My family lived upstairs from a "butter & egg" shop just like this in the '40s and '50s...I can still smell the cheese, butter and fresh ground coffee and peanut butter 60 years later!

included A.C. Petersen's or Sealtest for milk, Viking (baked goods - the best Swedish limpa), Charles Chips (in a big tin - but State Line from the grocery store was better) and Hartford Club soda.

The early 1950s in Hartford meant a milkman and a bread man stopped by the apartment house daily or every other day carrying huge trays with all sorts of dairy and baked products. And there was a horse (mule? donkey?) drawn vegetable cart which came down the street several times a week. There may have been other such services, but I cannot recall.

Nonetheless, every few days my mother would take me to the corner market where she would obtain mostly package goods. My only vivid recollection is the grocer using what seemed like 8 foot long pincers to grab boxes from the high shelves.

We had self service for everything except meat and produce in the 30-40's at our local Safeway. However, no carts, so one either piled up one's purchases somewhere near the register or brought along a kid to help carry (me!). The meat section must have been under contract since we paid the butcher separately. It was easier then because milk was delivered and choices of everything were very limited. Chips meant potato -- period (not that we could afford them).

Many people nowadays don't realize that idea of "serve yourself" was an innovation at the time. Prior to that, all the grocery products were stored in the back room, and a shopper would hand a written list to the clerk, who would then fill the order. When stores first decided to place the groceries on the store floor there were differing ideas on how to display them; some stores would place everything alphabetically, for example.

[Before self-service supermarkets there were plain old markets of the non-super variety -- basically roofed or open farmer's markets, with separate vendor stalls selling produce, fish, etc. Just about every town of any size had its Central Market at a crossroads or rail depot. There were also general stores (below) where the goods were kept on shelves behind the service counter. - Dave]

What is this, Soviet Russia?

What a bounty this must have appeared after the Depression and also with rationing still a recent memory. Rationing continued in the UK in some form into the 1950s.

One hundred forty-five varieties of cheese?! I can't even name that many.

That's back in the days when yogurt was sour, lumpy, somewhat foreign and certainly not very popular.

I remember the Acme Markets store chain had Louella butter as one of its "brands," as seen by the picture here on the bottom shelf:

I didn't realize my two plastic butter dishes are Louella knockoffs. However they can go in the dishwasher and look just fine. Great design.

You can still buy Louella Butter dishes from eBay and antique shops. Or, get yourself a nice reproduction.