It occurs to me that here at Curbside we spend relatively more time describing cars and other vehicles than we do exploring and thinking about what is put into these vehicles; or maybe more precisely, how the process of using cars/etc. to serve their owners’ basic life needs has changed over time. When it comes to basic life needs, the business of procuring food kind of tops the list. And it turns out that the way that cars have figured into the core business of grocery-getting has indeed seen significant change over the course of the past century.
I find that thinking about the use of cars for grocery shopping is all the more interesting in that much of this history is connected to shifts in how and where Americans live, and that in turn where and how Americans live is very much connected to the car’s shifting place in home and family operations. The result is that you can’t talk about grocery shopping without talking about cars, and you can’t fully consider the role of the car in American life and culture without acknowledging the purposes to which the car has been put. Within this dynamic, examining one element provides further insight into the related component of the relationship.
Robert Wilson’s Mobius Band sculpture at the main Fermilab building in Batavia, IL. https://history.fnal.gov/historical/art_arch/mobius.html
Culture is a veritable mobius strip where one thing leads to another which leads to another which takes you back around to the beginning which after some twists always leads back to the beginning again. Take your pick as to where to start or which component more fascinates you, but here we’re going to take a look at how grocery stores have catered to the needs of a public that has increasingly needed to use cars to conduct their shopping activities…which have increasingly depended upon cars.
Early grocery stores tended to be in-town affairs, integrated into a city’s commercial strip like any other retail establishment. Prior to the advent of self-service grocery stores, most customers either sent an order to the store (initially by messenger, later by telephone) or came into the store and made their order in-person. Either way, the typical end result was that the store staff would gather together the groceries and then proceed to deliver them to the customer’s home.
From the earliest years of the 20th century, the work of delivering groceries typically involved trucks or “sedan delivery” cars of one sort or another. Stores employed some number of clerks who packaged up the groceries and drivers whose job was to travel around town in vehicles delivering groceries. For the most part, the delivery process was under the control of the grocery stores.
This ad for an American Austin Bantam Delivery is from July, 1930. Presumably any store that purchased one of these as a delivery vehicle would have purchased one of only 8448 Bantams sold in 1930. This was American Austin’s best year. CC’s Roger Carr has a comprehensive article on the Austin Seven, which includes some discussion of the American Austin. I could imagine that a small sedan delivery vehicle would have been just the thing for zipping around a major city, much like how bicycle deliveries currently work in NYC, Boston, etc. Larger vehicles, such as the International in the previous photo existed as well (there are lots more of these pictures at the Wisconsin Historical Society which holds much of the photographic archives of International Harvester).
“Driver does not carry cash, only cashews”
Today’s home delivery vehicles are larger yet again, although by now some are EVs. Giant Foods operates several EVs in its fleet of over 150 delivery vehicles. This one that I caught on its rounds just last week in the Woodley Park neighborhood of DC may have been one of them. I’m not sure as the EVs look nearly identical to the standard ICE-powered trucks. These large vehicles speak somewhat to the current popularity of home-delivery, a subject that we’ll come back around to in a bit.
Back to the history…while the order and then deliver model of grocery “shopping” persisted through the 1920s, a new model for retail groceries was coming on the scene – the “self-service” grocery store. This model catered to the understanding that providing access to an ever-greater number of branded product choices would encourage consumer activity; and in turn, greater consumer activity would generate a even greater number of choices (there’s our mobius strip again). As this consumer culture arms-race raged, it became clear that grocery stores needed to be larger facilities and that the shopper would feel more empowered as a consumer if she were allowed to browse the displayed abundance directly. This inspired the invention of the self-service market (or soon to be called “super” market). Piggly Wiggly is credited as being the first grocery company to develop the self-service market in Memphis, TN in 1916.
I’ve seen this photo of the interior of Piggly Wiggly #1 many times, and the thing that most impresses me is how seriously the store design took what was likely the company’s greatest concern with how the public would react to this new shopping concept. The turnstiles and chain link barrier at the front of the store illustrate the worry that if one let shoppers access the merchandise directly, many would just “grab and go”. It’s interesting how concepts of customer behavior change over time. Just as how banks used to chain down the ballpoint pens in their lobbies, early self-service grocery stores had no confidence that their customers would actually abide by rules…rules that really didn’t exist prior to the cultural norming of self-service shopping.
It must have been pretty exciting – and often a bit unnerving – to live in the early 20th century when activities such as self-service shopping, driving cars, answering and operating telephones, etc. were all novel and expectations for how these activities “would work” were still developing. While it’s easy to assume that there’s always some sort of logic behind what ultimately emerges as common practice, it often turns out that random chance plays significant role in what develops as “the way things are”. For example, I am sort of sad that we didn’t standardize on “Ahoy!” instead of “Hello” when answering the phone. Yet another missed opportunity to make America speak like a pirate, again. Oh well.
Early Safeway interior, 1930
In short order, the basic layout and customer expectations related to shopping were established by the first quarter of the 2oth century. Aside from the use of baskets instead of carts – shopping carts having been invented in Oklahoma City in 1937 and patented in 1940 – the layout of an early self-service grocery stores is one that is basically familiar to modern eyes. Most modern shoppers would easily figure out how to navigate Safeway from 100 years ago.
But it’s the exterior and positioning of these stores that is largely unfamiliar to all but the most urban viewer. What’s missing?
Parking lots, of course; a fact that underscores the significant difference in how our American great grandparents utilized their cars in relation to basic consumer tasks. It took several more years before the grocery industry largely settled on updated expectations related to the role of cars in grocery shopping.
These early grocery stores in the 1920s through the 1940s, even in an increasingly self-service model simply didn’t cater to shoppers driving to the store as a singular destination activity. Rather, those shoppers who did drive likely took the car “into town” and then proceeded to run any number of errands – including grocery shopping – while there. The lack of close-by parking encouraged shoppers to visit the store, choose their groceries, and then still to have them delivered by what at that time was a key component of the grocery experience – the delivery “boy”.
The delivery boy and his delivery vehicle were such a common fixture of the pre-war (WWII) grocery store scene that he figured prominently on the cover illustrations of Progressive Grocer, the primary trade journal of the American grocery store industry.
She is just so DONE with creepy clerk. Every…single….week.
Emmett Watson’s vaguely suggestive covers no doubt brightened up many a dull store manager’s office back in the day.
Surely many customers did drive specifically to go grocery shopping, but then they had to compete for on-street parking with the customers of other in-town commercial establishments. It was just easier, and fully acceptable, to have the store deliver the goods once purchased. In short, while the grocery industry had moved steadily to self-service, getting the groceries actually to the consumer’s home was largely the same process as had existed prior to self-service. Nevertheless, as grocery stores grew further in size to accommodate ever greater selection of products (see above) and efforts were made to increase the number of shoppers shopping at any given moment to further even increase profitability, it became increasingly clear parking was a significant barrier to growth. Shoppers would buy more if they could streamline the shopping experience by arriving in their own cars – cars which were becoming increasingly ubiquitous through the 1920s into the 1930s — and leaving with their purchases.
Martin Sausser – One Stern Merchant Man
This article from the July 1930 issue of Progressive Grocer captures the moment when a few forward thinking businesses began to rethink how their establishments positioned themselves relative to the the changing consumer use of the automobile. Grocers such as the featured Martin Sausser were taking a gamble by moving away from downtown commercial districts but mitigated that risk by attracting customers with ample free parking.
Stausser’s Country Market had parking for 300 cars (as well as apparently an airplane landing strip) and was clearly hailed by the trade magazine as the very latest in modern convenience. Reading this article, the description of the Findlay, OH Country Market seems pretty much the same as any modern suburban grocery; only Findlay wasn’t a “suburb”. In fact, the grocery store moved out of town into what would ultimately become the auto-centric suburb. Large supermarkets such as the Country Market were initial outposts in what would become (largely post-war) suburbia. What had started as a way to address the need for more parking became a movement that also encouraged the migration of customers outside of the urban grid. This in turn exacerbated increased dependence upon cars (to drive around those spread out commercial districts and to travel back into the city where still most residents worked). Ultimately this all gave rise to what many consider the “sprawl” of today. Mobius time.
As supermarkets grew in number and size, catering to customers’ needs related to getting groceries out to their cars became a matter of increasing concern. This inspired a vast array of so-called “curbside pick-up” options to help customers manage the ever-expanding hiking trip that traversing giant parking lots had become.
The most fascinating of these curbside options – at least to 10 year old me when I first encountered one of these things – was the “giant conveyor” system that delivered your groceries from where they were bagged at the register out to either a remote location in the parking lot or the outside front of the store — curbside. The whole process warranted explanation in a full page newspaper ad for a new “superstore” in Iowa in the early 1960s.
The mid-1960s seems to be the heyday of curbside pickup and parking lot delivery services, at least as measured by store newspaper ads.
At one time or another, most major chains such as A&P, Grand Union, etc. had such systems. A few seem to still be in existence, but not many. Why? Do more customers nowadays want to walk around the parking lot pushing carts than was the case in the past? I’d wager not.
“We ONLY eat breakfast!”
Once the groceries were outside of the store, there would usually still be another clerk available to load the goods into the customer’s car.
Fillin’ the Cougar in Arkansas – 1974
Sometimes this was literally at curbside.
Other times clerks escorted customers to their cars, whereupon the clerk would load the car there. In my family, this always inspired a discussion as to whether it was appropriate necessary to tip the bag boy.
Like most Americans, my family’s thinking regarding tipping was always a bit fraught and usually driven by an attempt to suss out the regional expectations. In the South and mid-Atlantic, tipping for things other than restaurant service was often deemed unnecessary. We found it entertaining and weird when encountering someone who offered a tip to the gas station attendant or supermarket bag boy. On the other hand, I suppose that when we were in NY (for example) and drove away without tipping the guy who pumped our gas, we were probably assumed to be hicks and/or the paragon of ungratefulness. I don’t know; the point is that it was never clear what was best practice or what constituted the local expectation around tipping. This generated frequent social anxiety and discomfort, but that seemed just par for the course in my ever-slightly-out-of-step family.
With the perspective of age, I can now see that my family was probably not alone in its anxiety about tipping practices. In fact, “worries about tipping” are often cited as being one of the reasons why grocery stores, gas stations, public washrooms, and the like started to rapidly phase out attendants during the 1970s. In reality, the reasons for the growth of self-service and the decline in retail attendants (whether at gas stations or grocery stores) are complex. Factors ranging from the growth of independent retailers (for gas stations) that had greater incentives for cost-cutting and savings, to the effects that the Vietnam War had on the availability of entry-level male laborers (e.g., men under the age of 25 who were available to take low-skilled, low-pay work such as clerks) all contributed to a decline in “attendants”…and soon the culture adjusted and customers learned to do without help. Ultimately that’s simply what we expected, and therefore “liked”. As is frequently the case with culture, the underlying reasons for changing expectations often remain unexamined by (mostly) uncritical public minds. Things just simply “are” and the public moves along with life.
In absence of clerks for curbside pickup, shoppers simply pushed their own carts to the car. Over time, some of us have even learned to how to do “self-checkout” and have increasingly come to see that less interaction with retail workers is desirable..whether we set out to want this or not.
At least for the time-being, the ultimate reflection of the contact-less retail experience seems to be that offered by Amazon in its “Amazon Go” markets. Here, the shopper tacitly agrees to forego nearly all data-privacy for the privilege of moving freely inside of what is essentially a giant vending machine (full of heavily packaged items). The experience is all about the “convenience” of not having to engage with any customer service staff at all.
For an interesting – and entirely obvious – counterpoint to this experience, one really must watch the SNL parody of this very same Amazon commercial. Enough said.
But an interesting thing has happened on the way to the pandemic. Curbside pickup has become once again a thing. Suddenly in the Spring of 2020, reluctance to gather indoors and uncertainty about whether the virus could be transmitted by touching inanimate objects conspired with the need to eat food and gave new life to shopping services and delivery or curbside pickup. For a while, grocery stores that were desperate to retain customers offered non-self-service — which I put forward as the opposite of self-service — at no-cost to customers. This of course ultimately changed as shoppers did return to stores, and self-service could resume. But for a surprising number of shoppers – those leading lives that are “too busy” to attend to tasks such as grocery shopping or even food preparation – non-self-service and grocery delivery have become a feature of post-pandemic life.
In fact, the 2021/2022 trends in online shopping and delivery recreate in many ways the shopping patterns of the Gilded Age and early 20th century (at least among upper classes), where orders for food and all manner of consumer products were transmitted to the store, packaged by attendants, and then ultimately delivered, and prepared, at home by domestic servants. Only nowadays, the transmission is online and the servants are more likely gig workers driving and delivering groceries or prepared food for DoorDash or Uber.
Most of the large chain supermarkets in my area offer online ordering, shopping, and delivery services. The range of services offered by Shaw’s (my local flavor of Albertsons, which I guess is now Kroger’s) is typical. The core service involves store staff picking your ordered products from the store shelves and then bagging them up for delivery curbside.
Shoppers arriving at the store to retrieve their orders are encouraged to park in specially-marked spaces in the lot where the store staff can come find them and put the groceries into their vehicles. I have to say though that whenever I visit this store, or most others that offer a similar service, I usually see the special spaces occupied by parked, but empty, cars (where the owners are inside the store doing self-service grocery shopping). This does make me question the overall popularity of these “curbside” pickup services, at least in my area.
Shaw’s “DriveUp & Go” service currently seems mostly oriented to home delivery. I suppose that this makes sense since if you’re going to pay for the store to select, bag, and bill your order you might as well go full Downton Abbey and dispatch gig-Branson or robo-Barrow to pickup your order and drive it home for you.
On the other hand, the paucity of orders to go – Who actually buys that little stuff and then has it delivered?? — lends support to the idea that grocery shopping habits that have developed over the past century are likely still holding strong for what is still the majority of households. The vast majority of the customers for my local Shaw’s drove their own cars, parked in the lot, and will drive home with the purchased they selected on their own. Old habits die hard, and as a devotee of grocery shopping, I’m happy for it. I can absolutely resonate with the criticism that all of this driving to and from the store in a fossil-fuel burning vehicle has done no favors for our environment; and yet, simply turning the driving over to someone else (i.e., the DoorDash driver) and their carbon footprint doesn’t seem a particularly good solution either. Furthermore, if I were to start routinely paying someone else to go grocery shopping for me then that would turn up the heat on my need for personal income, which would in-turn have its own carbon impact (more plane trips, more travel, etc. etc. etc.). Clearly there are a lot of issues here and untangling them in a way that brings benefits to people, the economy, and the planet is a huge job…a job that will require the collaborative efforts of many people, industries (not just Amazon), and policy-makers. Hummmm. Now I’m worried.
Meanwhile, I just wish that that roller conveyor thing that delivered my groceries from the checkout station to the curb at the Grand Union in Bethesda would make a comeback.
Not only is the conveyor cool – there seems no better entertainment for all ages than to watch the rollers and to have your mom (or mom’s voice in your head) remind you to “Stop it!!! That thing will catch your fingers!!” as you spin the rollers while walking out of the store. More importantly, the conveyor would keep carts out of the parking lot. That’s a good thing for cars. Getting hit by carts seems to have been a car ad meme from before there were memes.
I always liked the commercial where Saturns were “tested” against carts, and could have featured that, except then you’d have to watch 50 seconds of grainy video of Saturns from the early 1990s to get to the punchline about shopping carts. Even as a former Saturn owner, (SW2, it was green) that may be even more than I can take. Take my word for it, I tested it and they hold up well to shopping carts…but maybe not much else.
Whether or not grocery store curbside delivery conveyors make a comeback, it seems abundantly clear that Americans’ habit of driving to the grocery is as strong today as it was back in Martin Sausser’s day. Whether we load them into the car ourselves, or have a clerk do it (something I’d like to see for a whole lot of reasons), or have someone else do the driving for us, the car seems unalterably linked to the task of grocery shopping for the vast majority of shoppers. That interconnection seems solid. Norms change, but for the most part we’re all shoppers, and more of us than not are drivers.
The cars will change, the grocery stores will change and one change will drive the other. But I’m guessing that one way or the other, cars and grocery stores will remain linked well into the future.
Most of the images for this post – except for the Giant delivery truck and the Shaw’s supermarket DriveUp & Go photos – were scrounged off the web. Of particular note might be the key image of the Publix Market from 1961. This car-spotters dream – I would gladly own any of the cars in that picture – Publix Market at Venice East near Sarasota, Florida is by Joseph Janney Steinmetz and is part of the State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory project.
Also of note are the roller conveyor photos by user dominion301 on Flickr. All searches for “grocery bin roller conveyors” seem to wind up at dominion301’s Photostream.
Finally, if you’re interested in falling down a vintage grocery store photo rabbit hole, there are a surprising number of sites online that are just that. You’ve been warned.
Apart from the grocery delivery boy on a bike , this must have been one of the smallest delivery trucks offered in the UK. The Sharp’s Minitruck from the early 1950’s. Sharps changed their name to Bond Cars later and produced a range of vehicles for many years. Check out the club website here if your interested .
http://www.bondownersclub.co.uk
Thanks for this trip down grocery store memory lane, Jeff. I remember the bag boys who took groceries out to my mom’s car after she bought them. Only ours was a bag old guy – who always wore a necktie and who was always pleasant. I don’t recall Mom ever giving him a tip, but this was the midwest.
I think one other thing that killed the bag-boys in the 1970s was that the era was the last time inflation really got going. Just as now, prices were going up and everyone was looking for ways to cut costs as a way to keep prices down. Looking back, how pleasant it was to live where there were no stray shopping carts left in the parking lot.
I loved the Saturn commercial. The only time that happened in my family was when my mother watched a shopping cart start to roll down a hill, headed directly for her new 1985 Crown Victoria. She got lucky – the front corner of the cart hit one of those great big square taillight lenses and broke it, but did not hit anything else. I think the store gave her a check for the damage (after they started out by telling her that it was not their responsibility). My mother could be persuasive. 🙂
My wife worked for Asda here in the UK for 17 years. She parked her new Suzuki in the car park outside, and after 17 years there wasn’t one panel that was dent free from careless trolley pushers.
The old guys in that job (mostly IBM retirees, here) tend to get daytime shifts M-F since they’re available while the teenagers are in school.
I’ve worked in retail long enough that I can feel Mrs. Ady’s pain. FWIU British carts (“trolleys”) are particularly nasty since they have swivel casters all around and can take off in any direction, while American carts have swivels only on the front while the rear wheels are fixed in a straight position so they turn more or less like a car, making them a bit more predictable to catch.
I remember seeing British magazine reviews that likened a vehicle’s straight line stability to a “Tesco trolley” (Tesco is a large UK supermarket chain).
Oh geeze…on all 4 wheels? That’d be like pushing one of those big hotel laundry hampers. Must be total mayhem.
IKEA shopping carts in the US have swivel casters on all four wheels, just like their European counterparts.
The first time I used one it seemed strange, but you quickly get used to it. You actually begin to appreciate the increased maneuverability, versus typical American shopping carts.
Yabbutt ;
Do the homeless like them with four swivel casters ? .
-Nate
Your correct about British trolleys, but they’re not hard to steer if your careful. Some of it is down to trolleys running away, most our our car parks aren’t on the level, kids being allowed to push the trolley and the obvious one, people who open their car doors and bash your car !
The curbside conveyor for grocery bags brings back memories of my first job, bag boy for Gee Bee Markets (a division of Glosser Brothers department store of Johnstown, PA) which was their suburban shopping center stores. Groceries were bagged at the checkout, put in a hamper, and sent outside by roller conveyor. The customer went and got her car, rolled up to the pickup point, where another bag boy loaded her groceries.
If you had the Friday or Saturday evening shifts (which was all I could ever get scheduled for, years later finding out that was a quiet arrangement between my parents and store management), that meant you were running like crazy for the duration of the shift. It was a major selling point for the chain, as most other groceries in town expected customers to wheel out their own bags.
I love this piece. Thought provoking on a few levels, and I will ultimately fall down a rabbit hole of vintage grocery scrolling when I’m not in the office. I now do pretty much all my grocery shopping online with either Instacart or Uber Eats, as I don’t have use of a vehicle at my leisure, so it’s just the easiest way, and I find that I save myself from impulse buying that way. Publix is still my preferred in-store chain, but online ordering in recent years has helped a lot with the ability to cross shop between stores and get the best pricing. When ordering for delivery first started its resurgence 10-12 years ago (in NYC anyway) we’d always get the freshest and best cuts of meat or produce by ordering online because the shopping service didn’t want returns or complaints. Now that the use of these services is more widespread I generally prefer to do it the “old fashioned way” by going in person if I need things that I might be particularly picky about.
Ahoy Jeff, this is a great article. I’m attaching my own Supermarket image below – this is from a Magruder’s in Virginia circa 1984. Notice the wood-paneled Escort wagon.
I have lots to comment on, so in no particular order:
My Family’s Experience: I used to go with my grandmother to the supermarket quite a bit as a little kid (she didn’t drive, so she walked there several times a week with a push-cart). She would often talk about pre-supermarket days, and with a “good riddance” type of sentiment. She said the modern supermarkets were cleaner, offered more choice and were more professional (i.e., “each grocer tried to rip you off differently!”). So while some folks might be awash in sentimentality for the olden days of corner grocers, my family certainly was not.
Packaging: I think another thing that’s woven into the mobius strip here would be advances in packaging. In the pre-WWII era, it just wasn’t feasible to mass-package food, but new materials like cellophane, etc., likely made the modern supermarket possible.
A North American Phenomenon? As far as I know, supermarkets like this were pioneered in North America, but were uncommon elsewhere until recent decades. I recall hearing about visitors from Europe often wanting to go to a supermarket during a US trip just to see what they’re like.
The Gilded Age: I feel like in many ways, we’ve entered a Second Gilded Age, in terms of economic stratification. Affluent folks seem to be aided be squadrons of faceless worker bees doing common tasks for them. It creeps me out.
Men Shopping: I remember reading an article in an old business magazine about supermarkets – it was written in the 1960s, so the concept was still generally new. One point that stuck out for me was the article mentioned that after supermarkets became popular, more men would go shopping than before (whether on their own, or with their wives). An interesting side effect of the supermarket phenomenon – not sure if there’s any hard data on it, but that was an interesting point.
Clerks Escorting Customers to their Cars: This still happens in places. My wife’s family lives in rural Missouri, and the supermarket staff there offer to carry customers’ bags out for them, particularly for older folks and women with kids.
Recent Trends: We do much of our shopping at Aldi now – it’s cheap and low-frills, but from an industry perspective, Aldi reverses the decades-old model of very large supermarkets with a mind-boggling array or products. On the other hand, it seems like many other people around here now patronize Wegman’s, which takes the opposite approach (bigger than the typical supermarket, and w/ a focus on premium products & prepared foods). Mid-range markets (Giant & Safeway around here) are being squeezed from both ends, and their share of the overall grocery market appears to be dwindling.
I’ll have more responses later, I’m sure…but I just have to react to Magruders! That was my go-to grocery for lots of reasons when I was in high school (the one on Rockville Pike at Congressional or the one on Connecticut near Chevy Chase Circle), but surely one of the big reasons was that there was never a problem buying wine or beer from about the age of 16 forward (that’s when the drinking age was 18 for beer and wine in MD and DC). Never carded, simply not an issue. Good times.
All good points, Eric.
This one is in my opinion very much spot on in terms of being one of the other driving factors in supermarket development. We can see how for example that Amazon Go store would not be possible at all without the ability to individually package nearly every item in the store.
I’ll add to this the advancement of home refrigeration and refrigeration/freezing technology, which enabled the commercial expansion of frozen foods, which in turn required stores to expand as they needed to integrate increasingly important frozen food sections. (I did a lot of grad school research on the history of frozen foods) There’s a story very much similar story to tell as this story (about cars and grocery shopping) around the intertwined development of domestic appliances and grocery stores.
Very true about refrigeration as well. And on the subject of packaging, here’s a good 1950 ad for cellophane touting the advantages of self-service grocery shopping:
RE: “Filling the Cougar in Arkansas”
Pretty sure that the Cougar was being filled in Ohio. Harts/Big Bear stores were regional to Ohio. In addition, the Cougar had a 1974 Ohio plate on it.
Thanks Tdbo! I did try to chose images from stores around the country, and I’d never heard of Harts/Big Bear (the source identified it – probably incorrectly – as Arkansas). I was mostly proud that I’d properly identified the car. Those tail lights are pretty unique. 🙂
That picture caught my attention for a moment because there was a Big Bear market chain in San Diego started around 1949 by Johnny Mabee. Working for a food broker from my senior year in high school 1970 till spring 1977 I called on those markets. Also called on all the Safeways and Luckys in all of San Diego county besides Big Bear. Been a long time but I still know how to do a store reset, stock a new store, and revamp a store section. During a food strike the broker had me fill in at a store and the manager asked me to check out the frozen food section. Mind you I am 20 and after revamping the section and the strike ended the manager offered me the job as frozen food manager. I didn’t take it because my job allowed me to set my schedule and gave me a company car all expenses paid. Can’t beat that in 1973.
Glad someone else caught that! My first full time permanent job was doing Big Bear/Harts Grocery Store circulars, staring in 1973. An advertising manager for Big Bear told me lots of stories then — I’ve been fascinated with grocery stores ever since.
One other change over time involves the use of the space immediately in front of the store in shopping center lots. Initially, this area was available for parking. This created a marketing pitch for the Corvair, illustrated by this photo where a shopper is enjoying the convenience of loading her groceries directly into the “frunk,” as we now say, without stepping off the sidewalk. Today, that lane is almost always off limits to parking, being reserved for pick-up, drop-off and emergency vehicle use.
Or by people stopping in the fire lane until someone comes and tells them to move along. 🙂
When we moved to our current home we noticed a small neighborhood market a few blocks away. By small I mean less than 2000 square feet of sales area, plus an other couple hundred square feet back room storage. I assumed it was one of those places that had a meager inventory of past sell date packaged goods and maybe a few mushy apples and brown bananas. In fact, it turned to be a longtime local institution with a pretty decent selection of packaged foods, fresh produce and bulk items. But pretty high prices and still lacking many of the things I took for granted in larger supermarkets. Their parking lot has room for about 6 cars and is rarely full, even when the store is busy. A few years ago it was bought by new owners who have increased their inventory selection and lowered prices to be comparable to local higher end stores, and I find myself walking there several times a week for most groceries now.
By the way, I’m surprised that Jeff didn’t mention drive-through stores. Or was that only a western US thing? Not common now, but when I was younger (here in California) there were drive through “dairies” where you could get milk, eggs and a few other basic items. And not long ago I was surprised to see drive-through liquor stores in Colorado. Drive-through dispensaries also …
Fact is, I would love to live in a place and in such a way that I could actually walk to the grocery. I’m sure that if I walked, I’d be happy to most of the time go to a store that was smaller than the giant places I now drive to.
The closest I came to being able to walk to shop was when I lived in Kentucky in what was essentially an in-town neighborhood. Houses were fully detached with yards on tree-lined streets…kind of like something out of an early 1950s TV show (which was appropriate given the whole neighborhood was built in the early 1940s, just before the start of WWII). There was a large shopping center about 1/2 mile away, and I often walked to the Kroger’s there. I even had one of those roller 2 wheel shopping carts to bring stuff home. It was wonderful. (unfortunately, that was perhaps the best part of the whole living experience there, for me at least)
By the way, that was where I was introduced to drive-though (and sometimes drive-in) liquor stores. It didn’t seem like a good idea, but hey, people in that city (and I guess throughout the region) had drive-through EVERYTHING. We were told – when as transplanted New Englanders we remarked on it to the locals – that “Well, you don’t expect people to get out of the car air conditioning when it’s THIS hot, do you?”. Well, ok….
Actually Jeff ;
Drive through / up liquor stores are so the _drunks_ don’t have to get out of their vehicle ~ nothing whatsoever to do with weather .
Many I know flat refused to believe there was such a thing as a drive up liquor store so I’d drive them to one and make a point of asking ” may I have a freeway bag with that please ?” and always they were happy to give me one .
-Nate
Excellent review of a very key element of the changing autocentric world that the USA pioneered.
My family experienced the huge change very abruptly when we moved to the US in 1960. In Innsbruck, I often accompanied my mom made the rounds of the various little shops daily (since we had no fridge): the tiny little grocery story around the corner, that had a counter where you asked the proprietor what you wanted, like grains and sugar and spices and stuff. The bakery was often visited first thing in the morning, before breakfast, so that we could have crispy fresh bread for that meal. The butcher shop always gave me a little sliver of fleishkaese, then to the open air market, where the produce farmers sold their wares by the river (which is precisely how and where Innsbruck got its start in the 12th century), the delicatessen (different than American delis), where she’d pick up chocolate, cookies and coffee and such.
It was a fun round; fresh air, walking, all the shopkeepers knew her (“Guten Morgen Frau Professor!”), there were always treats or samples for me.
In Iowa City, we were taken to Randall’s Super Market, and wow, was that a different experience! It was overwhelming for my mom, who did not take to change easily. But she did appreciate the low prices and the convenience. And of course I had to steer and push the cart.
We have a lot of small neighborhood markets in Eugene. There was a big movement to establish little health-food oriented markets in the early ’70s, when Eugene was a counter-culture haven. They’re all still going strong, and ours, the Friendly Market (on Friendly Street) is just 5 blocks away. Other than meat, we could live from its surprisingly decent selection quite well, and I often walk down (or ride my bike) with my backpack to get a few things. They also have a coffee counter and outdoor seating, so it’s also a popular neighborhood hangout. And their prices are no higher than the big upscale market in our part of town; lower actually, in some cases.
Another insightful article that looks into changing American culture .
My self, I really like the self checkout kiosks as I can zip through them twice as fast .
Most stores still offer carry out if you but ask, I don’t want anyone else bruising my fruit and cracking my eggs .
I remember a “Star Market” in…..? Newtonville, Mas.that was built over hanging the Mass. Turnpike, the store was on the second floor, your bagged groceries went into the box then you drove underneath the store and the guys (high schoolers IIRC) loaded them into your car .
Tipping ? .
I always tip when I eat out, regular jobs shouldn’t be tipped IMO, I only got tipped once in my entire life and not for doing anything extra, what a nice lady .
-Nate
Yep, your memory is correct about that Star Market (Newton, MA) that is built on the air rights over the Mass Turnpike/I-90 (about 10 miles from the eastern end of that road…the other end of which is in Seattle 🙂 ).
It’s been years since I was in there, but I do recall some sort of conveyance for getting the groceries down to the parking lot.
Here’s the store from yesterday, when I drove under it.
ok, let’s try that photo again appropriately sized…
?? Still the same name ??!! .
In 1964 I lived not far away on Center Street in an old Parish house that’s number was ‘666’ (cue the scary music for the mouth breathers) .
Later, maybe 1970 or so one of my best buds who’s still friends was a clerk there .
-Nate
Yet another twist of the Mobius Strip – A pejorative term for an uninteresting car is “grocery getter”.
At least as late as 1955 in Pine Bluff, Ark groceries were delivered on bicycles with huge baskets on the front and sides. I wonder if that might make a comeback.
Theres a company doing that in Philly now.
Living in this backwater in the south pacific I can remember all my mothers shopping being done remotely and everything was delivered,small vans were owned by all the local shops and did their weekly rounds of the town,, thanks to recent lock downs this delivery system has been revived but it used to be normal
I too like self check out. People who use it are quick and dont want to waste time. The ones who still love to write checks can go to full serve lanes, even for $9.57. “I don’t trust debit cards”, “I want to hold that check in my hand”, excuses I heard.
I sure don’t miss the 1980’s/90’s when seemingly 75% of check out lane was check writers wasting time. I’d get my cash from ATM and go shopping, and again there were fears of that tech.
One of favorite signs to see at a store is “no personal checks”!
Cheques arent legal here the last cheque books were phased out some time ago and nowe you simply cant use them at all, its plastic card or cash you choose both work.
Great write-up, but there’s one thing missing here, at least from an urban perspective.
Owing to “loss prevention” issues, many items in some grocery stores are now kept under lock and key. The concept of self-serve grocery stores loses it’s validity when you need to find an employee in order to get a steak, or some baby formula, or laundry detergent.
Of late, I’ve taken an extra 15 minutes’ drive to the suburbs to shop where nothing is locked up.
I suppose that would be a good case for one of those Amazon Go type places where you’re simply charged if you take something off the shelf…whether or not you want to pay (you will pay).
The closest stores I frequent come to this is putting baby formula either in a locked case at the checkout or behind the service desk. This has been going on for years (i.e., before last year’s formula shortage). And it makes me sad.
I went to my local Rite Aid drugstore in downtown Santa Monica to buy Tide liquid laundry detergent this week. For the first time it was in a locked case. I’m reading that it is related to the theft and misuse of Tide pods but how annoying. Increasingly item after item is being locked up in grocery and drug stores in this area and I’ve witnessed the reasons firsthand several times. It is indeed sad. Thanks for the trip down a memory lane of shopping, Jeff.
We went to huge military commissaries in SoCal and NoVa that had big conveyor systems until the mid 70s. Most people bought huge amounts, sometimes 2 carts full, which made checking out a hassle for everyone, so people bought even more so they could go less often. I think some people bought food for friends because prices were significantly lower than civilian stores. They were always crowded because of the large military populations, but less so when the subsidies decreased in the late 70s. There were at least 6 lines of cars waiting to pick up. I guess the 15+ attendants had to cross the lines of cars with the bins.
One of my earliest memories was when my mother left me at the base nursery while she shopped, and a vicious girl bit me on the wrist so hard it left tooth imprints.
What a nasty thing she did to you! I hope your Mom took it up with hers.
I have a friend whose mom used to ditch him in the grocery store when he was a tot, and then would have him paged (as a lost child) over the store’s PA system by made up names. Just for fun.
That seems worse, albeit much more entertaining.
One of the best articles on here. Ever!
We never got into the -order online and have it delivered- thing of the last few covid years. We would much rather select our own items, price, size, meat, veggies etc.
Brought back many memories when I was a little dude!
Thanks Jeff.
Great roll down memory lane! I forgot all about those grocery rollers coming out of the store!
I personally love all the self-service I can do. Not to deny jobs, but for efficiency and task quality fulfillment. The first time I stopped for gas in NJ was educational.
After a sketchy damage incident 15 years ago, I no longer let a valet touch my car. I’ll park it myself, sometimes in a valet spot if that’s all that’s available, and I’ll be glad to discuss my reasons with your supervisor or manager. Lately it seems valet companies take over entire parking lots; perhaps a major player in the center hired them (restaurant or nightclub), likely to the chagrin of the smaller businesses in the center. A recent trend here in Houston are valet companies taking over downtown metered spots for local businesses. That seems rather dubious on a legal level but who knows.
Very interesting! As a child of the 70’s in Canada, the outdoor conveyors were not common in this part of the country when I was young.
I recall walking to the Co-Op groceries in the small towns where my Grandparents lived. Self service largely, and purchases were charged on account and since everyone knew everyone, the staff were well aware that the grandchildren were in town.
And of course, we were allowed to charge a chocolate bar or two on account.
Thank you for that Jeff, something I have often thought about but never researched. Very well done.
A grocery store chain here used to do the conveyor belt delivery system, using those same red cart buckets. You would get a card or two, for the carts your stuff was in, with matching numbers. It was a great system, especially in bad weather, so you didn’t have to push the grocery buggies through slush and slop to get to your car, and then have to bring the buggies back inside.
Sometimes they were short staffed, but if you were patient, they would eventually get your stuff to you.
That same store I go to now, is under a different name, and the conveyor is long gone, but I still see those red cart buckets there.
Can’t help posting this alternate take on grocery shopping from Amsterdam. 🙂
Enjoying the comments here. This reminded me of one of the supermarkets I went to with my mom as a kid, Park and Shop. That’s what it was called, though we pronounced it “parknshop” as one word. As an adult when I moved to the San Francisco peninsula near Palo Alto, we often shopped at a local small chain supermarket, slightly better quality than the big chains, called Andronico’s. At some point I saw a history of the store, and was surprised to learn that the Park and Shop I went to as a kid, 75 miles away, was Mr. Andronico’s first store from the 1920’s. At some point the parking at that location, not much by today’s standards, maybe 50-75 stalls, prompted the name change. But by the ‘80’s I guess parking wasn’t much of a draw compared to evoking the feel of a small family business, and Andronico the 3rd renamed it back to the family name. In fact, now they are called Andronico’s Community Markets, for that hometown image, even though it’s part of the huge Albertson’s chain.
Interesting topic!
Here in BC we had quite a number of different grocery chains when I was growing up, but we always shopped at the local independent. They always hired high school age boys to run groceries out to the cars, including our neighbour who was maybe 6 years older than me. I asked him once about tips and he said it didn’t happen often, but “there are more Mrs Robinsons out there than you’d think”. I didn’t get the reference at the time…
The parking lot of this place was always an interesting place to car spot, since I often drove my Mom there but hated actual shopping. One nice little old lady drove a very clean ’55 Chevy 150 2 door sedan, bought new. I think she said it had 12,000 miles on it ca. 1979. Every hot rodder in town coveted that car but she wasn’t letting go of it. Another older lady had a ’68 Chevelle SS396 in a putrid shade of gold-green that I did eventually obtain through a circuitous route.
Today I have to confess, I often use the self checkout if I’m not buying wine. For years I wouldn’t use it on the basis of preserving jobs for kids, but these days, around here at least, it seems like no one under 25 wants to work. Times change!
Outstanding article Jeff, and great memories. Thank you. At least, four of our major grocery chains in Ontario used roller conveyors into the the early 1980s. Loblaws, Dominion, Steinberg’s and IGA. What made them unique is, the conveyors often did not lead to the outdoors, where cars were lined up. Rather, a heated room where the plastic grocery tubs lined in order. Temperatures used to get frigid back then, and this allowed store staff who loaded you bags in your trunk, to remain warm indoors. Car drivers would get out of their vehicles, to ring an electric buzzer. And hand staff, their numbered grocery ticket. Car windows were often frozen stiff, and immoveable. Why the buzzer was not conveniently placed, so the drivers could stay in their cars.
William Shatner, born in Montreal, was the late 1970s pitchman for Loblaws. Similar acting style to his Captain Kirk role.
My lord…Shatner is the greatest actor of our time.
(I’m actually serious in a way in that the man has done so many things and to this day just …. works. Any human needs respect for that.)
So much of his work is pure camp!
Bagboys (called carryouts) were still common in the ’90s here, though I didn’t use them because I’m a walker or busser. They disappeared around 2000, probably from mergers and centralization of the companies that own the stores. Mid-sized neighborhood stores also disappeared around the same time, leaving only the big stores in malls.
Gotta love the photo of the ’54-’56 Cad. 4-dr sedan juxtaposed against that new-fangled VW Bug … with whitewalls.
“Whitewalls say look at me… love me.”
LOL whitewalls used to signify automatic transmission here untill they wore out and proper blackwalls took their place.
Fascinating and excellently developed premise! Definitely food for thought, as I reflect on 2022…