With World War 1 soldiers on their way home or already there, the U.S. Army had some surplus commodities to get rid of a hundred years ago, and that included bacon. This ad appeared in the Milwaukee Journal a hundred years ago today, September 25, 1919, for the Boston Store in Milwaukee.
The store offered mostly dry goods, ranging from from toilet paper (6 rolls for 19 cents) up to a player piano ($395). They also had a limited selection of food items, apparent “loss leaders” to get traffic into the store, shown at left. And, of course, what stands out is the twelve pound can of army bacon for $3.66. That, of course, is before a century of inflation, but a good way to put old prices in context is to remember that the money was made out of silver, so that the $3.66 really meant about 3.66 ounces of silver. Today, that would be about $60.
On the other hand, for your emergency food storage needs, it might fill a niche. According to the reviews, the product is excellent, and the 9 ounce can contains about 50 slices of bacon. So having a can or two in the pantry might not be out of the question.
Since the modern product has 50 slices in the 9 ounce can, this means that the 12 pound can from 1919 contained several hundred slices. So it probably was worth racing down to the store to get a couple cans.
If you’re looking for more ideas for protein for your home food storage, the most economical is probably dry beans or perhaps peanut butter. If you crave real meat, one of the cheapest is probably tuna. Other good options are potted meat, canned chicken, or, of course, the venerable Spam. But if you want to get a can or two of canned bacon, I can’t blame you.
For more information about emergency food storage, see my food storage page.
When I placed another 
If you’re thinking about making more serious preparations for a power outage, see my 
We call it a “blackout” because the lights go out, and the natural first idea is that you’ll need light. Chances are, your cell phone will work as a flashlight, but the battery won’t last forever, and it’s probably not the most convenient. Fortunately, flashlights are very inexpensive, and you ought to keep one or more in various locations in your home and vehicle. The 
Your next need is information. In many (but not all) blackouts, the cellular network will keep functioning, at least for a few hours, so being able to power your phone is important. Obviously, you won’t be able to plug it in to the wall, so at a minimum, you’ll want to have a 
If you want to charge away from your car, one very inexpensive method is the 
And speaking of radios, you should have at least one battery operated radio. You can get information on your cell phone, but streaming is generally battery intensive. Also, in many emergencies, the cellular network will become unavailable or extremely slow. During the New York blackout, 
ruler on the map over that station’s location, and draw a line in that direction. You repeat the process with a second station, and where the lines meet is your location. You’ll need to orient the map, so if you don’t know what way is North, it’s a good idea to have an 
I wrote up the sales on paper receipts, and if they paid cash, I put it in the till. If they didn’t have any cash, I took a 
