Imagine buying an all wool dress for $1.75, and stockings, two pairs for 25 cents. That is not a fairy tale, nor yet an advertisement for some new cut-price selling agent. It is just what it was like in great-grand-mother’s day.” The Pioneer, 10 December 1927.
“Shopping was an event in those days. From many a prosperous farm house the mistress went two or three times a year to the nearest town to replenish her stock of household gear. In some districts they were fortunate in having splendid general stores near by, maybe at the cross roads, and they need not wait to make a laborious journey far away.”
“Many country stores were very up-to-date, and their stock was good even if it moved as slowly as the proverbial molasses in January. City stores were lighted by gas and heated by stoves in by-gone days. In the country oil lamps cast a circle of light that made the shadowy corners more shadowy still, and the glowing stove was the actual centre of community life, especially for the men folks who gathered there in the winter evenings to exchange news and views.”
“If we could take a trip on a magic carpet and wander back to such a store one or two things would strike us forcibly. First there would be a mysterious barrel near the door. We would wonder about it until a man customer drifted in, either to purchase goods or to talk a while. We would watch, and presently see him regaling himself from the barrel. A pungent perfume on the air! Some of us today would never identify it, but it was whiskey and good whiskey, too. Custom decreed that the merchant treat his men customers, so the barrel stood conveniently near the door in many a shop.”
“Nor were the men the only ones to look for a treat. When the children came in the merchant would stoop behind the counter and bring up a handful of sugar sticks, which stood always ready. No wonder going to the store was a popular pastime with Sonny and Dad.”
“Money was kept in a till, and there were no cash registers to ring a bell and call attention to each sale. Not the way money was handled, but the absence of money would seem strange to us. Barter was still the life of trade. Eggs were worth 8 or 10 cents a dozen, and other produce was valued at what seem ridiculous prices today. The country merchant gave goods on credit for the loads of farm produce brought to him, and often he in turn carted it to town and bartered it once more in exchange for wholesale goods.”
“Store hours were long, beginning usually at 8 am and ending at 10pm, and at midnight on Saturday. Wages for men clerks were about $6 or $8 a week and women claimed all of $4. Beginners often worked for $1 a week, and millinery and other apprentices labored for no pay at all while they learned the trade.”
“In the past 150 years swift transportation has brought the products of the whole world to our stores; changing money values and complicated world finance have made it almost impossible to compare our shrinking dollar with the $1 of 1867. But we doubt if we get half the thrill from our more casual shopping that great-grandmother got when shopping was a real event.”