Supermarkets history

 First you can find a new hodgepodge post over here:

http://jamfn.blogspot.com/2024/11/not-taking-hodgepodge-for-granted.html

Next you have this:

Have you ever thought about supermarkets, most of us shop in one but what was the first one in your country or state, do you know?

It isn’t something I had given any thought to till this morning sitting here thinking about blog posts, so I decided to do some research, and this is what I discovered.

Prior to 1938 there were many grocery chains, but none called themselves a supermarket. Many stores also offered self-service.

Possibly the first Australian business to experiment with self-service was the department store, Grace Brothers, which installed an “experimental” self-service food hall in their basement in 1921

Starting n 1923, here in Newie (Newcastle)a fella by the name of Farr started Farr’s Markets, he soon had stored throughout northern NSW, he opened a store in Bondi Junction.

It was in 1938 that Farr’s markets first advertised themselves as a “super market” and was the first ones to use the term.

Like today’s supermarkets, Farr’s had many different departments including fresh produce. They also pioneered the idea of ready-cooked meals – in 1931 their Goulburn store included a “provision department” supplying cooked food.

Like many developments in retailing, it began in America when, in 1916, Clarence Saunders opened his first Piggly Wiggly store in Memphis, Tennessee.

Now some may be thinking what about Coles and Woolworths, well on the 9 April 1914 a man named George Coles opened the Coles Variety Store on Smith Street in the Melbourne suburb of Collingwood. Further expansion occurred and Coles' interest in food retailing was spurred in 1958 when it acquired 54 John Connell Dickins grocery stores.

On 5 December 1924 in Pitt Street of Sydney's Imperial Arcade, called "Woolworths Stupendous Bargain Basement".

 

I might do another post about modern day supermarkets