Grocery Prices 1953

[kfclark]

From the Howard Courant-Citizen April 23, 1953

[Janet Harrington]

I would sure like to pay these prices now, but I don't want the wages that people were earning back then.

[Joanna]

Seeing as how I wasn't around back then (Tee Hee Hee!) what exactly is a "tube" of fancy solid tomatoes???

[flo]

  wheeeeeew, didn't think I was gonna be able to restrain myself from feeding Joanna a line about what a "tube" of tomatoes was.  Sometimes it is just so hard to be serious.

[flo]

here's my serious side, and I believe I'm right, cause I was just a kid myself then.  Tomatoes were sold 3 or 4, lined up, and wrapped in a tray (not styrofoam), thus the name "tube". If this in incorrect, please enlighten me also.

[Joanna]

Well, it sounds right anyhow, but I'd have probably believed any story you cared to spin.  I kept picturing a tennis ball can filled with tomatoes.  Or maybe a caulk gun loaded with a tube of tomato sauce.  Now, wouldn't that be handy to decorate  your meatloaf with?

[W. Gray]

Note that while I was writing this, I received a warning there were two other replies addressing the same topic before I could finish mine and that I might want to review my response. I left it as is to support Flo's comment.

Speaking as a teen age after school grocer in the 1950's, a tube of tomatoes was four or five small but same-size tomatoes fitted in one row in a small elongated box made of light and thin cardboard. Although not round, grocers called it a tube.

Top of the tube was open except for about an inch around the end tomatoes giving the tube some strength. The entire tube was covered in cellophane preventing one from thoroughly examining the tomatoes but giving a view of what was inside.  This was probably one of the first efforts at pre-packaging.

I left the grocery business in 1963 and now that you mention it, I don't seem to recall these tubes in the stores nowadays--but then again, the wife shops for produce while I roam the store looking for other more fattening stuff.

[Wilma]

They come now in a styrofoam tray wrapped in clear plastic, but the best one are found on a green bush and picked after they are ripe.

[kfclark]

And to think I was not sure if I should post this or not. 

I want to know what nasty part of the steer does "boiling beef" come from and what would you do with that?

[W. Gray]

Well, you notice Boiling Beef was a lot cheaper than the rest of the meats advertised.

I think it was what some folks call soup bones.

One purchased these bones which still had bits of meat attached. Boiling these, perhaps in broth, made a meaty soup or stew to which potatoes and other vegetables were added.

As I recall, there was another use. Some people having large dogs would buy for a pet treat.

The meat manager was usually on salary plus a small percentage of the profit he generated for the store. He made money any way he could. Even so, seventeen cents a pound seems a bit stiff.

A limited quantity could probably be purchased at Batson's.