What Grocery Stores Were Like in the 1960s | a Supermarket Documentary
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ส.ค. 2024
- Step back in time as we explore the fascinating world of grocery stores in the 1960s. Join us on a nostalgic journey to discover the unique charm, products and experiences that defined this era of shopping in America.
Inspired by Lily McElveen's article "What Grocery Stores Were Really Like In The '60s" on Mashed. Check out the fascinating insights: www.mashed.com/1372793/popula...
00:00 Intro
0:37 Check Out Was Time Consuming
1:21 the Stores Were Smaller
2:21 the Produce Sections Were Smaller
3:11 the Stores Were Smokey
3:52 Everyone Dressed Elegantly
4:48 Meat Was a Focal Point
5:34 No Food Labeled “Organic”
6:20 Minimal International Food
7:07 the Frozen Section Was Popular
7:50 Lots of Canned Food
8:38 Lack of Whole Grains
REFERENCES:
"20120105-OC-AMW-0003" flickr photo by USDAgov flickr.com/photos/usdagov/669... shared into the public domain using (PDM)
"National Tea (National Supermarkets) 1964 Ad" flickr photo by Robert Stinnett flickr.com/photos/rstinnett/4... shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license
"Vintage Ad #529: A Whiff of Turkey" flickr photo by jbcurio flickr.com/photos/jbcurio/242... shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license
"20120105-OC-AMW-0003" flickr photo by USDAgov flickr.com/photos/usdagov/669... shared into the public domain using (PDM)
"20120105-OC-AMW-0002" flickr photo by USDAgov flickr.com/photos/usdagov/669... shared into the public domain using (PDM)
Dept. of Television Radio & Emerging Media. (n.d.). Kool Cigarettes [Video]. TH-cam. • Kool Menthol Cigarette...
"The Women of Mad Men 053" flickr photo by MyLifeInPlastic.com flickr.com/photos/mawphoto/38... shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license
"West's Yum Yum Enriched Bread, Circa 1960 - Advertising Postcard" flickr photo by Shook Photos flickr.com/photos/shookphotos... shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license
"Swanson TV Dinner 1963" flickr photo by 1950sUnlimited flickr.com/photos/blakta2/822... shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license
PovertyPointCustoms. (n.d.). 1950’s Old Ford Furguson Farm Tractor Commercial [Video]. TH-cam. • 1950's Old Ford Furgus...
"Mad Men (1 of 2)" flickr photo by Brett Jordan flickr.com/photos/x1brett/632... shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license
Dept. of Television Radio & Emerging Media. (n.d.-b). Wonder Bread [Video]. TH-cam. • Wonder Bread Wheat (Co...
"1970s Leeds Supermarket" flickr photo by shipley43 flickr.com/photos/27148401@N0... shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license
Phillip Pessar, CC BY 2.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons
Fotopersbureau de Boer, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
"Winn Dixie Press Photo 1961" flickr photo by Phillip Pessar flickr.com/photos/southbeachc... shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license
Seattle Municipal Archives, CC BY 2.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons
"68-09 Supermarket with John & Wendy 1_edited" flickr photo by wilfordpeloquin flickr.com/photos/193055396@N... shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license
"A farmer tests his grain before harvest in the Prairies / Un agriculteur des Prairies vérifie le grain avant la récolte" flickr photo by BiblioArchives / LibraryArchives flickr.com/photos/lac-bac/206... shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license
"1970s para Shopping" flickr photo by jackcast2015 flickr.com/photos/135431875@N... shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license
"1964 ... supermarket" flickr photo by x-ray delta one flickr.com/photos/x-ray_delta... shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license
"The Women of Mad Men 046" flickr photo by MyLifeInPlastic.com flickr.com/photos/mawphoto/38... shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license
"Strongbow Turkey Inn and Farm, Meal, circa 1960s - Valparaiso, Indiana" flickr photo by Shook Photos flickr.com/photos/shookphotos... shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license
#grocerystore #1960s #history #americanhistory
No, the produce section was smaller because most produce was seasonal and still sourced locally. My Dad was a grocery store manager during WW2 and in the 60’s for both Safeway (big chain) and a smaller grocery store. People did dress more formally but that was true for any sort of public outing. White bread was like dessert - ppl ate rough texture homemade whole grain bread for years before WW2. After the WW2 with the advent of more women working convenience became a huge driver of change.
Technology was a huge driver in our food offerings. Remember sliced bread was invented just 40 years prior and the 60s was the decade where the majority of Americans finally had freezers.
These are the stores I remember--my grandfather was a butcher. Yes...people dressed up when shopping. Women rarely wore pants...we weren't allowed to wear pants to school or church. "Leave it to Beaver" was a perfect example. I'm glad I was raised in these times!
Thank you for sharing your memories, Ted! It's fascinating to hear about the customs and styles from that era.
Me too!
What I remember from the 1960s grocery shopping were all the women with curlers that were covered in a scarf so their curls would be all ready for husband's arrival home for dinner!
I remember that the checkouts had machines that ground coffee beans
ALDI stores are still small compared to other grocery stores and have relatively limited selection of items.
I think I'm going to start dressing up to go to the store.
I do dress up all the time, take a peek at some of my videos !
You only need to watch a few "only in Walmart" videos to know how far dignity has declined. Many people obviously don't know the word. 😓😩
@@dennisstoddard2008 It's better to be overdressed than underdressed.
Your best taffeta??? 😀
Yes! Maybe you'll set an example for these sloppy women out there!!!!!
I was a child in the 60's and yes adults smoked everywhere back then. Women wore curlers, especially in the grocery store. Hair nets, scarfs covered most, but nobody was putting on their Sunday best to buy frozen dinners. Men did not wear suits to the grocery store unless they were stopping to pick something up after work.
I remember it the same way. Over half the women wore curlers at the grocery store, and guys were usually in blue jeans or bib overalls. Today I rarely see women in curlers anymore. Maybe they’re not used as much anymore, or it’s done more at the beauty shop. I don’t know.
I remember well-dressed women, though occasionally, yes, a woman in curlers and scarf, in a hurry.. Women had lovely hairstyles in those days, and they displayed manners and spoke formally, with clear enunciation. I don’t recall smoke in the groceries, but yes in other venues. Nor do I recall the grocery stores as small. Many were actually quite huge, with tall neon pylons and modernistic roofs.
Same, I was born in 1961.
@@tonycollazorappo it is strange, but the world, though more formal than today, seemed more futuristic and full of hope back then. It may sound absurd, but you'd get excited by the architecture of a new grocery store back then--today, people are so spoiled and indifferent.
@@user-qj4dx4fc3n I think that’s mainly because of the Googie style of architecture. That was a post-WWII American futurism architectural style. It invoked the “full of hope. “feeling that you described. Also, Americans were more patriotic back then.
(This is Tom, not Sandra.)
I miss the 1960's so much!! Times were slower, less hectic and less stressful than in successive decades since. I loved the simplistic era of the '60's the most. As l previously stated , I miss those times a lot!! I hope, in my next life, l can live in a time again that was as calm and as wonderful as those great times were.
Yes, they were slower and no craziness.
I grew up in the 50's....your video about schools was very acurate.
One thing I loved in grocery stores in the 1960's was that the checkers put everything on the runners, rang it up, and bagged it. The cart went behind the checker's counter, and only the shopper walked in front of it. It was easier to dress up when going to the grocery store when your contact with bloody meat was minimal. Many grocery stores at that time offered service for shoppers from store employees who wheeled the purchases to their car and unloaded them, then wheeled the cart back into the store. I lived in Mississippi for a while in 1984, and the grocery stores were still doing that service just as a matter of course.
Yep , my first paying job was as a sacker at a grocery store in the '60s . We sacked the groceries , put them in a cart , and took it to the customers car and put them in the car for them . We got tips
Interesting to see the differences compared to today!
I enjoyed going to the grocery stores in the 60s with my foster parents. I would always go the cereal lane and pick out a box with the best toy in it, lol. I was born in 1961. Life was so much better back then, I miss it.
My mom was big on those TV dinners! I don’t miss them one bit!
I certainly enjoyed my trips to the supermarket with my parents on weekends when I was a kid.
The highlight of the trip was when we got our S&H Green Stamps at the checkout when we paid for our groceries. 🙂
Miss it😊
Oh yeah, chicken and beef pot pies were 10 cents.
Before hyperinflation turned into food insecurity.
It's crazy how fast everything blows up in so little time. Really, the 50s, 60s, 70s.. Wasn't that long ago. Think about how much everything has slowly changed and what it will be 40 to 50 years from now.
Van de Kamp’s bakery was the Best!
I remember grocery stores in the 1970s and early 80s having a rack of cigarette packs above the conveyor belt. Cartons were sold on end caps of an aisle. No one checked IDs for cigs because there was either no minimum age, or it just wasn't enforced. However, by the latter part of the 1980s, minimum ages for cigarettes were starting to be enacted and merchants started locking up cigs to reduce theft. Self service displays for cigs made them easy to steal.
As unbelievable as this may sound today, parents would send their kid to the grocery store to buy cigarettes back in the 1970s and early 80s. Mom or dad often gave the kid just enough money to also buy a candy bar. This may not have been done everywhere, but I did see it happen growing up in the Fox Cities of Wisconsin.
I miss the good old days !!!
As a bag boy & check-out clerk during my highschool & early college years, this is a very accurate portrayal. The opening scene shows a duplicate NCR cash register of the one I used. No automatic change calculation and when 2% sales tax on certain "luxury products" (paper products, etc.) was introduced in Texas, we had to calculate it manually from a little cheat sheet.
Produce had to be manually weighed and calculated. We opened at 8:30 am and closed at 8:30 pm. Closed all day Sunday. While we served an upscale customer base, they didn't all dress "elegantly." They did however drive nice cars: ex., 1963 Pontiac Grand Prix, 1963 Buick Riviera, Jaguar Mk X, a nurse with her 1963 Corverte and even a 1956 Lincoln Mark III.
We only sold beer and employees under 21 couldn't even touch or pick the six packs up from the carts.
Sadly, our "Handy Andy" Texas grocery chain lost out to the mighty HEB chain decades later.
Thank you for sharing your vivid memories! It's fascinating to hear about your experiences and how things have changed over time in the grocery business.
These are so nostalgic to me even though I never grew up in those days.
I have fond memories of shopping at Jewel in the 1960 's !😊
I sure do miss this!
Jack Webb was a three pack a day smoker and died from cancer.
Yeah the food back then was unhealthy? Meat consumption was unhealthy? As we moved in the future people started eating more man made foods instead of whole real foods!
At 6:30 ...the only international food aisle we had at Skaggs Albertsons was Mexican food...and I love Mexican food!!!
At 3:40 ...I was ten years old in 1972, I saw many people smoking when we shopped at Safeway...It just seemed normal then
I love this. But some things youre saying is not true. Stores were not smoky as you said. In the 1960s they were well ventilated. Also stores are not bigger now as you said. They were just as large as they are today. And check lines were not slower. those cashiers were fast. Now people writing checks was common and they took too long to write their check, that angered most of us. There was also more variety as well, people today have no clue what items were taken away because they werent around back then. When frozen items became greater for convenience, the trickery people never noticed is that many things were removed at the same time. Also, TV dinners tasted great, but today they are like eating air
What planet were you living on?
@@currybase Muted
All the stores we went to as kids were smaller. I never saw anyone get angry at a customer writing a check.
At 4:18..in 1972, I saw a women in jeans and a t-shirt shopping at Thif-Tee...it was very weird...
You wouldn't find people smart enough today to operate a checkout line like they had to in the 1960's. Ringing up each item individually then taking cash and figuring out change.
While I agree they could not do it today, it's not cause they are not bright enough, it's that they are not TAUGHT. I was floored the other day when someone told me that the kids in school do not even now how to WRITE!!!LOLOL They PRINT everything!!!!LOL
Mayyyyyybe…. I know Hobby Lobby has to still manually enter everything into the computer.
@@prehistoricgentlemanbird9131 ok:-)
Your calling people stupid, Not Nice, and do you have statistics on how many people couldn't operate a Manuel cash register? A little kindness goes a long way.
@@SmilingBeaver-ou7nc ????? Your comment needs to be addressed to "Johnopal316" not ME
Food was a lot cheaper. They were just as good as today’s food. Too bad for inflation.
Don't vote Democrat
I remember grocery stores back in the mid 60's had stacks of blank checks at the register you could use if you forgot yours or didnt have the cash. Not sure how those worked.
Grocery checkouts were slower but not sure about department or specialty stores. Now the clerks have to navigate and stare at the computer waiting for all the data to be captured and tracked, after you scan your membership and credit/ debit cards of course. Do we really need cashless parking attendants at ball games, scanning each person's credit card ?
This video is spot on except for one thing-their implication that eating red meat is a “health risk”. 🙄 I’d argue that except maybe for smoking, people were probably in much better health then than we are today.
At 8:00 ...yes, canned octopus was an essential...
"Price check at register 7'. There goes another 5 minutes. Just about every section listed here points out changes in customer preferences due to some new health awareness. Some regions of the US are far behind others in changing to healthy food, seeing it as some sort of conspiracy or something.
lack of whole grains today not then
Maybe the late 60's in the city.
Very poor research. I worked in a supermarket in the 60s and they were just as big and the checkers were probably faster, working the mechanical cash register, than todays checker. The reason being that it was actually an occupation back then. So, your full time checker was very, very fast and accurate. And as far as store credit, no such thing. Unless you are talking about a mom and pop store. but stores such Vons, Safeway, Alpha Beta, Boys were running the mom and pop store into extinction. Now they might have offered credit just to stay in Biz .
Good footage, quite interesting. But the modern shots are too frequently interspersed and often momentarily confusing as the brain figures out this picture is suddenly modern and rather a non sequitur. Especially in the freezer section I'm starting to realize it's getting too hard to follow.
It's like today's Imtiaz super market
The good old days! When people smoked in public places! Proud to eat red meat!
We are never going to eat crickets and bugs !
They did have areas (Chicago) that were populated by immigrants of certain countries. they each had their own grocery stores which had foods from their home land. So international foods not under one roof but in each area. Still that way today.
I remember these stores. Too many frozen dinners, canned and processed foods... better today!
A family could buy a weeks supply of food for $20 in 1964.
Prior to 1960's into 1970's was "Undisputedly" The Golden Era! After that, all Hell broke loose and now, the Hour is getting Near!
Bet the prices were dirt cheap!
I remember when the bar codes came out and ppl was thinking it was the end-times’ 666. 😂 I NEVER remember ppl smoking in the stores and the store being “smoky” or ashtrays in the isles. THAT must have been in NYC, California grocery stores. 🤷🤷.
I wonder how many grocery store workers got Cancer from second hand smoke. I feel sorry for anyone that was forced to inhale poison.
Dying from second hand smoke is all propaganda and a myth.
i smoked in every store
Store employees existed almost entirely of people of Eastern European descent.
Before stores were patrolled with security due to food theft.
Thank goodness smoking is banned in public places. Long-term effects from exposure to second-hand smoke include increased risk of: coronary heart disease (risk increased by 25 to 30%) lung cancer (risk increased by 20 to 30%) and other cancers. stroke (risk increased by 20 to 30%).
Because of technology employees are lazy now days.
People still bothered to grow their own fruit and veg in the 60's..... and all food was organic by default (normal, in other words), until messing about with the soil and gmo stuff etc took over, just so that shelves could stay full, produce would be uniform and the 'housewife' (sorry, but that's how it was!) was made to feel important by the illusion of 'choice'..... "convenience" has made us lazy and we know longer have the domestic skills our Grandparents had. We are reliant and would be clueless, these days, if there was a food crisis.....
WOW, I grew up working in a 1960's grocery store. You really don't know what you are talking about. Contact me if you want REAL info. Seriously, you have all your facts wrong, except about how people would dress. Jeans and overalls were considered vulgar and meant that you were impoverished, Everything else you mention is completely incorrect, probably derived from looking at old photos and not understanding what it was really like then. 🤐😪😪😭😭
Of course we had Wonder and Weber white bread,but sometimes we got Roman Meal bread too… I miss those big cans of Hi-C, there was a variety of them, and I will always miss the tube testing machines -
What about the S &H green stamps, and Blue Chip stamps?
There were no shoplifters then as compared now in stores like Safeway and Whole Foods. Democrat policies changed it to worse.
Before hyperinflation & food insecurity became factors.
Hi propaganda girl!
I'm not making a judgement one way or the the other but only making an observation that I did not see one non-Caucasian person in that whole video.
yeah, wrong. At the very beginning there was a black female checker.
What's your point?
Probably, employed behind the scenes of the supermarket.