The essay aims to analyse the problematic relationship between urban transformations, progressive growth of mass consumption, commercial revolution and the Left in a period of economic crises and miracles. Taking for example Bologna, the most important city run by socialist and communist parties, the paper problematizes the urban, socio-economic and political-institutional processes connected with the emergence of new consumerist practices and of American distribution strategies.
Keywords: Retail, consumption, urban transformation, left, Bologna.