"Sam's Grocery"
Date of Creation: 1987
In the small town corner grocery, children stood wide-eyed at the
candy counter as ladies shopped for the family necessities. In many cases, the
grocer and his family lived upstairs over the store. The general store was the
one-stop shopping place where all items for the table and stable were obtained.
Each neighborhood has its own corner grocery and people in the neighborhood
usually frequented only "their" store.
Prices at a turn-of-the-century
general store: starch-5 cents, calico-20 cents per yard, coffee-25 cents per
pound, shoes-$1 per pair, shoulder of meat-$1.95 per pound, rice-25 cents per
gallon, gasoline-25 cents per gallon.
Each store was stacked from floor
to ceiling with goods, heated with a pot-bellied stove, perfumed with kerosene,
coffee, tobacco, fish, and pipe smoke from the daily visitors. Because fresh
produce was grown on nearly every farm, the store primarily supplied canned and
dry goods.
| black & white - $ 60.00 | handwatercolored - $ 120.00 |
| black & white print with matting - $ 80.00 | handwatercolored print with matting - $ 140.00 |
Back to By Subject
Listing * Martin's Home
Images and information throughout under the exclusive copyright of Martin
J Benoit, WFA and may not be used, transmitted, or reproduced in any form
without express written authorization.