A 1 APPLIANCE PARTS

The mid '70's was the beginning of the computer age in which inevitable technology driven changes were before us. It was current history that needed contemporary documentation . Computers were fast becoming business appliances and the car increasingly a lifestyle appliance. Life was being streamlined into "the fast lane".
Until then, village communal habits had continued in suburbia. Like the local blacksmith's role in the village hub previously, suburban petrol filling stations had been a place for vehicle maintenance as well as supply. But high labour intensity became redundant in the face of technological advance. Failure to adapt immediately spelt economic doom in this changing world.

A small part of this vast new technology was to data-link petrol bousers to the office enabling self-serve petrol, eliminating labour and bringing customers inside to become prey to point of sale merchandising.
Seven eleven were among the first to seize this opportunity by combining their convenience stores with petrol company outlets. What we are familiar with today was seen as a hasty disappearance for quiet suburban petrol/service stations.

Meanwhile out on the highway, more bousers at each outlet with no labour and faster transactions, meant fewer filling stations would now be necessary, while repairs and maintenance were pushed aside to become a specialist business housed elsewhere.
The former workshop with it's open space and generous doors was perfect in many cases, to house a retail store.

In 1975 the carnage was just about to start. I estimated the peak of this impending frenzy would coincide with my summer holidays between second and final years at Art School. The prospect of a substantial folio that could be accomplished with reasonable ease and to have completed much of the year's personal commitment before returning was too good to be true.
It was a simple plot. The folio would be the sequence of gradual disappearance. But it was not so simple. Petrol companies would remove their bousers the day the business closed. I had to be lucky and this was the only time I was - while collection was in progress.

From the Wangfujing Dajie outlet of 'FAB' chain store in Beijing. FAB sells appliances, cellphones and audio-visual products. They have all kinds of ridiculous price tags, like Ą19,000 ($2,621) for a black MacBook, or Ą2,200 ($303) for a 8G Transcend SD card......