Groceries - A Trip Through the History Of

Groceries are havens that answer our basic needs for sustenance. A trip to the grocery may be stressful at times especially if you are on a budget, but just imagine how life in the pre-grocery era required buying food from farmers and butchers. Food markets, supermarkets and grocery stores have given consumers the convenience and the variety of food and other items housed under one roof. Furthermore, groceries have pushcarts and air-conditioning that food markets in the past did not have.

Groceries started out as trading posts which sold a variety of items aside from food. This included clothes, household items, tools, and furniture, among many others. These trading posts carried dried goods because meat was then exclusively bought from the butcher while the local dairy distributed milk and eggs. In addition, vegetables were grown by most households. The first chain of grocery stores or grocers was established in the early 20th century, but just like the trading posts of the past only carried dried goods. However, many produce vendors (those who sold fruits and vegetables) and those who sold meat often did business together to provide more convenience to their costumers.

Historically, grocery stores that contributed to the success of the food retailing business in the United States include:

the Piggly Wiggly stores which introduced self-service shopping
A & P had over 10,000 stores in the 1920s
Merill Lynch in 1926 bought other grocery stores and merged with other chains
"drive-in markets" in Los Angeles where different food retailers such as produce vendors, bakers, butchers and grocers surround a parking lot near a small shopping center
King Kullen store - the first supermarket in the United States

The 1950s and 1960s saw the transition of groceries to supermarkets and the Golden Age of the supermarket. The proceeding years gave birth to different consumers' tastes, discounters and warehouse stores, upscale stores, warehouses and mergers.

In recent years, groceries into mega-stores which are housed in warehouses where wholesale were also available. Many groceries are also part of many shopping malls to give consumers a one-stop-shop from appliances to clothes to food. However, before the conveniences that we take for granted nowadays while shopping at groceries, grocery shopping was laborious.

In fact, shopping carts came to be due to the hardships and hassles faced by early shoppers. This now indispensable fixture has been around since 1937 thanks to Sylvan Goldman of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma who thought about how customers could move more groceries using more than one wire basket without too much effort. His inspiration gave birth to the shopping cart which he originally called the "folding basket carrier." This was a metal frame that held two wire baskets with wheels on its legs. This invention not only gave Goldman a chance to build his own company but led stores who used his invention to double their sales. Since then until now, a customer's grocery shopping is never complete without the use of a shopping cart.

The next time you go into a grocery store, remember what a marvel and convenience it is not only because of easy access to meats, produce, and other items being sold but also everyday things such as shopping carts, scanners, computerized cash registers, and even your friendly clerk.