For a snapshot of wartime grocery prices, this ad appeared in the Washington Evening Star, September 24, 1942.  (Click on the image to view a larger version.)  Rationing had not yet started in earnest. At the time this ad appeared, sugar was the only food item being rationed, having started in May 1942. Two months after this ad, November 1942, coffee (25 or 33 cents a pound) would be rationed. The following March, meats, fats, canned fish, cheese, and canned milk would be added to the list.

The prices look cheap to us, but because of the war, they were beginning to spike. According to this inflation calculator, one dollar in 1942 was the equivalent of $16.75 in 2021 dollars. So the 33 cents a pound coffee was the equivalent of $5.53 per pound in 2021. A quart of bleach for a quarter sounds cheap, but that’s $1 a gallon, about the same price you can buy it for today. But in 2021 dollars, that gallon of bleach would be the equivalent of $16.75. The 39 cent a pound chickens work out to $6.53 a pound. Even the loaf of bread for 15 cents sounds cheap, but it’s the equivalent of $2.51.

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