15 Shopping Habits From the 1950s That Disappeared

Shopping in the 1950s was a slower, more intimate experience based on neighborhood stores, typed price lists, and genuine interactions with the people running the stores. Families worked with their reliable grocers, returned glass soda bottles for deposit money, collected trading stamps for reward books, and relied upon store clerks or traveling salesmen to guide their purchasing decisions. Children sometimes carried their handwritten shopping lists to the neighborhood stores, while their parents perused thick catalogues from the larger department stores or used the layaway plan to purchase expensive items. Over time, larger stores, credit cards, packaged foods, and improved logistics transformed the shopping experience.

1. Keeping a Running Tab at the Neighborhood Grocery

You’d walk into a neighborhood grocery store, and the owner knew all the faces by name. People would grab some bread, milk, canned soup, or sugar and go to the counter, where the store owner kept a little notebook behind it. They’d ring up all the purchases, and you’d accumulate a tab, a tab that might go on for weeks or months. The store clerks knew you’d pay when your paycheck came around. This worked well, as the communities were tight-knit, and reputation mattered. One missed payment might eat away at your reputation, so you’d generally make good on your debt. And then, of course, came the age of the supermarkets. A&P, Safeway, and other such giants entered the market, relying on hard accounting rather than reputation.

2. Having Groceries Delivered by the Local Store

Groceries being delivered was just another part of the daily routine. People would call the local shop or hand the shop assistant their list while they stood at the counter. They would go through the list, find the items, put everything into strong paper bags, and then the delivery man would take the groceries out to the customer’s home, either cycling in a basket, in a little wagon, or in a small truck. Deliveries would take place after dinnertime, so the parents would be home from work, making this another time-saving measure, cutting down on the need for an extra trip into town. However, this eventually died away as supermarkets became larger establishments, encouraging people to look around their own stores.

3. Purchasing Meat Directly From the Butcher Counter

Meat wasn’t sat in those plastic trays either, as it is today. Customers would visit the meat counter, where a skilled butcher would prepare each meat item on the spot. Customers would specify exactly what they wanted to buy, and the butcher would then chop the meat, weigh it, and wrap it neatly in white butcher paper. The meat counter was often bustling with conversation, with the butcher offering cooking advice and telling the customer about the best cuts of meat available that day. This type of shopping changed in the following decades, when the supermarket introduced prepackaged meat in the 1960s and 1970s.

4. Bringing Glass Soda Bottles Back for Deposit

For the most part, in the 1950s, there was a scarcity of disposable soda containers. The containers were thick glass, designed to be reused again and again. People would collect drinks like Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, and RC Cola in glass containers with a small deposit. Once the drink was consumed, the container was not discarded. Children would collect them in kitchen cabinets, a wooden crate, or a cardboard holder, awaiting the next trip to the store. Returning the containers earned the customer a few pennies each. For some children, bottling up a little extra money was a simple way to pass the time. In a grocery store or a pharmacy, the containers were placed on a wooden rack behind the counter.

5. Asking Store Clerks to Retrieve Goods From Behind the Counter

Many stores in the 1950s still used the old-fashioned approach, in which customers were not allowed to roam the aisles. Customers in drug stores, hardware stores, and small grocery stores had products waiting for them behind the counter, placed on high shelves out of customers’ reach. The customer would tell the clerk what they needed, such as toothpaste, razor blades, or a box of detergent, and the clerk would go and fetch it. The customer would also describe the product, and the clerk would fetch the item and bring it to the counter. This method also kept thieves at bay, a problem for store owners everywhere. Eventually, self-service retail started to emerge.

6. Buying Household Goods From Traveling Salesmen

Shopping, for instance, sometimes came to your doorstep in the 1950s. Traveling salesmen went from street to street, peddling household goods such as cookware, brushes, cleaning materials, and vacuum cleaners. Companies like Fuller Brush built an empire on door-to-door sales. These guys had sample cases full of demos and demos only. They’d ring your doorbell, and you’d talk with them, and they’d show you how all the stuff worked. It wasn’t just a shopping experience; it was a social experience, a little bit of talk and a little bit of shopping. The demos gave you, as a family, a chance to see how all this stuff worked, and you needed to see how it all worked, since many stores didn’t carry a wide selection of anything.

7. Shopping With Green Stamps Reward Books

In the 1950s, cashiers gave customers small sheets of trading stamps with every purchase, and the S&H Green Stamps program is one of the most famous of those promotions. Customers got stamps for the amount they spent, and then families spent hours at home pasting those stamps into thick books. It might take hundreds of purchases to fill one of those books, so patience is a virtue for those who want to participate in trading stamp promotions. Many families kept those stamp books in their kitchen drawers, and kids might even help their parents stamp them into neat, orderly rows. After families filled several boxes, they might go to special redemption centers filled with household goods on the shelves.

8. Buying Food in Bulk From Open Bins

In the 1950s, grocery items were displayed in large bins rather than in individual packages. The flour, rice, beans, oats, and even candies would be in wooden or metallic containers, and people would take out exactly what they needed. Metal scoops or bags were provided to measure the quantity of the product. This would ensure that people did not spend more than they could afford, and the waste would be minimal. The shopkeeper would weigh the bags using a scale and determine the cost of the product. Later, the scene would change for the grocery items. The vendors would realize that the product would remain fresh for a longer time if packed in individual portions.

9. Visiting the General Store for Nearly Everything

In the small towns of the 1950s, one general store was the heartbeat of the community. It wasn’t just a store—it was the gathering place for the entire community. If you walked into the general store, you’d find an amazing array of products under one roof. There would be canned goods, sugar, coffee, and flour on the store shelves, and other items on the store racks, including work gloves, nails, fabric, and a container of useful home tools. Farmers would come into the store to buy feed for their livestock or parts for their farm equipment. Families would come into the store to buy their weekly groceries. Not only was the general store a store for buying products, but also a gathering place for the entire community.

10. Paying for Purchases With Handwritten Charge Plates

In the 1950s, some department stores gave loyal shoppers the privilege of using a metal charge plate instead of cash. Charge plates are small, rectangular tags similar to miniature military dog tags, with the customer’s name, address, and account number embossed on them. When people bought clothing, kitchen items, or other household necessities, the store clerks would stamp the plate in a manual imprint machine. The plate was stamped onto a paper sales slip, and the account information was duplicated in an instant imprint. The customer would sign the slip and walk out with the merchandise, promising to pay the balance later. Monthly bills would arrive at the customer’s home, and the family would pay the bill with a check or cash.

11. Sending Children to the Store With Written Shopping Notes

Back in the 1950s, it was not unusual for parents to send kids out to retrieve small items from local shops. Moms would scribble a list of necessities on a piece of paper or a small notepad, and a child would carry a list with a message such as “milk, bread, butter,” along with a small amount of money. Shop clerks would be familiar with the faces of these parents, especially, and would easily read the scribbled list. The kids would retrieve the necessary items, sometimes with the assistance of shop clerks in counting out the correct change. This would be part of a kid’s after-school routine, a pattern built upon familiarity with the local shops and the short distance between home and shop.

12. Watching Live Product Demonstrations Inside Department Stores

The 1950s saw departmental stores make everyday shopping a small event with live demonstrations. Behind the counters, sales reps demonstrated how the latest and greatest in kitchen gadgets, vacuum cleaners, and beauty products actually worked. People gathered as workers went through demonstrations of electric mixers, pressure cookers, and the latest in food processors. They chopped vegetables, whipped cream, and even polished metal, all while explaining each feature of the product to the gathering of customers. These live demonstrations were a major part of the marketing, as they filled a void in television advertising, which was still in its infancy.

13. Visiting Catalog Order Counters to Shop From Printed Books

In the 1950s, people used to walk into departmental stores simply to look at these large printed catalogs and place their orders from these catalogs. The giants in this field, such as Sears, Roebuck, and Montgomery Ward, were known for their thick catalogs that appeared every season, full of thousands of items. You could see everything, including clothes, appliances, tools, toys, and furniture, in detail in the drawings or photographs. In fact, some stores even had catalog counters where the sales staff could help customers locate items in these vast catalogs. After the customer had made their choice, they could fill out the order form while the sales staff entered the catalog number and the price in their register.

14. Using Layaway Plans to Reserve Expensive Purchases

For instance, in the 1950s, a lot of people used layaway to buy large items without paying the full amount right away, like a bicycle, a radio, a winter coat, or toys for the holidays. You would simply walk in, pick the item you want, and the store would stash it in the back and write your name and a payment plan on a piece of paper. Then, you would return on a regular schedule and pay for the item little by little. Once the item was paid off, the store would give it back to you. It was a system that fit well with debt-averse and budget-minded people. It was a way for people to buy Christmas toys well in advance, paying for them throughout the year.

15. Visiting Appliance Stores for Personal Demonstrations Before Purchase

In the 1950s, purchasing a large home appliance was rarely done in a hurry. People would simply enter the appliance shop and be guided by the sales representative to the new technology. Washing machines, refrigerators, and electric stoves were expensive purchases, and people were eager to see the product in action before making the final purchase. The sales representative would open the refrigerators’ doors to show the storage space inside, turn on the washing machines to demonstrate the spin cycle, and highlight the electrical technology that would make life easier for the consumer. However, the process of purchasing home appliances was no longer the careful, sometimes hour-long process it once was.

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