I remember being very young...hearing my mom say we're going grocery shopping today...and reacting with ohhh no. Speed to present and I majored in history and came to understand how incredibly lucky I was to have been born into a time and a place where people could simply go to a central place where they could purchase any product..meat, vegetable, fruit, and any sort of drink or confection. All in a few hours of a morning. No farming...no droughts or hailstorm or plagues of locusts ...just availability. We're a spoiled lot...we need to be a bit more grateful for the world we live in. Just my two cents.
So true Mike That was impressed on me when we had friends form Sweden stay with us for a while in 1996. I sent my daughter to Sweden on a high school exchange program her junior year and I took my wife and my two other girls over there to pick Ann up. Her hos family said that they planned thier vacation around our arrival so we first stayed at their vaction home. As we were asking about accomdations in their home city, they said that they were staying in their vacation house and gave us the keys to their apartment rent free for t the 10 day stay. That gave us a chance to renta van and travel all the way to Stockholm for three days. So when their youngest daughter was in Minnesota in the program and was unhappy,Ann asked if she could stay with us for the second semester of school. We agreed and agreed to host her mother and her two sisters when they came to pick her up. Well we live in a town of about 4000 people so our stores are not that big. But we took them to a WalMart and then to an upscale store in St. Louis and to a mall ad they were shocked beyond words at the variety and the quality of the food and the lower prices than what they are used to. Of ccourse that has changed and even Russia have large stores now that are fully stocked
The movie “Yours Mine and Ours “ starring Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball. They were a married couple that had 19 children. They went grocery shopping and they had several shopping carts full and they rang up the price $126.00 . The movie was made in 1968. Anyone remember that movie? $126.00 wouldn’t even fill one cart now.
Yes, I came from a big family, 9 including parents 😂 we also had 4-5 carts if not more, bill was almost $500 & that was alot back then like you we're rich & we weren't 😂 & all rhat food lasted us about a week or so 😱
My fondest memory of a grocery store was the one my Great Aunt owned. It was called Cash Grocery and located in a town of around 700 people. It had wooden counters and some of them had glass fronts so you could see what was contained in the storage bins behind them. It had meat coolers and she cut whatever your choice was on a huge butcher block. In the middle of the store, there was a gas heater and about 6 wicker back chairs, and a checkerboard table. I can't remember a time going in there that there wasn't at least 3 people sitting there...usually old timers swapping lies and stories. It used to be a bank and in the back was where the safe deposit boxes were once located. In there, she stored bulk feed and seed. The cash register was huge, but didn't work. She just left the side open and manually opened the cash drawer with a lever inside. It had a large scale (for people, not food) in the very front. Get your weight for a penny. But it didn't work either. Her hours were normally 8 to 5 and she walked to the store every day (rain or shine) since she never owned a vehicle. My grandmother would walk to the store to relieve my aunt for lunch. However, my aunt would often close early if someone invited her to go fishing. AND, if a fishing trip was planned before hand, whoever invited her had to be careful because before the trip, my aunt would invite 3 or 4 others as well. Great times, great people.
I remember the A&P and other grocery stores that had the old fashioned meat scales to weight the meat as well as the button cash registers that would take you at least 15 minutes to cash out and you also would get green stamps also there were silver ashtrays at the end of each aisle because everyone could smoke cigarettes or cigars in the stores
@@MichelleBourque-w9z After my dad died (1957) my mother ended up with the controlling interest of a pharmacy. I started working there when I was 14. We gave out green stamps and as far as smoking went, when I was 16, I started working at a Western Auto store and two of the employees smoked. I was one of them. I remember selling auto accessories, stereo equipment, and appliances with a cigarette in my hand. We even often threw the butts on the floor and swept the store right after closing time. I worked there until I was 20 (1970). That's when I went into the Marines (70-76).
When My Late Mother was growing up during the Great Depression, she told me that she could go to the local Indoor Theater, pay for the ticket to go see a movie, buy a 6-Ounce Bottle of Coca-Cola and a bag of Popcorn for .25 cents. Shows how much things have changed since then.
My entire family shopped at A & P for decades! Both grandmothers and my own mother shopped there at least once a week, especially to get their 8 o'clock coffee, freshly ground right inside the store! Miss those days, to be sure!
That coffee was really good. i have to admit; I like my Keurig for the convenience. But I miss the smell of coffee brewing in the morning. It almost made you glad that you have to get out of bed. Almost.
Ann Page fruitcake - wonderful!!!! Shopped at A&P as a kid with my grandma and my mom- a bit older and was shopping for a family of 6, dad would come pay at the checkout! It was nerve wracking
it's funny how we've gone from clerks getting the products for us, then we the customers got to pick the products ourselves and now we're back to the clerks getting the products for us because everything has to be locked up now thanks to shoplifting
Not so. High priced things like electronics yeah but groceries? Shit, if only they'd lock up the grapes in produce that people love to graze on without buying!
I remember it was always a race between the cashier and the bagger boy ,she could ring stuff up on that mechanical cash register and send it ,while he tried to keep up ! Today they ring up 20 items and stand there Looking at you and ask " do you want a bag ?"
I was in the business for 41 years. I always preferred the " conventional " stores over the " super stores ". They were more cosy especially around the holidays.
I hear you! When I was very young it was just my mother and I -- No car, very little money. We'd walk to the store every other day to purchase food. Back then near Christmas many grocery stores would sell some toys. ANd the little market we went to had toys for sale but the only thing I could see was this little stuffed cat - It was purple and had a bow around its neck. I dreamed about the stuffed cat but knew even as a little kid to not hope to have it. I remember my mother telling me that *if* I was really good Santa might bring me something but sometimes Santa wouldn't, even if I was really good. Christmas morning I got up and there on the kitchen table was that stuffed cat. I kept that silly stuffed cat until high school --- fully understanding just how much it had cost my mom to be able to eek out a few pennies here, a quarter there, to save up for that little stuffed toy.
Me Too.. We had a lot of small grocery stores in my hometown, Most were on Main Street as was my grandparents tavern' So my grandmother tried to shop at all of them for things because it was good for business, But he way she did it was unusal. The weekly newspaper came out on Tuesday with all the grocerie's ads featuring Wednesday sales. Sales were on Wednesday because stores were closed on Thursday afternoons but stayed open late on Friday nights back then. She would go through the paper and circle all the things she wanted by comparison shopping. She'cut out any coupons that were offered and put the coupons, the list, and the exact amount of money, including TAX, for her total costs into an individual envelope for each store. When she came home after numerous trips back and forth to different stores she would store the groceries and take the receipts and pin them to a nail in the window frame next to her chair at the kitchen table. At the end of the month she would total up and see her monthly expenses for food. Thrifty or cheap? I ask you!
In the 30s & 40s my Grandfather owned a corner store. My Mom an one of her sisters worked there until they got married. In 2012, 70 years after she married, she was at a funeral. A lady asked her is she used to work in the corner store. She remembered buying penny candy there.
My dad worked in the grocery business all his life. He started with Barbers in Albuquerque in the 30’s. He went on to work for Piggly Wiggly managing stores in New Mexico and west Texas. He retired as a district manager for them. My brother worked as a sacker in high school for dad. After serving in the Army, he came back and worked for Piggly Wiggly as a store manager. He eventually bought one of their stores and it was a customer favorite in our town. Very successful. He eventually sold it and retired.
I remember shopping at A&P when I was a kid. My mom would grind her coffee at the self-serve machine. I also remember their pecan-caramel rolls! Those things were amazing--they didn't spare the delicious, sticky caramel, and they used plenty of pecans to top the rolls. There was another store in the small town where we shopped--National Tea Co. It was larger than the A&P. It's gone through many iterations and is still a locally owned grocery store. I also remember Royal Blue stores.
Me too. I worked at an IGA. Loved working with people! Now they have to bag a certain way, you don’t have enough personal time with your customers. But I loved it then.
When I was a kid in MI, we had A & P, Safeway, Farmer Jack's, Great Scott, and Food Fair all in close proximity to our neighborhood. Most were within walking distance of our house. None of these exist now except for the Safeway, still in the same place. The Great Scott store became a Family Dollar. Lucky stores were there too, but the one closest to us was farther away---had to drive there, and also there was a Wrigley's supermarket too. It's amazing how I remember all of these, since I left MI for AZ in 1970. I was 12 at the time. (Jan Griffiths).
I can remember the taste of the A&P cream of mushroom soup. It actually had lots of mushrooms, but it was the very good taste that helps with that memory for me! Every time I open any can of cream of mushroom, that A&P soup pops in my head! So many great memories of all the grocery stores when I was growing up. Where I grew up we had A&P, Safeway, Kroger, and Piggly Wiggly. We also had many hometown owned grocery stores.
I've only heard of A&P and Jitney. We had a grocery store where I grew up called Sunflower. I was very little and loved the sunflower with a smiley face on their green light up sign.
I shop at Piggly Wiggly. Still. I remember the A and P. I'd go with my parents. I'm 65 years old. However in our small town, there was a privately owned grocery store. It was owned by 2 brothers. A very small store. I feel fortunate to have been able to know that experience.
You didn't go back far enough. When I was a kid, about 6-7 years old, the checkstand had this 3 sided wooden rectangle where you put your stuff. You and the checker used these big handles to push the groceries forward.
My small northwest BC Canada city had a basement-level Co-Op grocery store. Boxes went by conveyor belt up to ground level; cars could pull up for the boxes just steps away.
When I was very young, my grandma would take me with her to Alpha Beta. It looked exactly like the photo @3:23! I was wondering if it was actually that exact store as a matter of fact 😄 It was in Sacramento, California in the 70’s. I remember those trips fondly and her getting me 1 beautiful cupcake each time from their bakery 😋!! The cupcake were beautiful colors !! I was always looked forward to those cupcakes as a kid 🧁!! They always had a little 3D clown head stuck into the top of them !! Ahh.. such memories ☺️ I miss my grandma SO much and all those fun shopping trips w her each week 🥰 They were the best .. just like my grandma 🥇🏆 Thanks for the post 👋🏼
Well =, I do remember A&P very well.. Thoough we had sixteen family owned grocery stores in my home town of 4000 people in the 1950's, mom preferred the big brand store in another town. So she would have my Dad drive her to A&P and she would take me along to help carry the groceries- a job that I hated. I do remember the scent of the grind it yourself coffee machines, There were three brands, Eight O Clock, their breakfast blend in red package, Bokar, the dark roasted blend in a black package, and the de-caf or light blend in a yellow package. We never bought it so I don't recall the name . The coffee packages contained whole beans that you poured into a grinder and then put the empty bag at the chute at the bottom of the machine. It would grind the beans to the grade y9u selected and deposit the ground coffee back into the original bag. You closed and resealed the bag and you were good to go. The aroma of that freshly ground coffee waa wonderful. But as for their products, not so much. They had a store brand bakery items known as Jane Parker which I did not care for, nor their Archway cookies. In the late 50's the store was taken over by Krogers.
There was a Kash and Karry when I moved here in the 1980s. When it closed it left many people with a food desert for those who had no cars to travel to stores further away.
A&P was the only store where I remember any of the clerks giving me a penny to buy a gumball from the gumball machine... People would flip out if someone did that now.
I remember my family shopping at A and P in the late 1960s and I was very sad when all of the local stores closed in the early 1970s. When my family and I moved to Baton Rouge there was another popular chain called National Supermarkets, but they all closed down also. The store I really would have loved to visit back in the day was Piggly Wiggly, but according to what I hear they have all closed too.
We went to 'National' food store a lot in the 60's. Years ago we had a 'Kash and Karry'. It's now a dispensary called 'Hash and Merry'. Thanks for this upload.
8 o’clock coffee is sold at Woodmans Foods in Rockford Illinois. I don’t think they have grinders in the store. You could buy your own grinder and grind it yourself at home.
You Forgot Piggly Wiggly 🙂 We still have 2 Piggly Wiggly Grocery Stores here in Nashville One so close to me it's where I always get my groceries Clerks know you No Self Scanning Cashier's do it All &Meat dept Butcher will cut your meat if needed & You don't have to walk around a Huge Store like Kroger's ! They sell more other things , aren't needed Only need Groceries
Whoa, of all the many grocery stores in this video the only one I ever heard of was Kash n Karry. I was raised in Nebraska and am living in SW Florida. Winn-Dixie was mentioned, and is prevalent where I live now, it is owned by Southeastern Grocers which has sold it to Aldi in 2023.
Growing up in Ottawa late 60s to late 70s, remember as a child u pay for ur groceries, they tagged ur bags with a number, u got a copy, then u drove through a covered delivery area where ur groceries came up a conveyor belt from below then placed in ur truck, think the grocery store was dominion groceries
Hey, I just posted above about our Co-Op food store in Prince Rupert BC! Conveyor also up from lower level checkout area to street level for shoppers to pick up.
I remember Alpha Beta markets. They became ABCO in AZ at least. I generally shop at Walmart or Costco nowadays. I do grow most of my own vegetables, however. (Jan Griffiths).
I remember em all..and also remember in Maine and new Hampshire with mom and pop grocery stores..it wasn’t uncommon to see mouse traps on bottom shelves in the 1950s …..the old squeaky wooden floors…..oh yes ! 😂
In small town America circa 1960's we had a house down the street from my gramdmother's house that was operated as a small grocery. They even had a butcher.
I remember my dad taking me to A&P (Atlantic & Pacific) when I was young. I shopped there myself when I was 19-20 years old and worked at the Perry Drugs ( now Rite Aid) that was next door to A&P. I learned when I started working for Meijer that they had a connection with Atlantic-Pacific back when Meijer was Meijer Thrifty Acres.
My heart aches for another visit to White Hen. As a kid, there was one a mile away and we'd ride our bikes there to get .10 cans of soda and .10 tiny pizzas (that tasted like crap, lol). But the deli was amazing, and as time went on I'd go there for lunch/dinner during breaks of my high school job down the street. The White Hen concept would work again now, I believe. People are sick of being herded around and I think some of us would pay up a bit for decent food and service.
Ohhhh.....I remember the bottles of coke for either a nickle or a dime down at the corner store, this was back in the 60’s , when times where so much fun !
🎉 retro greetings from coastal Mississippi. I remember alot of these stores. Piggly Wiggly, A&P, Winn Dixie, Food Basket, Alpha Beta became Skaggs Alpha Beta then became Albertsons (for us) and Safeway,Buddies. Thanks for the research and memories ❤
The Tops in Rutland, VT was rebranded a Grand Union a year or two ago. They seem to have changed nothing else so I suspect it's more an attempt to keep the trademark on the books than a serious relaunch.
Interesting. However, this video is mostly East Coast centric. I was born in '57 & had 51 yrs. in L.A. Never heard of most of these, except Alpha Beta & Lucky's. We had Ralphs, Vons, Safeway, Pavilions, Market Basket and independents up until the 80's such as Pantry & El Rancho. This story has most of the reasons I NEVER go through Amazon, & rarely Wal Mart. RIP old markets.
When I lived in NJ, I shopped at King's and Packard's as a kid. It was a small chain that sold a lot of gourmet type and imported items. I loved shopping there! Not sure they're still around, I left NJ 30 years ago. Packard's was closed in the late 80s.
@@scottr3484 ya, I grew up and realized I could never buy a home or afford the property taxes, so I left. I bought my first home at 27, while most of my friends were paying rent.
My Grandma worked at A&P in a small midwestern town and the old-fashioned nature of Dominick's is what I liked about it even in the 90s. Was sorry to see Dominick's go. Grocery stores are too large now.
Logli and Hilander were two large chains in Rockford and north central Illinois. About 20 years ago Schnucks of St. Louis bought out both chains and relabeled them all as Schnucks.
While my family had a local grocery store for daily purchases, we did weekly shopping at A&P; my father always liked Bokar coffee. Many years later, my choice would be Grand Union.
Kohls is still very much a store, just clothing now. You even used a modern kohl’s clothing picture, would’ve been cool to go in depth if it’s the same store as the grocery store. Amazon even uses kohl’s for returns in Illinois/ Wisconsin.
Growing up, we would go to a kohls food store and a kohls department store that shared an entrance. But kohls department store wasn’t part of the food store. Same founder - different stores.
We had Safeway and Food King in Southern California. We also had a great mom and pop butcher shop called Bert’s. As a kid I loved Ribeye steak ( still do ). There was a market from the mid fifties to early 70s called Sages . Sage’s had two stories in San Bernardino and one in my beloved hometown of Rialto. Sages had a great cafe, groceries, camera store. Jewelry and watch repair and toys. You name it.
These must have all been East Coast stores, I grew up in WA and have never heard of any of the stores you mentioned and I am 61. My mom shopped at a store called Grocery Boys and another called Farmers Market. At Farmers Market you used a flat cart with boxes and wrote the price on your grocery items with a grease pen. I the late 60's Fred Meyers came to our town, it was all the rage, clothes, household items, pharmacy and groceries..all under one roof!
My sister and I went with my dad every Friday evening to Safeway for our grocery shopping. The highlight was my sister and I each getting a comic book for 10 cents a piece.
5:17 White Hen Pantry was one of my favorite places to stop and get a cup of coffee. Where I grew up, I could throw a stone in any direction and hit a couple of White Hen stores.
kohl's?!?!? Any relation to the KOHL'S department stores we have now that sells clothing, jewelry, toys, household goods, etc.? I've never heard of all these stores mentioned, except for one. I grew up in California & vaguely remember Alpha Beta, but I was really young. I don't remember any specific shopping trips, just recall the name. My city had Lucky's & Safeway, but my mom preferred to shop at the commissary at the local military base as the prices were cheaper & no sales tax. She only shopped at the regular grocery stores closer to home if she just needed a few items that couldn't wait until her next trip to the commissary. We lived off base in a civilian community that had a few other military families.
Same founders. It was a Milwaukee based chain. They started the grocery stores first then the department stores. As the department stores took off, they sold the grocery store chain to their local competitor Roundy’s (now a part of Kroger) or other operators. The Kohl family no longer owns the department store chain either. The founder Maxwell Kohl was ready to retire and his son Herb wanted to get into politics (he became a US Senator).
I used to work at Kohl's back in the 80's. One day when I was at work behind the meat counter a nice older gentleman came up to me and started talking and said his family used to own this store. I thought maybe he was a little crazy. When I went back into the cooler the butcher said You know who that was don't you. I told him I had no clue. He said it was Herb Kohl. I was so surprised.@@mdf3530
My brother can remember better than I can but I think it was a P&W my parents shopped at. The time I was 8 years old until 12 then my parents switched to a new Grocery store closer to the house a Lucky Market. Lord I miss my parents plus the security I had and the love.
We had an A&P that went out of business in the mid-60’s. It was turned into a job center for school-age kids. That’s how I found my first jobs at the age of 11 yo. by cleaning homes. Riding my bike across town on Saturdays, cleaning one house in the morning and the 2nd in the afternoon. I also got babysitting jobs once I turned 12-13 yo as well as a lot of yard work.
The only grocery store I recall was A&P. That was in Waterloo, Iowa. None of the others were there. In the 60's Super Value was the big grocery chain there. There was also an Eagles grocery store. The Super Value stores died out in the mid-70's and Hy-Vee came in. They are still here today. In the early 60's there was a grocery store called Piggly Wiggly in Waterloo.
I was raised in Folcroft, PA (just outside of Philadelphia), and there was an A&P store in the shopping Center there. My mother did our food shopping there, and a few other stores as well
Would help to get more photos and interesting info; like how A&P coffee (8 o'clock coffee) was so special and you could smell it as they ground it right at the check out counters etc...I remember Food Town, Grand Union, Shop Rite, Ben Franklin 5 & 10 stores, Kresge's (the same family that started Kmart)...
Shop Rite had fond memories for me! My mother and grandma loved the free coffee stand!! My stop was always the snack bar and video rentals before we hit the isles.. once or twice a year they had "Can~Can" sales and I knew it was gonna be an ALL day affair with the check-out lit up like Christmas!! 14 open lanes of organized chaos hahhh poor cashiers!!
I ❤d when it was time to go grocery shopping 😂 at A&P. Everything we needed was all in a strip mall. The other grocery stores we had were Hills, King Kullen, Pathmark, FoodTown, always had sales & great deals too! 😁👍
