Posts
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".
As a child living in San Francisco, there might have been a grocery store (Safeway) but my mom always shopped at the little market down the street. She would send me with a list and they knew me and they would add the purchases to her “tab” and was paid monthly. It was small compared to what they have today but they offered excellent personal service. It wasn’t until we moved 20 miles south, when the had a supermarket and mom was very impressed!
ReplyDeleteI remember Woolworths!
Shopping at a small market would have been nice, supermarkets have put an end to that
DeleteDo you remember the local milk bars, before anyone had heard of supermarkets? Bread, ice cream, pies, milk, tea.. and whatever we needed daily. More expensive items were bought by car in bigger shopping areas.
ReplyDeleteThey knew my name and I knew theirs :)
Oh yeah I do remember milk bars, when I was a child I would often walk to the local shops to get things for mum like bread and milk and devon and remember mum telling me not to eat the devon on the way home as it as for lunch
DeleteThere was a Woolworth in Australia? That's where we got everything except groceries when I was a kid. They had a bargain basement too.
ReplyDeleteThere still is Woolworth's it is one of the three big supermarket chains here
DeleteI enjoyed this history of the supermarket, Jo-Anne. There are still Piggly-Wiggly stores in the States! Blessings!
ReplyDeleteI wondered if Piggly Wiggly stores were still a thing over there, thank you for telling me they are
DeleteThere were country stores here for staples when my grandparents were young. They were farmers and grew and butchered most of their own food. Made their own butter in a churn, etc. Supermarkets really grew when they came around in the bigger cities. :)
ReplyDeleteThat was interesting. For me personally I have always had grocery stores. But my MIL walked to neighborhood stores with three young kids!
ReplyDelete