Shopping for the medieval woman
PEDDLERS - MARKETS - FAIRS - TOWNS & CITIES

Shopping took two forms- going to market to sell and buy wares and that of the traveling peddler. Most nearby towns had a regular weekly market where rural people would come for the day and sell their home produce and buy from butchers and bakers.

Peddlers
Traveling peddlers provided brought items which were harder to get locally or specialty items. A 13th century French song described in Love Lock'd Out, A Survey of Love, Licence and Restriction in the Middle Ages by James Cleugh refers to a peddlar who carries for sale:

'razors, tweezers, looking glasses, toothbrushes and tooth-picks, bandaus and curling irons, ribbons, combs, mirrors, rosewater... cotton with which they rouge themselves and whitening with which they whiten themselves.'

showing the large range of grooming cosmetics and tools which were potentially available via travelling merchants.

Towns & Cities
Shopping opportunities abounded for the woman who lived in a town or a city. Specialty stores sold everything a woman might need and there was more of a choice of items for sale. While some shops carried a range of goods like an old-style corner store, most shops were more of a specialist concern. Artisans were masters of a particular thing, and their wares reflected their trade.

Cities like London and Paris provided the best artisans with a steady stream of customers. Shoes, jewellery, foods, spices, books and household items were available. For every want, there was a specialist artisan who made and sold it.

A woman might buy off-the-shelf or have special commission made to order if she was in a position to be able to do so.

The noble woman did very little household shopping herself, but rather employed others to do it for her. It was expected that she would know what good should cost and the quality of them at what prices. She would be in charge of letting her staff know what household items to buy, and quite likely, where to buy them from.

The exception, of course, was the kitchen, where it was not necessary for her to judge the quantity of food required to feed a certain number of people on a daily basis.

When it came to luxury items, the noble and upper class ladies shopped at the finest establishments for jewellery and other fine items. She might buy books already produced or alternately, commission special books for her, with express instructions about the number of pages, illuminations and bindings.

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