirty years after the fall of Ceausescu’s regime, in 1989. After a brief presentation focusing on the emergence and the evolution of the new MarCom industry starting with the ‘90s, the theoretical framework of the study is considered, questioning the links between nostalgia and food, and further on between memory and material culture. The second part examines previous representations of past brands, looking also into a series of pertinent tools for an interdisciplinary approach combining field research, content analysis and visual ethnography. Our study further explores the way brands from the past may be considered, thus building a typology consisting of six categories: “Originals”, “Updated”, “Romanian Tastes”, “Archetypal Figures”, “Nostalgic” and “Collectibles”. Finally, brands from the “Originals” category are examined while also raising new questions about the social context of their consumption.

Keywords

• collective memory
• alternative memory practices
• commodification of communist-era brands