View Full Version : What Were Stores Like 100 Years Ago?
Does anyone here know what it was like to shop long long long ago?
Before there was Target and Walmart and Macys.
I mean, what was it like?
Did you walk up to a counter and say "I need beans and rice" and the guy handed you a box of both of those?
Would it be nice to go back to that or no?
I imagine there was not as much junk stuff back then?!
Well, I haven't been around for 100 years, but I do remember when "Main Street" was where you did your shopping. When I lived with my great-aunt in a CT sea town, every day we went "up town"--we'd make stops at the grocer, the butcher, the baker. I'd try to steal some time at the little book shop owned by a woman who knew about every book in her store and whose cat slept curled up on a pile of books. The Italian baker knew that my aunt was coming by every Tuesday for coconut layer cake, and the butcher knew how she liked her meat cut.
Cash registers would add up the sale in the bigger places; in the smaller places, the storekeeper added up the few things on the paper bag with a pencil.
If you need miscellaneous stuff, you'd go to the five-and-dime stores, where you would pick up the household stuff you needed. My aunt would get oilcloth cut from a bolt to use as a kitchen table covering, or we would go to the "notions" department for needles and thread or whatever.
Yeah, definitely not as much junk stuff.
Gardenarian
10-4-12, 6:02pm
My mom talked about shopping in the 1930's. Yes, they kept all the stock behind the counter. My grandma was very modest and when they needed toilet paper she would write it down and hand the slip under the counter!
When I was a kid there was no Target (that I remember) but we used to go to the Variety Store. They sold penny candy, hardware, fabric, goldfish - variety! I loved that store.
Miss Cellane
10-4-12, 6:10pm
Macy's in NYC has been around since 1858.
I think there fewer pre-packed goods. Shopping would have taken longer, because you would have to wait for your 5 pounds of flour and 10 pounds of beans to be weighed and packaged (how they would been packaged, I haven't a clue). Or you'd buy larger quantities of things--barrels of flour, big sacks of beans. You'd also probably have to visit several stores--the butcher, the baker, the dry goods store.
There probably wasn't as much junk stuff back then, but I'll be there was some. Toys and knickknacks. Cheap copies of more expensive clothing, shoes, tools. Costume jewelery was available by then.
I used to live in a town that bordered Boston. The area where I lived was built up between 1910 and 1930. Research at the local library showed that within half a mile of where I lived, there were at that time, two general grocery stores, two butchers, four bakeries, three fruit and vegetable stores (one is still there), within a mile walk. Most seem to have offered delivery, which as few people had cars, would have made shopping much easier. The town stretches for a few miles along a major road, and there were clearly three separate shopping areas, with the same types of stores repeated in each. People were either walking or taking the trolley, so the distance traveled made a difference.
People could also have taken the trolley into downtown Boston, where the Filene's and Jordan Marsh department stores had been in operation since the mid-1800's.
Shopping in rural areas would have been significantly different, as I suspect supplies would have to be bought on rare shopping trips to a town.
Depends on whether you lived in an urban or rural area.
Rurally there were "general mercantile" stores where there were some packaged products but many of the staples were sold by the pound and the storekeeper measured/weighed it all out for you and got your order together for you.
Urban areas had more specialty stores and much more choice of merchandise simply because those living in the city couldn't make many items they needed as those in the country could.
This reminds me of a TV show that used to be on British TV in the 70's called To the Manor Born. It's about this woman who's the widow of a titled guy who when her husband dies is forced to sell the estate to some nouveau riche guy who made his money by dirtying his hands in business, namely grocery stores. In one scene she's complaining because she decides to go to one of his supermarkets for her shopping one week and when she enters the store stands at the door expecting someone to wait on her. After awhile she exclaims to anyone willing to listen "if I have to wait much longer, I'll serve myself." Pretty clueless but funny. That's how many stores were--and not so long ago, either.
Our village back then:
http://content.statelib.wa.gov/utils/ajaxhelper/?CISOROOT=orcas&CISOPTR=2826&action=2&DMSCALE=15&DMWIDTH=354&DMHEIGHT=236&DMX=0&DMY=0&DMTEXT=&DMROTATE=0
The store:
http://content.statelib.wa.gov/utils/ajaxhelper/?CISOROOT=orcas&CISOPTR=1211&action=2&DMSCALE=30&DMWIDTH=446&DMHEIGHT=287&DMX=0&DMY=0&DMTEXT=General%20stores&DMROTATE=0
http://content.statelib.wa.gov/utils/ajaxhelper/?CISOROOT=orcas&CISOPTR=1212&action=2&DMSCALE=35&DMWIDTH=439&DMHEIGHT=341&DMX=0&DMY=0&DMTEXT=General%20stores&DMROTATE=0
Until the 90's, we used to have a local general stores that looked just like Bae's images. Cookies came in large boxes and you chose them and paid by the pound weight. Each family would run a tab and pay up periodically, after harvest etc. The store was passed down from parents to children and eveyone knew everyone else.
It seemed that everything except appliances, clothes and transportation items was available.
I was told about our old store in our town by a 90 some-odd year old about 10 years ago. Our store had "departments" so you went to one counter where there was a woman who cut cloth in the notions dept. This woman had a special pocket in her apron just for this long pair if cutting shears for cloth! This just fascinated her as a child and she wished she had an apron with a special pocket, too.
The British show Open All Hours had a little old fashioned store, complete with a delivery boy (g-g-g-g-Granville). The Olsen's store on Little House on the Prairie would be an example too.
I imagine that shopping was a big social thing back then, where you met your neighbors for some good gossip as you shopped at the butcher, green grocer, etc. Without refrigeration, you had to shop daily for your meals. The delivery of new material for dresses would be a big deal too.
Tussiemussies
10-4-12, 10:29pm
Think the show "The Walton's "gave a good representation of what it was like at that time period, maybe 1930's - 40's?
awakenedsoul
10-4-12, 11:01pm
I was thinking of Olsen's Mercantile from the Little House on the Prairie series, too. She described how they would buy provisions for the winter: flour, coffee, salt pork, sugar, wheat, cornmeal, etc...
Her "pa" would hunt for meat. I think most families had a dairy cow. They definitely bought in bulk and stocked up.
Love the second picture of the old cars especially.
goldensmom
10-5-12, 6:37am
Not quite a hundred years ago and in a small rural town, my grandfather was a doctor and store owner. My grandmother was a school teacher. Grandpa doctored in the back of the store and filled store customers orders in the front. Large items were ordered via mail usually from the Sears and Roebucks catalog, delivered by freight and picked up at the train depot. Even though grandpa was a doctor, operated a store and sold milk and eggs from his home he gave a lot of credit and did not always get paid (I have some of his ledgers from back then) so grandma’s teaching income from the county was the only regular income. They did not live above the store as was common back then but had a house nearby and rented the apartment above the store. My mom worked in the store when she was in school but when she went off to college grandma quit teaching and worked in the store. They were considered ‘well off‘ back then but life was hard for them.
General Stores, like this (http://inthelimelight.net/wp-content/uploads/Fort-Steele-General-Store-And-Post-Office.jpg), were common back then, particularly in smaller communities. For the record, the picture in the hyperlink is of an actual preserved General Store which exists in a Heritage Museum Town (today), just a hop, skip, and a jump, away from us. Here (http://inthelimelight.net/wp-content/uploads/Fort-Steele-Interior.jpg) is another picture of one of the interiors of one of the many buildings that grace the attraction.
Then came large department stores like this (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Morgan%27s_1890.jpg). The building you see is a Morgan's, circa 1890. Morgan's Department Stores, were Eastern Canada established stores, and the first to all of Canada.
The southwest corner of Sparks and Metcalfe (Toronto, Canada), seen the likes of G, Ross & Co (1860) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mNLGNsFyB2g/T5SGdsuI5jI/AAAAAAAAGHI/UQRI2u857IY/s1600/rosstitle.jpg).
Additionally, Winnipeg, Canada, enjoyed the grand opening of a Hudson Bay Store (1926) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_4Hi0NxbwElk/RcE2iEmiNTI/AAAAAAAAAYQ/Vvd_Erq4MQo/s400/HUDSON-BAY-STORE-1935-C-06-4755.JPG), and Eaton's (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4Hi0NxbwElk/RcCyC0miNII/AAAAAAAAAWM/WCp6qI0nwHc/s400/EATONS-1925-C-06-4687.JPG), changed the face of Portage Avenue (Winnipeg Manitoba) in 1905. There were 700 employees, and 25,000 toured the building on the opening day.
To add, notice the wooden sidewalks in the General Store picture? Everything in the Historic Town is exactly like it was 100-plus years ago!
Additionally, shopping at a large department store (turn of the 1900's) rewarded one with grand service. Everything was packaged, gift-wrapped, boxed with care, and graced with a blanketing of delicate tissue-paper. Pride, dominated back then, and service, was all in a days work. Nothing too good for the customer, unlike today... Staircases were grand in scale, ceiling heights to match, and there was no junk.
What I'd give to be able transport myself back in time to have a taste of what it was like. I know I would stay there, never to return to this era.
ToomuchStuff
10-5-12, 11:05am
I had a neighbor who was the second owner of her house, in a neighborhood where the homes were started around 1924. She made it to just shy of her 101 birthday and lived in three centuries. So I know we used to have a trolley line up a block that took people downtown KC or to downtown Independence. A couple of small grocery stores, butcher shops, barbers, etc. all within walking distance. Ice blocks use to be delivered, so people would keep less cold stuff and get that daily, while having chickens or ducks and having fresh eggs, etc. A lot of changes.
I am lucky to live in a quaint very small town where almost everyone knows everyone else. The local grocery store isn't like the Oleson's but you can buy stuff on credit (they write it on a lil card), they sell eggs that come from chickens that a local child raises, they offer some produce from other people's gardens as well. You can hang out at the hardware store (my brother in law owns it) and my father in law runs it each day. You can drop in there and hang out and talk or buy some preserves that MawMaw made or pick up hardware or lumber.
During pecan season, the kids will go pick pecans and sell them at the small grocery store for money to buy candy. We harvest pecans on our property so we sell our pecans (in 1-2 thousand pound bags). The grocery store is run by a couple and their sons. The couple who runs it inherited it from her father who owned it and worked there almost till the day he died, just a few months ago. There are picture from long ago as well as recent ones of their family, other people and old pictures from our town. You can cash a two party check there or a post dated check or even an out of town check.
I am so blessed to live where I do. I thank God daily that I live here instead of the big city where you can't trust anyone and everyone is in a rush and angry. To be honest, we never even lock our front door. I don't even have a key to it.
cindycindy
10-9-12, 6:19pm
I grew up in Brooklyn in the sixties. I remember the milkbox outside our door where the milkman would deliver milk, oj, eggs & cheese. My mother would leave a list and some money (overnight) in the glass returned bottles. I also remember going to the fruit store with my Italian grandmother. Customers never handled the fruit; the fruitman would pick the fruit/veggies for you (the best ones), place them gently in brown paper bags and would write the price with a black wax pen on the bag. I remember the sawdust on the floors of the salmaria (I am definately spelling this wrong) where the smell of hanging cheese and preserved meats was intoxicating. Freshly baked italian bread from the bakery...and people working in these stores actually making enough money to support a family. Boy, do I feel old.
Brooklyn NY 70 years ago was an amalgam of neighborhoods, and they were like separate villages. Each neighborhood had its own downtown 3 - 4 blocks long, with several greengrocers, butchers, bakeries and delicatessens. a 5 & 10 cent store. hardware store, shoe repair shop and several stationery stores (they sold newspapers, magazines, tobacco and candy) plus a bar or 2. There might be a shoe store and a small clothing store or 2 if it was a fairly large neighborhood. My mother walked downtown and shopped every day for whatever she needed for that day's cooking, and the clerk, usually the owner, in each store would wait on her personally and bag up her order. The butcher would tell her how to cook a piece of meat if she was unfamiliar with it. She knew all of the shopkeepers by name and they knew her. Most of the stores had a boy on hand who would deliver orders on his bicycle. (I had a huge crush on one deli's delivery boy!) The deli handled canned goods and I was fascinated with the long-handled grasping tool that the clerk used to take cans down from the ceiling-high shelves. It was a big deal when the first supermarket, an A & P, opened in the neighborhood, it was a shadow of what we know of supermarkets today but it did combine the butcher shop, the greengrocer's and the deli in one.
Yes, Macy's was the big department store in Downtown Brooklyn, I think it was 7 stories high. Shopping there was an all-day affair; we took the trolley down a couple of times a year and suffered while Mother shopped for clothes, linens, housewares, etc. Those exhausting, boring shopping days put me off shopping for the rest of my life!
To add, notice the wooden sidewalks in the General Store picture? Everything in the Historic Town is exactly like it was 100-plus years ago!
Additionally, shopping at a large department store (turn of the 1900's) rewarded one with grand service. Everything was packaged, gift-wrapped, boxed with care, and graced with a blanketing of delicate tissue-paper. Pride, dominated back then, and service, was all in a days work. Nothing too good for the customer, unlike today... Staircases were grand in scale, ceiling heights to match, and there was no junk.
What I'd give to be able transport myself back in time to have a taste of what it was like. I know I would stay there, never to return to this era.
I've had a taste of that at the lovely remodeled Marshall Field flagship store (a pox on Macy's who now owns Field's) on State Street in Chicago.
The lovely Tiffany mosaic ceiling mentioned in the below link is visible off the fifth floor - from women's lingerie! :)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Field%27s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Field_and_Company_Building
The now-defunct Carson Pirie Scott, just south a bit down State Street from Marshall Field, was a lovely store, as well, although it didn't receive the renovation on the inside it needed. It is no longer in operation.
Mighty Frugal
10-10-12, 9:44pm
Brooklyn NY 70 years ago was an amalgam of neighborhoods, and they were like separate villages. Each neighborhood had its own downtown 3 - 4 blocks long, with several greengrocers, butchers, bakeries and delicatessens. a 5 & 10 cent store. hardware store, shoe repair shop and several stationery stores (they sold newspapers, magazines, tobacco and candy) plus a bar or 2. There might be a shoe store and a small clothing store or 2 if it was a fairly large neighborhood. My mother walked downtown and shopped every day for whatever she needed for that day's cooking, and the clerk, usually the owner, in each store would wait on her personally and bag up her order. The butcher would tell her how to cook a piece of meat if she was unfamiliar with it. She knew all of the shopkeepers by name and they knew her. Most of the stores had a boy on hand who would deliver orders on his bicycle. (I had a huge crush on one deli's delivery boy!) The deli handled canned goods and I was fascinated with the long-handled grasping tool that the clerk used to take cans down from the ceiling-high shelves. It was a big deal when the first supermarket, an A & P, opened in the neighborhood, it was a shadow of what we know of supermarkets today but it did combine the butcher shop, the greengrocer's and the deli in one.
Yes, Macy's was the big department store in Downtown Brooklyn, I think it was 7 stories high. Shopping there was an all-day affair; we took the trolley down a couple of times a year and suffered while Mother shopped for clothes, linens, housewares, etc. Those exhausting, boring shopping days put me off shopping for the rest of my life!
thank you for sharing your stories. I really enjoyed reading it. What a wonderful time to be young!!
cindycindy I really loved your story too
both remind me of so many Hollywood movies you see about NYC back in the day
Such a great thread this is! Thanks to all for a wonderful trip back in time.
My aunt, who passed recently just days after her 95th birthday, grew up in rural Tennessee. She has described walking to the tiny store a couple of miles away with her sisters whenever their mother needed something. They would sometimes carry a chicken to exchange for what they needed. The hen was very much alive and squirming, and they sometimes got peed and/or pooped on by the time they made it to the store. The storekeeper would weigh the chicken and pay them by the weight. They would then take flour, salt, sugar, etc. in exchange. She mentioned carrying a jar along to get filled with kerosene for the lamps. That store, still owned and operated by a later generation of the original owners, was still open when I would visit her as a kid, although by then it had changed a lot and no one still paid in chickens!
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