Category Archives: Historical Prices

Happy Thanksgiving!

1940Nov26PghPress

Happy Thanksgiving from OneTubeRadio.com!

Thanksgiving this year will be different. But perhaps the things we took for granted last year will be things we are thankful for this year. A hundred years ago, a world war and a global pandemic were still vivid memories. And seventy-five years ago, the boys (and a few girls) had either come home or were on their way home, but some never came home.

Today, we offer another snapshot of prices back in the day. These were the prices for a Thanksgiving dinner 80 years ago, in 1940. Europe was at war, and most Americans, if they were honest, knew that they would soon be at war as well. Yet they were thankful, and they bought turkeys, and pumpkin pies, and all the rest. The ad appeared in the Pittsburgh Press 80 years ago today, November 26, 1940.



1960 Grocery Prices

1960Nov21PghPressYesterday, we looked at 1950 grocery prices, and today we move to 1960.  Here’s a snapshot of what grocery prices looked like sixty years ago, with an emphasis on Thanksgiving fixings, from the November 21, 1960 issue of the Pittsburgh Press.

The turkey itself would set you back 39 cents per pound. If you were a non-traditionalist, hams started for about 69 cents per pound.

The cranberry sauce was two cans for 45 cents. If you were going to make your own cranberry sauce, the berries were 19 cents per pound. And if you were making your own pie (which you probably did), the pumpkin was two cans for 39 cents.

Mayonnaise was 69 cents for a quart, and you could get 8 one-pound cans of Van Camp Pork and Beans for a dollar. Jello was 12 boxes for a dollar, and cake mixes were three for a dollar.

In the produce department, oranges were two dozen for 79 cents, and lettuce was 2 for 35 cents.



1950 Grocery Prices

1950Nov20PghPressHere’s a snapshot of grocery prices 70 years ago today, from the November 20, 1950, edition of the Pittsburgh Press.

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, it was only natural that turkeys featured prominently, at 69 cents a pound (or 59 cents a pound for those 16 pounds and up). For 29 cents, you could get two pounds of cranberries, two pounds of apples, or three pounds of sweet potatoes. If you preferred your cranberries out of a can, the canned cranberry sauce was 7 cans for a dollar.

If you were stocking up on other meat, pork roasts were 33 cents a pound, and beef roasts were 59 cents a pound.

For the pantry, you could get ten cans of Campbell’s Tomato Soup for a dollar, a two pound jar of grape jelly for 43 cents, olives for 43 cents, and asparagus five cans for a dollar. Two loaves of bread were 27 cents.

You could wash it all down with a carton of cigarettes for only $2, and for the bathroom, four bars of soap would set you back 36 cents.



1940 Grocery Prices

1940Nov14PittsburghPressHere’s a snapshot of what grocery prices looked like 80 years ago, from the November 14, 1940, issue of the Pittsburgh Press.

When you look at these old prices, one way to translate them to modern prices is by remembering that each dollar was made up of ten silver dimes or four silver quarters. Either way, it was one ounce of silver. Today, the price of silver is about $24 per ounce, so if you multiply these prices by 24, you’ll get the rough modern equivalent.

Chicken would set you back 29 cents a pound, which would be about $7 a pound in today’s money. Ham was 19 cents a pound, or the equivalent of about $4.50 today.

Fish from Lake Erie was 25 cents a pound. You could buy it fresh, or for the same price, you could buy it cooked, and warm it up at  home. At the lunch counter, a meal of either halibut or ham would set you back 56 cents for two people.



1945 Grocery Prices

1945Feb9PittsburghPostGazFor the American housewife fighting on the Home Front in 1945, here was the battle plan, as published 75 years ago today in the February 9, 1945, issue of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

One way to compare the spending power in pre-1964 dollars is to remember that one dollar was one silver dollar, which is worth about $18 dollars today. So 25 pounds of flour was 98 cents, which works out to about 70 cents per pound in today’s money. That seems pretty reasonable, but eggs work out to about $10 per dozen, and pork sausage to over $6 per pound, meaning that the housewife had to be creative when it came to getting protein into her family’s diet.

Some items, such as beef, sugar, and butter, were rationed. But all of the items in this ad were freely available.



1944 Grocery Prices

1944Nov9MilJourHere’s another snapshot of wartime grocery prices from 1944, from the November 9, 1944, issue of the Milwaukee Journal. None, or very few, of the items shown here required ration coupons, as would be the case for sugar, meat, and some other items.

As with pre-1964 prices, one way to convert to today’s money is to remember that one dollar meant one silver dollar, four silver quarter, or ten silver dimes, or about an ounce of silver, which would be worth about $18.

Flour was $1.17 for a 25 pound bag. A pound of coffee would set you back 21 cents, and a 12 ounce box of Grapenuts was 13 cents. And a package of “Kool-Aid Ice Cream Mix” was only a nickel.



Canned Bacon: 1919 and 2019

1919Sept25MilJourFullAd1919Sept25MilJourWith 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.

That’s still a reasonable price, however.  The current WalMart price for 12 pounds of bacon is about $53.  That bacon, of course, isn’t really suitable for long-term storage, whereas the 1919 product was canned.  Interestingly enough, though, canned bacon is still readily available, and can be purchased at Amazon.  As you can see below, it’s rather expensive, especially considering that this price is for a nine ounce can:

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.



1944 Grocery Prices

1944Jun29MilJourHere’s another snapshot of wartime grocery prices 75 years ago today, June 29, 1944, as shown in this IGA ad in the Milwaukee Journal. In most browsers, you can click on the image, and then click again to enlarge.

If you’re a comparison shopping time traveler, you might be interested in the following links:



1944 Grocery Prices

1944April27MilJourHere’s a snapshot of grocery prices during World War II. This ad for National Tea Food Stores  appeared in the Milwaukee Journal 75 years ago today, April 27, 1944.

Many items were rationed.  For example, the beef and pork indicate how many points were needed, meaning that the shopper would need to redeem a ration coupon.  Other items, such as chicken and fish, are advertised as “no points,” meaning that they were not rationed.