MetaChat REGISTER   ||   LOGIN   ||   IMAGES ARE OFF   ||   RECENT COMMENTS




artphoto by splunge
artphoto by TheophileEscargot
artphoto by Kronos_to_Earth
artphoto by ethylene

Home

About

Search

Archives

Mecha Wiki

Metachat Eye

Emcee

IRC Channels

IRC FAQ


 RSS


Comment Feed:

RSS

18 September 2006

Vintage Supermarket Photos . There's something comfortingly wholesome about these pics, both the setting and the era. Although as a historically aware person, I'm aware the ear was a sham, and as a former grocery employee, I realize that supermarkets are dens of insanity.
Cool post & OMG! The cardboard Bunny! on the 2nd page of photos, 2nd row down on the right makes it even cooler!
posted by getoffmylawn 18 September | 12:26
This is *great*.

One of my favorite things about going on vacation to small beach towns is that you almost find a supermarket that is still like this.
posted by Miko 18 September | 12:48
This is awesome. My father managed a Thriftimart when I was very young, and bought his own corner store in the 70's. He brought his brothers out west and opened up three more stores (Brothers Market) here in Vegas. My first job was bagging on Saturdays when I was 11 and I worked in those stores in every department all my life. Though we had the best meat dept. and bakery/deli in town, eventually the big chains made it so an independent couldn't compete and we ended up with only the little corner store which I managed for a few years until we finally sold in 2000.
We still had one of those old beige tills in the back room. I'm going to print out some of these pics for him.
posted by krix 18 September | 14:04
I watched Animal House last week and these pohotos remind me of the shop(lift)ing trip where Tom Hulce meets the dean's daughter. Except one of the registers in Animal House is from the seventies.
posted by Hugh Janus 18 September | 14:10
This picture is great:

≡ Click to see image ≡

The greatest part of the picture is the little price tag signs in the foreground. Anyone else remember those?
posted by Doohickie 18 September | 15:15
my late grandfather was crazy about supermarkets -- having grown up in an extremely poor environment, the supermarkets appeared to him to be an awesome sign of progress and wealth. he was an avid -- if very careful -- shopper.


one morning many years ago, just several weeks -- I'd say less than two months, but it couldn't have been more than three anyway -- after his death, I opened the newspaper and, when I got to the city pages, I saw a big story about, I guess, prices, or inflation, or something. anyway the story carried a big photo of a supermaket.

I looked closely -- it was our local supermarket. I looked even closer -- and there, standing in the checkout line, wearing his favorite hat and his usual overcoat, there was my grandfather.

it was really him. in the paper.

I don't particularly believe in ghosts, nor in the supernatural -- coincidence is powerful enough. but still.


thanks for the post giovanni.
posted by matteo 18 September | 16:25
I've always found supermarkets very reassuring, perhaps in the same way as your grandfather, matteo. I can remember a couple of times, between jobs and depressed, when I would seize any excuse to go to the grocery store. The bright bright lights, the clean-ness, the newness, the repetition of stacked packaging, the hopeful produce in its abundance, the seasonal goods of whichever season was approaching promising happy times to come -- an uplift.
posted by Miko 18 September | 16:42
As a current supermarket employee, I get a kick out of old pictures like these. It's amazing how much and how little has changed with time. I once found a newpaper page ad from the company I work for from 1936, in an antique shop. I bought it for the sheer nostalgia.

And as for dens of insanity...yes, hotbeds of such. Both customer and employee insanities. I could tell you stories!
posted by redvixen 18 September | 17:44
OMG! Market Basket! This was a chain in SoCal (maybe elsewhere as well) that my mum shopped at until it went out of business.

And yes, Doohickie, I remember those price tag signs. I'll be 40 this year and I'm having more and more "OMG! I remember that!" moments.

Matteo - that's a really cool coincidence.
posted by deborah 19 September | 12:57
So my Vegas flight and hotel room is booked... || Bunny! OMG!

HOME  ||   REGISTER  ||   LOGIN