1950 When Grocery Stores Replaced Home Gardens

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How Grocery Stores Have Changed Over the Years

Take a stroll down memory ... aisle.

H. Armstrong Roberts Getty Images

Grocery stores serve as a reflection of what is going on in society. From the surge of big supermarkets in the 1950s consumerism phase to stocked canned food aisles during the Cold War, there have been a lot of shifts since the first store was conceptualized in 1916. See for yourself how shopping for food has evolved over the last 100 years.

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Self-service shopping was a new concept.

The old grocery system involved customers calling or bringing their grocers lists of what they needed, then stores would bag items for pick-up or delivery. But Clarence Saunders changed the game when he opened the first self-service grocery store, the Piggly Wiggly, in 1916 in Memphis, Tennessee. By the '50s and '60s, shoppers became accustomed to strolling through aisles and hand-selecting items themselves.

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Shoppers dressed to impress.

The customers of the 20th century would be horrified by what most people wear to the store today. Back then, the norm was to dress up when running errands and women would wear their best dresses and accessories.

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Window displays were huge, too.

Grocery stores mimicked the strategy that department stores used to lure customers in with window displays. The concept, started by Harry Gordon Selfridge, aimed to make store windows an attraction and began in 1914.

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Workers made more than the minimum wage.

In 1962, the average grocery store worker in the United States made $1.69 an hour. This was higher than minimum wage at the time, which was $1.15, or the equivalent to $9.85 in 2020.

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Stores were smaller.

In the early '60s and '70s, a grocery store's footprint was at most 15,000-square-feet. Much different from the markets today, which are on average 45,000-square-feet.

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Shopping carts were fairly new.

Sylvan Goldman got the idea for shopping carts from two folding lawn chairs. Before then, customers carried their groceries in baskets. It took some coaxing to get people to try the new invention — men were embarrassed to admit they didn't want to carry the basket and women claimed it was too similar to a stroller — but by the '40s most stores had adapted the idea.

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Cash registers didn't always calculate change.

Can you imagine? An advert from Kroger's in 1957 prides itself on having cash registers that did calculate exact change for a customer, so we know where we would have been shopping.

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The checkout lane had to be expanded.

In the '40s, grocery stores had to make their checkout stands bigger to accommodate the amount of food shoppers bought at once with the new invention of carts.

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All items were price checked.

Before the barcode was invented in 1974, store clerks were tasked with manually placing a price tag sticker on each product being sold.

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It took a lot longer to check out.

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Plastic bags weren't a thing yet.

No one was asking you whether you preferred "paper or plastic" until the '50s, when plastic bags were invented. Even then, it wasn't until the '80s that their use in grocery stores started to increase.

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Aisles had to be widened.

Grocery stores remodeled their aisles, making them wider, so that multiple carts could fit at one time.

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Carts evolved over the years.

In 1947, Orla Watson added an attached basket to the inside for easy storage. In the '50s, a child seat was added as an extra convenience for parents.

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Fewer items were kept in stock.

An average of 4,000 products were kept in stores in the mid-'70s. Although this may have made shopping faster with fewer choices, it didn't provide consumer with the variety they have today.

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Grocers used to only sell food.

It wasn't until the '80s that people started to expect a variety of items at their grocery store — from flowers and toys to magazines and greeting cards. Before then, shoppers were only purchasing food.

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Some markets were joint stores.

Like this one, which had a laundromat attached. The idea was specifically tailored to busy moms, who wanted to get two household chores done at once.

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And some included lunch counters.

Combining the popular 1950s soda shoppe and grocery store seemed like a brilliant idea at the time. Here, customers enjoy a quick bite before shopping.

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But not everyone was welcome.

Due to segregation and Jim Crow laws, it was illegal for Black people to sit at the counters in many shops until 1964. Here, a sit-in takes place in Oklahoma City on August 26, 1958 to desegregate lunch counters. Many similar protests took place during the Civil Rights Movement.

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Competition was fierce.

As grocery stores became more profitable in the '30s, more chains opened up nationwide. By the time the '50s rolled around, there was a fierce competition in the marketplace and retailers enlisted advertising companies to create flashy ads that would set themselves apart.

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But grocery store expansion led to more segregation.

Companies focused on opening stores in suburban areas, specifically white neighborhoods over predominately Black communities, which some have referred to as "supermarket redlining." As a result, it was harder and more expensive for people in Black neighborhoods to access food, especially fresh, healthy food.

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Green stamps were all the rage.

Think of green stamps like coupons on steroids. The loyalty program, established by Sperry and Hutchinson, allowed shoppers to collect stamps at their local grocery and trade them in for items in the S&H catalog. Green stamps were huge in the '70s — The Brady Bunch even did an episode about them — but the trend faded by the '80s.

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Uniforms were typical.

The Piggly Wiggly was the first grocery store chain to introduce uniforms, outside of the typical apron. The '60s outfit worn by Piggly Wiggly female employees featured a black dress and a white frilly apron.

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Free samples were always a good idea.

Costco wasn't the first to discover that free samples help boost sales. Back in the '50s, grocery stores would hand out tasting samples as a way to get customers to try new products.

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You had to weigh your produce.

The self-service model extended to shoppers using large balanced scales, which were conveniently hung around the produce department, before heading to the checkout lane.

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Free parking was necessary.

One of the reasons supermarkets expanded in the '50s is because households began purchasing cars. Grocery stores enticed their customers to shop with them by offering free parking.

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Frozen foods were all the rage.

Although the method for freezing foods was invented in 1924, it didn't become popular until the '50s. By 1954, the demand for products like Swanson's TV dinners was so high, more products started filling up the freezer aisle.

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Stores tried to appeal to kids.

From shopping carts with built-in child seats to kiddie corrals that were set up to entertain your children while you shopped, grocery stores in the 20th century made it easy on parents to bring their kids with them to the market.

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Canned food was big.

People stocked up on non-perishable foods during the Cold War era in case of a bombing. But the idea of canned food stretched far beyond just beans and soup and included everything from asparagus to pineapple.

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You couldn't shop on Sundays.

In the '50s, stores weren't open 24/7 like some are today. They were typically open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and were closed on Sundays.

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