‘Fresher than Fresh’. Consumer Attitudes Towards the Development of the Cold Chain in Post-2WW Greece

Abstract

In studying the development and role of home appliances, either from a historical or anthropological or a sociological perspective, there emerges a kind of symmetry: what they do is, in effect, what humans can do. Appliances just do it better, they do it faster, they are more thorough, they do it more safely. Electric stoves, gas ovens, vacuum cleaners, washing machines even electric irons have their ‘counterparts’ in human activities and, at times, in human skilfulness. They can, in effect, be regarded as concentrated labour. There is, however, an intriguing exception to this rule: home refrigerators and to a certain extent, air conditioning. In other words, appliances producing artificial cold do not appear to be instantiations of concentrated labour. And if one is to search any kind of symmetry analogous to the appliances mentioned above, one will have to search it not with respect to human labour and skills, but with respect to natural conditions. Refrigerators ‘(re)produce’ what happens in cold winter days or what exists in mountain tops; refrigerators are regarded as appliances which harness and control ‘something’ found in nature. And, thus, refrigerators and air conditioners, as opposed to all other home appliances, produce something for consumption. They produce cold and, hence, they regulate its consumption. Furthermore, refrigerators not only produce material forms of cold, that is ice cubes (there is no analogue for heat), but they also produce a quality that creates an added value to a vast number of products. The very possibility that foodstuff can be preserved in cold, gives to these products an extra value. To have consumer goods, whose rate of perishing can be diminished with the aid of a specific appliance, makes these goods more valuable.