{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.028254649499284693, 'fraction_numerical': 0.001072961373390558, 'mean_word_length': 5.12035010940919, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Regulating competition. Cartel registers in the twentieth-century world

motorised deliveries. A central chapter of this reconstruction is dedicated to the adoption of the first forms of self-service in small shops. However, the transition was not easy. in the first place, it involved a radical reorganisation of space, creating the ideal paths that the customers had to follow. secondly, it imposed the adoption of open displays and, above all, of suitable forms of packaging (canned goods, cellophane wraps, etc.) and therefore presupposed the concomitant development of the food industry. Lastly, checkouts and mobile barriers, such as turnstiles and automatic doors, had to be provided at the end of shopping. of course, all this also entailed the presence in the shop of well-known brands, thanks to habit and advertising. in this way, the traditional grocery store could be radically transformed to meet new social needs, as well as countering competition from the supermarkets. the interesting last chapter is devoted to the historical significance of the introduction of trolleys inside and outside the sales space, both in modern shops and in supermarkets. Alongside the description of the many typologies adopted, Franck Cochoy points out how ‘shopping on wheels’ has strongly influenced the arrangement of space, the type and quantity of sales, even positively affecting the presence of families, above all with regard to the presence of small children, who finally found a space on the trolley especially for them. the book, despite taking its cue from some already published essays, appears coherent and well-developed. in particular, the wealth of bibliographical references places it well within historiographic research, of which it constitutes a significant advance. of course, it reconstructs a specific point of view, since it is not certain (as the author variously maintains, for example on p. 199), that simply because a magazine is very widespread it reflects its readers’ point of view. it is inevitably a representation mediated by the press and the commercial culture close to the editorial team. nonetheless, the study of Progressive Grocer remains very significant, also because it interprets that ‘active resistance’ to a modernisation embodied by the large-scale retail trade (department stores, supermarkets, shopping malls) that has been seen as commerce’s only answer to modern capitalism. And also because the magazine is not a unique case, since it has been flanked, and later imitated, by other similar magazines in various countries, which sought to promote the transformation of the retail food trade. this is a text which, therefore, helps to rebuild the evolution of twentieth-century trade, not as a single inevitable path, but as a multifaceted reality.