The Store on the Corner

Abstract

The Detroit area’s most prevalent non-bank financial services providers are not the check cashing outlets, payday lenders, pawnshops, and rent-to-own stores that receive the lion’s share of attention in the research literature. Rather, they are neighborhood convenience and liquor stores, known as "party stores," which in addition to purveying alcohol and related products, serve as neighborhood financial hubs. This dissertation combines urban ethnography with analysis of everyday finances to investigate how these economic activities unfold within the social fabric of neighborhoods, paying careful attention to the underlying social order and unspoken rules that make possible these potentially risky transactions. Drawing on relational capital accrued with store personnel, customers circumvent the information dragnets that might otherwise ensnare them, relegating them to predatory markets. As the system relies on personal relationships, emergent social orders, and businesses that provide a fuller range of services, the project presents a case that runs counter to the long-held axiom that the poor pay more. The first chapter, "‘It’s a Who-You-Know Thing’: Interactional Fraud Prevention in Non-Bank Check Cashing" looks to how party store personnel reduce uncertainty in the form of fraud when cashing customers' checks. It highlights how soft information gleaned through presentations of self plays a pivotal role in decision-making, risk assessment, and fraud prevention. The second chapter, “Disposable Information: Informal Credit Networks and Urban Poverty" shows how relationships between customers and store personnel influence economic survival strategies, in this case helping facilitate resource exchange in an interest free informal credit market. The third chapter, "Lottery Play as Meaningful Social Action," explores lottery participation among members of the urban poor throughout the temporal phases of play. It brings contemporary lottery play into sociological accounts of action, particularly adaptations or attempts at controlling fatefulness. Adaptations help explain how players’ affective states influence not only their decisions to play, but also how they play, and even go about collecting their winnings under increased state surveillance. In so doing, this dissertation advances sociological understanding of how information flows and social interactions shape economic practices, revealing how neighborhood stores play a crucial role in bridging the gap between urban poor communities, mainstream financial institutions, and governmental bodies. Combining ethnographic insights with theoretical perspectives, it offers a comprehensive analysis of a relatively overlooked financial system, highlighting its significance in the lives of the urban poor and suggesting avenues for future research and policy on economic behavior and financial inclusion.