Mundane Shops
Most shops are specialty affairs, focusing on one particular good or type of commerce; for example, a chandler sells candles, a milliner sells hats, and a butcher sells cuts of meat. General stores exist, but are certainly not the norm. This focus on one particular type of good typically means that the shop is adept at creating their area of expertise.
Most items are bespoke, made in small batches, or ordered. While the elemental revolution has started more mass production of items, this has mostly had more wide-scale industrial applications; cloth may be woven on a larger scale, for example, but most clothing is still hand sewn. Most food and beverages are also not industrialized, so visiting the market for vegetables, the butcher for meat, and the baker for bread is still a commonality. Goods in a store will not generally be marked for price, and one must inquire of the shopkeep as to the cost of an item you wish to buy. If one is wealthy, inquiring after price is considered gauche, as price should be no object of concern if you are of a certain station.
Each neighborhood generally has at least one shop dealing in each of the basics, and shops specializing in fine goods can be found in richer sections of town. The quality of goods and relative wealth of the shopkeepers is also closely tied to the neighborhood in which the shop sits. For the most part, shopkeepers will live in the same building as their shop, with the shop fronting the street and living quarters either above, next to, or behind the store.
Department stores are newly on the scene, and are still considered a novelty catering to the rich and wealthy. The ability to shop for many different types of fine goods, gathered together all in one place for your shopping pleasure, is a distinct privilege. The price of goods in a department store reflects this, and owners of department stores are correspondingly wealthy.
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