EXHIBITS
The Island Market: Logan's Historic Corner Market: Food and Shopping Habits Change
Food and Shopping Habits Change
Local grocery stores were affected by developments in the food industry such as canning, refrigeration, and store layout changes. These, when combined with transportation developments, heavily influenced shopping and buying habits in Utah and across the country.
Canned Foods
Canning food was patented in 1810,[22] but was developed later to help with army rations in the world wars.[23] These canned foods became a large part of the local grocery store scene after WWII and allowed produce and meats to be available in a format that had a longer shelf life.
Canning in Utah reached a prominent point during the 1920s and died down by the 1950s.[24] Although it took a little time for canned and boxed foods to gain trust from the average American shopper,[25] these forms of preservation eventually became a core attribute of grocery stores and contributed to the variety presented in self-serve markets (which are described later on).
Refrigeration
Refrigeration extended the lifespan of key ingredients such as meat and dairy products, allowing them to be shipped in from further distances in refrigerated rail cars beginning as early as the mid-1800s.[26] However, refrigerators in homes were not widely available until the mid-1900s. Between 1930 and 1940, the percentage of homes that contained a refrigerator in the United States jumped from 8% to 44%.[27] This meant that by the 1940s, about half of all homes in the U. S. no longer had to shop as frequently, as the refrigerator made it less and less crucial to shop for perishable goods that could sit in their home refrigerator, ready for use.
Self Service Grocery Stores
This decrease in shopping frequency combined with the new self-service grocery store model resulted in more marketing techniques and an increase in impulse buying. Developed in 1915 by Clarence Saunders in Tennessee, the self-service model focused on providing the customer with all the options available, filling their view with options from top to bottom.
“from the top of the shelving down to the floor, wherever the customer stands, wherever she looks, should display merchandise.”
—Dipman, a 1930s retail strategist, quoted by Bowlby, 1997[28]
Eye catching discounts and other marketing techniques encouraged customers to buy more food than was needed to take advantage of perceived deals.[29] Overall, customers came less often and left with more than they used to.[30] With frequent grocery runs replaced with weekly trips, changes in communities began to take place, with some even dubbing the new self-service stores as anti-social.[31]
These buying trends marked the rise of supermarkets. Supermarkets and the mall format in Cache County, Utah, began to be studied in the 1960s [32] but did not become a reality there until the 1970s.[33] (See the “Big Box comes to Logan” page for more.)
Endnotes:
[22] William C. Stolk, "American Can Company: Revolution In Containers", Excerpts of William C. Stolk, originally given April 21, 1960. Digitally published by Oilcans.Net. Available at: http://www.oilcans.net/Research/American-Can-Company-1960.html
[23] David Vergun, "'C-Rats' Fueled Troops During And After World War II", U.S. Department Of Defense, 2019. Retrieved June 2022. Available at: https://www.defense.gov/News/Feature-Stories/story/Article/1933268/c-rats-fueled-troops-during-and-after-world-war-ii
[24] Don Strack, "Utah History Encyclopedia", Uen.Org, 1994. Available at: https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/c/CANNING
[25] Kristi Renee Whitfield, "Canning foods and selling modernity: the canned food industry and consumer culture, 1898-1945" (2012). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 3499. Available at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/3499
[26] Adam Burns “Refrigerator Car (Reefers)” AmericanRails.com. March 10, 2022. https://www.american-rails.com/reefers.html
[27] Matt Novak, "The Great Depression And The Rise Of The Refrigerator," Pacific Standard, 2017. Available at: https://psmag.com/environment/the-rise-of-the-refrigerator-47924
[28] Source taken from page 260 of “Economic Sociology vs. Real Life...” JSTOR. Available at: https://www-jstor-org.dist.lib.usu.edu/stable/43818659?seq=24#metadata_info_tab_contents
R. Bowlby, “Supermarket Futures.” In The Shopping Experience. Eds. Pasi Falk and Colin Campbell, (London: Sage, 1997). Pages 92-11.
[29] Shelley L. Koch, and Joey Sprague. “Economic Sociology vs. Real Life: The Case of Grocery Shopping.” The American Journal of Economics and Sociology 73, no. 1 (2014). JSTOR. Page 252. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/43818659
[30] Tammy Hughes, "How Brits Dealt With The First Self-Service Supermarkets 70 Years Ago", Mirror.Co.Uk, 2018. Available at: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/how-britains-shoppers-dealt-first-11838089
[31] Tammy Hughes, "How Brits Dealt With The First Self-Service Supermarkets 70 Years Ago", Mirror.Co.Uk, 2018. Available at: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/how-britains-shoppers-dealt-first-11838089
[32] Russell F. Fjeldsted, "Retail Shopping Center Development in Logan, Utah" (1969). All Graduate Plan B and other Reports. 643. Pages 6, 8-10. Utah State University, Digital Commons. Available at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/gradreports/643
[33] “Cache Valley Mall,” wikiwand.com. Retrieved April 25, 2022. Available at: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Cache_Valley_Mall