The birth of the consumption society

The standard of living rises at the end of the 1950s and a growing portion of the population attains material well-being. Households acquire their first domestic appliances and their first televisions. With the five-day week becoming the norm, tourism and leisure activities grow. The logic of consumption, which gradually replaces that of parsimony, will definitively take root during the Golden Sixties.

Imported from the United States, the supermarket introduces a new distribution method to Belgium: self-service. From now on, the housewife serves herself with the aid of her trolley and makes all of her purchases in the same establishment.