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Grocery Shopping in the 1960s
by Billy Ingram
This is one of those 16mm instructional films shown in elementary schools during the Baby Boom generation. It’s cornball and lame but all of those Britannica films were a reflection of the times; in this instance the year 1962.
Notice how the family that's going grocery shopping brings along the dog - only to leave the pooch in the hot car!
And who buys apple juice anymore? Very popular though in 1962.
The purpose of these films was to educate rural kids who might never have seen a modern grocery store like this one even by the early-1960s. Keep in mind, the majority of American kids grew up in and around farm country in the fifties.
This film gives modern folks a peek into what life was like over 60 years ago in America.
Popular beginning in the mid-sixties were game cards that were given away with purchases. Savings stamps like King Korn and S&H Green Stamps had been popular for decades but the advent of television brought about a more interactive experience.
Shoppers tuned in to TV shows on the weekends to see if they had the winning Bingo or horse and car racing card they'd gotten that week for free at their favorite grocery store. It was the lure of big money prizes that often determined where a family went to do their food shopping.
These promotions generally lasted for around 6 months. Local TV stations scored big ratings thanks to so many eager viewers waiting to see if they would win the grand prize of $1,000. There was one $1,000 winner for the entire country, the top local prize was generally $100, a princely sum in 1968, around $700 today!
by Billy Ingram
