For a snapshot of grocery prices 85 years ago today, this ad appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette on February 18, 1937. At first glance, the prices look like bargains, but the Great Depression was in full force, and for many, there wasn’t a lot of money to go around. According to this online inflation calculator, one dollar in 1937 was the equivalent of $19.36 today. For round numbers, let’s call it $20, so spending a nickel in 1937 would be about the same as spending a dollar today.

Some things were cheaper then. For example, for the ground beef, veal, or pork, you would need to hand over ten nickels, so the three pounds is the equivalent of about $10 today, or about $3.33 per pound.  How does that compare to today’s price, which you can find on Amazon at this link.

On the other hand, three pounds of coffee for 75 cents sounds like a bargain until you realize that’s five nickels per pound, or the equivalent of $5 per pound today. To compare, you can find the current price at Amazon at this link.

Potatoes were a nickel a pound, meaning that they were the equivalent of a dollar a pound today. Eggs were three dozen for 89 cents. What would that be in today’s money, and how much would those same eggs cost today?  You can find out at this Amazon link.

Surprisingly, duck was cheaper than chicken.  Duck was 25 cents per pound, but chicken was 29 cents.   If you don’t want to cook, you can eat in the store’s cafeteria. Lunch for two people was 54 cents, and a five-course dinner with table service was 75 cents each.

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For a snapshot of grocery prices 75 years ago today, here is an ad for Guyton’s Food Store, at the corner of Fifth and Castle Streets, Wilmington, N.C., from the January 10, 1947 issue of the Wilmington Morning Star.

These prices look like real bargains, but there has been a lot of inflation since 1947.  According to this inflation calculator, one dollar in 1947 is the equivalent of $12.46 in 2022 dollars.  So a dime for a roll of toilet paper sounds cheap, but that’s the same as paying about $1.25 today.  A pound of bacon for 65 cents works out to over $8.  And a pound of butter was 85 cents, but that’s over $10 a pound today, which is very expensive.  Even the margarine at 42 cents a pound is about $5 a pound.

For a snapshot of the cost of living a century ago, these grocery ads appeared a hundred years ago today, January 6, 1922, in the Seattle Star. The prices look cheap, but these are all in 1922 dollars. According to this inflation calculator, a dollar in 1922 was the equivalent of $16.54 in 2022 dollars. So you need to multiply all of these prices to get the corresponding value. So ten pounds of sugar for 57 cents is close to $10 today. Coffee was 42 cents a pound, but that’s close to $7 today. Pot roasts were 12-1/2 cents per pound, which is about $2 today, which isn’t bad. I don’t know if the supermarket today as a “fresh killed jack rabbits,” but back then, they were 35 cents each, or $5.76 in today’s money.

If you did your grocery shopping at these stores, what would you buy? Click on the ad to see a full-size version.

Here’s a snapshot of what grocery prices looked like in 1934, from the December 13, 1934, issue of the Washington Evening Star.

The ad is for Piggly Wiggly, which just opened a new store in downtown Washington at 717 11th St. NW.

While the prices might look like bargains, keep in mind that this was at the depths of the Great Depression, and there has been a lot of inflation since then. One dollar in 1934 dollars is the equivalent of just over $20 in 2021 dollars, according to this online inflation calculator.  To put it another way, one dollar in 1934 represented a silver dollar, or four silver dimes, or four silver quarters. Any of those would cost you about $20 today.

So a dozen eggs look like a bargain at 47 cents, but that’s the equivalent of $10 today. Meat fares a little better. Ham is 19 cents a pound, which is about $3.80 today. A whole chicken in a can (about two pounds) is 87 cents, or about $17 in today’s money. How does that compare to the same product, which is still available today:

For those on a budget, turnips were 3 pounds for a dime, or about $2 in today’s money. Jello was 3 packages for 19 cents, or 6-1/3 cents each. In today’s money, that’s about $1.26 each. How does that compare to today’s price?

If this is where you did your shopping, what would you buy?

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For a snapshot of grocery prices in 1948, this add for McCanns supermarket appeared in the November 15, 1948, issue of the Pittsburgh Press.  (You can click on the ad to view a larger version.)

Prices were high after the war, but there’s also been a lot of inflation since then. According to this online inflation calculator, one dollar in 1948 was the equivalent of $11.48 in 2021 dollars. So to get a true picture of what things cost, you need to multiply these prices by 11.48. Therefore, the dozen eggs sound pretty reasonable at 99 cents, but that’s really $11.36 in today’s money. In other words, it’s almost a dollar per egg! And the bacon at 75 cents per pound works out to $8.61 per pound.

To my taste, the smoked beef tongue doesn’t sound very appetizing. But at the equivalent of $4.48 per pound, it’s the cheapest meat they have. On the other hand, I could probably afford the apple pie for 49 cents ($5.62 in today’s money), so maybe I’ll just have that for supper. The minimum wage at the time was 40 cents per hour, so I could get that for working just over one hour.

For a snapshot of grocery prices 40 years ago, this ad appeared in the October 15, 1981, issue of the Pittsburgh Press.  According to this inflation calculator, each 1981 dollar is the equivalent of $3.01 in 2021 dollars.  So for a fair comparison, you need to multiply all of these prices by 3.

Eggs were just 69 cents a dozen, but when you do the math, that’s the equivalent of $2.08, which you can compare to the current price shown below:

A pound of margarine was 99 cents, which would be about $2.98 in 2021 dollars. Today’s actual price is shown below:

Coffee was expensive, with a 3 pound can of Maxwell House selling for $6.99, or $21.04 in today’s dollars. It’s about half as much today, because the link below shows the price for two 3 pound cans, now in plastic:

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For a snapshot of grocery prices during the Great Depression, these ads appeared in the May 10, 1935, issue of the Bismarck (ND) Tribune.  The prices look like a bargain, but money was tight for many, and according to this inflation calculator, each 1935 dollar is the equivalent of $19.97 in 2021 dollars.  And when you multiply these prices by 20, they no longer look like such a bargain.

Click on the image to view a full-size copy of the ad.

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For a snapshot of wartime grocery prices in the United States, this ad appeared in the August 30, 1943, issue of the Pittsburgh Press. Of course, every product has a price, but many of the products also require ration coupons or points, since rationing was in effect in the United States. But if a homemaker had used up all of the coupons for the month, there were still some options. Fish and chicken could be purchased without points. And if you wanted to eat in the cafeteria, a dinner of beefsteak or fish could be had for $1.25 for two people.

Beef, bacon, sausage, and even cans of soup, fruits, or vegetables required ration points.  But chicken was 59 cents a pound, and fish was 45 or 49 cents, with no need for coupons.

Three pounds of coffee was 85 cents.  These prices look like bargains, but there’s been a lot of inflation in the last 78 years.  According to this inflation calculator, one dollar in 1943 is the equivalent of $15.78 in 2021 dollars.