田中鎮雜貨店的變遷

The Change of Grocery Stores in Tien-chung

蕭郁慧(Yu-huei Hsiao)

指導教授 ： 周學政

國立臺灣師範大學/文學院/地理學系/碩士(2001年)

摘要

隨著超市、便利商店、量販店等新型雜貨店的出現，傳統雜貨店的數量逐漸減少且在本質上發生變化，然而觀察這些經營數十年之久傳統雜貨店的變遷，可以窺見台灣從農業社會進入工商業社會人民生活上的改變，在商業競爭日趨激烈的今日，一些生意欠佳的雜貨店仍存在田中鎮的各個鄉間聚落，以消極的態度繼續經營著。傳統雜貨店並不只是販賣商品的場所，也是居民聚集聊天娛樂的地方，在聚落內部具有「中地」的功能，往往是郵政服務的據點，店家亦會提供居民需要的其他服務，例如讓居民以賒帳的方式購物在民國五、六十年之前為普遍現象，賒帳的機制是在務農家庭必須等稻子賣出才有現金以及農民不輕易離開土地的情況下建立的，進入工商業社會後此一現象即消失。在經營方面，早期雜貨店生意的好壞和菸酒牌的有無有絕對的關係，隨著菸酒專賣制度的放寬、取消，原本雜貨店的獨佔優勢亦不復在，消費市場趨於競爭，連帶批發市場亦然，補貨方式則由自行載貨演變為批發商送貨到府，使缺乏年輕一輩繼承的雜貨店能靠老年人繼續經營，但收入已不足負擔家庭支出，因為這些雜貨店所在的聚落不是人口外流，就是居民紛紛改向超市或菜車購物，傳統雜貨店因而趨於沒落。

關鍵字

雜貨店 ； 田中鎮 ； 賒帳 ； 台灣社會變遷

並列摘要

With the appearance of supermarkets, convenient stores and general merchandise stores, the amount of grocery stores declined. The characters of grocery stores also changed. These old grocery stores in Tien-chung (a town in Changhua Plain) are not only places for residents to go shopping, but also places for residents to get together. The old grocery store is a “central place” of the settlement. It provides other services than shopping, and the most important one is to let the residents purchase on credit. Before 1970s, most people in Tien-chung are farmers. They only get cash after their crop are sold twice a year, and in daily life they must purchase on credit. Since these people are farmers, they wouldn’t leave their land easily. So the owners of grocery stores would let them buy things on credit. As Taiwan is no longer an agricultural society, this mechanism disappeared. Before 1980s, whether get the permission of selling tobacco and wines or not influences the situation in operating the grocery store. Now the monopoly system is abandoned, and the markets (both retail and wholesale) become very competitive. Wholesalers would send goods to grocery stores instead of grocery store owners go out buying goods. This change makes it possible for old people to continue operating a store. But the business of these grocery stores is not good. The residents in Tien-chung now go shopping in supermarkets or buy groceries from “vegetable cars” instead.

並列關鍵字

grocery store ； Tien-chung ； purchase on credit ； social change in Taiwan