Supermarkets Past and Present

Events in history 1620: Pilgrims come to America and learned to farm from Native Americans 1621: Pilgrims and Native Americans have a feast from their harvest now commonly known as the first Thanksgiving 1788: First general store in the country opens in Massachusetts (Gray’s General Store) 1920’s: Chain Store EXPLOSION 1962: First Wal-Mart opens 1988: First Wal-Mart Super Center opens, containing general merchandise along with a full sized grocery store. Today: Nearly 50,000 grocery stores in the United States

Early america When Europeans came to America, the Native Americans taught the immigrants how to survive by growing their own food such as corn, tomatoes, beans and even chocolate. In addition to teaching pilgrims how to grow food, they also taught them how to fish and hunt. Today, we celebrate Thanksgiving because in 1621 the pilgrims shared a holiday feast with Native Americans.

Farmers The very food we eat started with rural farmers. They produced fruits and vegetables and even raised animals such as pigs, cows and chickens to provide meat. Farming has always been known as hard work that often times didn’t pay very well, however farming provided for many families in days of past and still does today. Farmers and even small families would grow their food and then would meet in town to trade what they have grown

Trade Soon after people would meet and trade items, small stores came to be very common. “Mom-n-Pop” stores were scattering abroad as well as general stores. These offered small selections of grocery and meats with small amounts of non-food items. These types of stores were local and not chain stores. People paid cash for items as opposed to trading with one another.

Present Time Grocery stores of today offer wide varieties of food and household items from produce, dry grocery, fresh meat and even prepared deli cuisine. In addition, they offer items for households such as cleaning products, school supplies, cookware and even pet food. Grocery stores and giant “super centers” have not always been this expanded. They have a history of where they are derived.

Supermarkets and you What do you know about supermarkets? What would you like to learn? Do you enjoy going to the grocery store? How often do you go? Who do you go with? What is your favorite section of the grocery store?