How Grocery Shopping Went From Small Shops to Mega Supermarkets

Ever walk around your local supermarket and think, well how did I get here? It’s been a longer journey that you might realize and one that is closely linked to American history.

Without some serious economic struggle, things might have looked quite different (or not have evolved so fast).

We’re diving into the history books here, to look at how our shopping habits resulted in the mega supermarkets of today.

Note that this is based on America’s supermarket evolution, which is closely linked to Canada and slowly followed by the United Kingdom’s own version.

Grocery Store Origins

We start our look back at supermarket history in the U.S. with its most basic origin, ‘peddlers’. These grocery retailers would sell produce and wares in the street. They would operate alongside town markets and fairs, distributing goods to those who would find it harder to get to town centers. In many third-world countries, these occupations still exist.

The Introduction of Small Corner Stores

By the 1920s, the U.S. saw the introduction of small corner grocery stores. If you visited one of these stores, you’d ask the merchant for an item and they’d find it from a shelf or storage behind the counter. Items were very rarely prepackaged, so you’d ask for a specific size and wait for it to be measured by the clerk.

Individual Stores for Individual Items

Small corner stores offered a social occasion, where you could speak to locals while you waited for your turn. But they were generally considered quite expensive for the retailer, as they were slow and demanded a lot of labor.

They were also a nuisance for the public as they very rarely offered multiple products. So you’d have to head to specific stores for your meat, vegetables, dairy, and wares.

The Astor Market Concept

Next, it’s worth noting the arrival of New York’s Astor Market in 1915. His food market was considered inexpensive, as it relied on the economics of scale.

Creating an indoor market in Manhattan, it was effectively a mini-mall that sold everything New Yorkers would need for the week. Sadly for Vincent Astor, it closed just two years later. But, it opened the door to a new concept of grocery stores.

The Combination Store

The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A&P) was established way back in 1859, but by the 1920s it had become a common early grocery store chain. Its success was largely due to the ‘combination store’.

Much like the Astor Market, these grocery stores were now selling multiple items, freeing consumers from the need to trek to multiple stores. They were doing so well that by 1929, 1 in 3 U.S. grocery stores were now ‘combination stores’.

However, they were generally still using the traditional system of asking clerks to find items from the shelves. Still slow, still laborious, still expensive.

The Arrival of Self-Service Grocery Stores

The self-service grocery stores of today had to have arrived at some point. It can be dated back to as far as the 1920s and early 1930s, with Piggly Wiggly stores. First opened in 1916 by entrepreneur Clarence Saunders, they were an instant financial success.

Saunders began to offer franchises, which saw a growing trend of overnight shelf stacking so that customers could arrive the next day, find their items on the shelves, and pay for them at the cashier desk at the front of the store.

Piggly Wiggly, Not Quite a Supermarket

Piggly Wiggly might have started the model we all know today, but those stores were still relatively small shops. So when did the supermarket arrive?

Well, there are multiple claims. Including Alpha Beta and Ralphs (both in South California) back in 1930. But, with prices still so high, it’s hard to include them in the conversation. By definition, a supermarket should be a “self-service, separate product departments, discount pricing, marketing and volume selling” – which Alpha Beta and Ralphs certainly were not.

King Kullen, the First True Supermarket

The first true supermarket as we know it today was actually ‘King Kullen’. It was opened in 1930 by a former Kroger employee, Michael J. Cullen. He used a 6,000-square-foot garage in Queens, New York City, and fully embraced the ‘pile it high and sell it cheap’ logic.

Baskets were given to customers, prices were clearly defined and grocery shopping was suddenly transformed overnight.  These early supermarkets were actually called ‘cheapy markets’ at first, but the public soon cottoned on to the term ‘supermarket’.

The Great Depression’s Warehouses

Then came the Great Depression. Suddenly Americans were forced to price-watch more than ever before. This meant American grocery store chains, such as Kroger and Safeway Inc., needed to switch to the ‘cheapy market’ approach as the 1930s progressed.

One study reports that the depression accelerated the growth of supermarkets, as they would operate in recently abandoned factories for low costs. These early stores were far from the shining supermarkets of today, so the public was attracted to the low-cost warehouse-like supermarkets.

The Parking Lot

Kroger then made a decision that radicalized the supermarket world. They put parking lots on all four sides of their supermarkets. Soon this trend caught on across the U.S., attracting all levels of American families to the stores. Doing well, supermarkets were now able to shift their styles towards Art Deco and Streamline Moderne, offering something more appealing than the warehouses of the 30s.

By 1950, there were over 15,000 American supermarkets across 47 states, compared to just 3,000 in 1937.

Refrigeration

The rise of refrigeration furthered the supermarket offering. Frozen foods were popular during World War II for preservation, but soon became a staple of the American supermarket. It allowed self-service to be possible across every item, from meat and dairy to ice creams and frozen vegetables.

However, there was a social-economic downside. Poorer families that couldn’t afford a refrigerator were priced out of many supermarket offerings.

Monopsony

Large chains soon began to take over the American grocery industry, leaving smaller retailers in their wake. It triggered backlash across the country and even political pressure, resulting in the Robinson-Patman Act. It was supposed to prevent large chains from using their power to crush smaller stores but effectively had minimal impact.

As a result, the likes of Kroger dominated and remained dominant.

Rapid Growths via the Suburbs

As Suburbanization powered across North America, so too did the opportunity to build bigger supermarkets on cheap land, away from cities but close to suburban homes that needed supermarkets.

Between 1940 and 1950, planned communities grew at an incredible rate of 126.1%. The need for supermarkets was booming like never before.

Modernization

As America entered the 1950s, the economy began to surge. This time, there was money available.

That meant the ability to modernize. The layouts were revolutionized, taking consumers on a profit-optimized route around the aisles. Modern fixtures and decor were implemented. The experience was upgraded and Americans began to enjoy supermarkets for more than just their low costs.

Membership Cards

In the 1950s and 60s, supermarkets began to issue trading stamps and incentives. Over the decades these transitioned into the membership and loyalty cards we know today.

They give the public a reason to keep coming back to that specific supermarket and not a rival chain, offering savings and long-term rewards.

Expanded Product Range

In the 80s and 90s, Supermarkets began to branch out and offer extended product ranges. Modern technology arrived and video games, VHS, DVDs, and even TVs were now accessible on grocery store shelves.

In return, supermarkets demanded further space, transitioning them into the mega supermarkets that we see today.

Going Online

Following the dot-com boom, online supermarkets arrived with the likes of Webvan (in the U.S.). These stores offered online-only grocery shopping, with sophisticated automated systems for pick-up and delivery.

Today, supermarkets offer online commerce from their regular stores too, offering pick-up and delivery from your favorite locations. Watch this space to see what comes next in the grand evolution of supermarkets.