Isabelle Gaillard

An Unknown, but Key Player in the Television Market: The Television Retailer and the Case of Black and White TV Sets in France (1950-1987)

This article offers insights into how black and white TV sets were sold in France from 1948 to the mid 80s. During this period, the black and white television set shifted from being an expensive and breakable technical object to a commonplace, mass consumer durable good. The article illustrates this process.

Selling Televisions on Credit: The Rise of Consumer Loans in Postwar France

In 1957, Henry Davezac, president of the French electrical manufacturing labor union, commented on the sizable role that consumer credit should play in the market for television sets in France: “We have to take all measures suitable for expanding the market. Making it easier for customers to get credit constitutes the most effective of these… It represents not only additional sales that would not otherwise be made, but also an essential stimulant to commercial activity, because it brings about an important growth in cash sales.”1 Davezac defended consumer credit against its critics as a major way to increase the sales of new television sets and help the whole electronics industry grow. But rhetoric and reality are not always identical. What role did consumer credit really play in the market for television sets in postwar France?