It’s the most wonderful time of the year, so I thought I’d shift gears for a while with some holiday related posts.The photos above show the winners of A&P’s Christmas Display Window Contest, Toledo (Ohio) Division, from 1926. Up until the 1950’s, grocery stores generally featured a “window display” not dissimilar in concept to a fashion window in a department store. They usually consisted of artistically arranged food, cardboard display stand-ups and the like, oftentimes with an element of humor incorporated. For sure, the holidays brought out a burst of creativity in many grocery store staffs.
One of the things I love about these photos is that all four stores feature the same exact decorations, leading me to believe they must have all come from division headquarters. The placement varies, of course, as do the window configurations themselves. At this time A&P was near the peak of its store count, with nearly 15,000 units. Most of there were small “Economy Stores” (an A&P term) featuring dry groceries only, including their top-selling coffee brands. The first three stores feature Quality Meats signs, indicating that they were “combination stores”, among the first A&P’s to feature a meat department.
It is commonplace today to hear of the late 1920’s as a flush, prosperous time, and in comparison with the decade that followed it certainly was. The fact remained, however, that many Americans lived very simple lives at that time, with few luxuries. Many families purchased only staple items - flour, sugar, etc., and occasional meats, to supplement what they could grow or raise in their backyards or on their land. For those families, Christmastime was probably the lone exception to their regular buying habits.
For the record, the standings and store locations from the top: First Prize, 3376 Monroe Street, Second Prize, 305 South Detroit Street, and tied for Third Prize, 2208 Monroe Street and 1305 Collingwood Street.
It is commonplace today to hear of the late 1920’s as a flush, prosperous time, and in comparison with the decade that followed it certainly was. The fact remained, however, that many Americans lived very simple lives at that time, with few luxuries.
ReplyDeleteYou mean to tell me it wasn't all feather head flapper girls and bootlegging gangsters in shiny pinstripe suits living in lavish Great Gatsby-esque homes? Man, I'm so bummed. LOL
On a more (or less) serious note I find that bit about food displays quite interesting. I have never seen or heard anything of that sort before. Thanks for the info.
The displays of fruits and nuts in the store window brings back memories of the giant fruit baskets of my childhood, chock full of oranges, apples, nuts, hard candies and chocolates. But I've never seen a store window display as such, I imagine down here in Georgia there would have been a few warm Decembers that wouldn't have been very kind to such a display of fruit.
ReplyDeleteDidi- Don't take it so hard! :) Just like the 50's weren't all a big sock hop/malt shop/world of poodle skirts and leather jackets like the stereotype, as a friend wisely noted in an email to me a while back. (Dashed your hopes again, sorry :)
ReplyDeleteThe displays were very common up until the 50's. I think a few of the older pics on this site - Jewel, Kroger, Stop & Shop, etc. show them.
Ken - I'll bet the warmer climate dictated what they could put in the windows - probably cereal and other packaged goods, etc. My guess is they were difficult to maintain, and a fair amount of product would have to be tossed (from heat, sun fading, etc.) if they weren't changed frequently.
Neat to see the A&P here. I guess they were gone by the 1980's where I am though I often saw their ads on Detroit TV around '82 or '83 anyway.
ReplyDeleteChris - I don't know how long A&P stuck around in Toledo, but they were definitely a good-sized player there in the early years!
ReplyDeleteGlad to know. Of course when they bought out Farmer Jack and tried to work that in Toledo, they simply gave up without a fight. It's a shame too since nobody took the decade-old building that's still rotting there a mile down the street from my house. Love to have another chain to go to than besides Kroger.
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