Shopping in the 50s

   As anyone can tell; there is no rhyme or reason to the the order of these posts.
        Without any conscience thought; we do our shopping. Whether it be for food or clothing or for stuff for the house; we go to the supermarket or the superstore or the mall.Well.......if you're from my generation or the one before; you know that it wasn't always like that; if you're from this generation; check out a typical day of shopping in 1953.

        I was the youngest of three, and hadn't started school yet, so on weekdays, I was always home with my mom. After my mom had finished her housework; it was time for shopping. Now you'll soon see that this had to be a well planed project.

This is actually much bigger than our Bohack's

        Now I'm sure that in some parts of Brooklyn, as well as in many other cities, there were at least supermarkets (a gross understatement compared to today's supermarket standards) I must confess however, that we did have one supermarket; I think it was a "Bohack", about the size of a "Seven Eleven", but for the most part, everything was bought from little specialty shops.

Not our Pork Store but you get the idea

        First, we headed up Cleveland Street, one block north to Pitkin Avenue, turn east, (left) go about five  blocks to our first stop; "The Pork Store". Now you didn't buy chicken in the pork store, you didn't buy beef in the pork store; you bought Pork. Freshly made pork sausage, pork chops, pork loin. (Wow! I'm getting hungry just writing about it)

Not our fish store but it smells just as bad

        Now for beef, cold cuts and poultry, we would go to the butcher shop, and sometimes to the poultry store. The butcher shop was about two blocks from the pork store on Pitkin, and the poultry store was back on Cleveland Street about another three blocks north.  Oh! I almost forgot, the fish store was also on Pitkin Avenue .

Wow!!  Check out these prices!

     Well.......that takes care of the meats. Remember, we're walking, and by now, we have quite a few bags; so it's back home to put away the meats and back out for phase two: vegetables, fruit and bread. Heading back out, this time going south on Cleveland one block to Blake Avenue where you found about a million "push-cart vendors". About half of them were fruit & vegetable stands and they stretched out for about six or eight blocks. After going from stand to stand to stand, we finally had all our veggies; now it's back to Cleveland and another block south to Sutter Avenue and the bakery. Of course we had the option to go to the grocery store (I'll get to that in a minute) or Bohack's for packaged bread, but mom liked fresh bread and you can tell them how to slice it. Besides, I loved the smell of that place.

Wouldn't it be great to roll-back to these prices?

        By now you know what's coming; back home to put away the food and back out for phase three: canned goods, milk, eggs, butter and packaged goods. Now that was either Bohack's back on Pitkin Avenue, or our little grocery store, "Finklesteins", right on the corner of Belmont & Cleveland. Mom usually opted for the little grocery store. It's hard to compare the size of the store to something you may know except maybe an old candy store. It may have been twenty feet by twenty five feet but he carried almost as much stuff as Bohack's. There were shelves all around three sides of the store that went all the way to the ten foot ceiling. There were also two or three isles in the center that were maybe six feet high.
        Now the store was owned by a little old Jewish man and his wife. He was old fashioned even for those days. Mr. Finklestein knew every thing he had in the store and how much each item was. If you were shopping and wanted to know the price of something, you would wave it at him and say "how much?" and he would tell you in a nano second. He didn't own a cash register, just a cash drawer under the counter. When you checked out, (one customer at a time) he would write the prices on a paper bag with a #3 pencil as he packed them. He would total them up faster than a computer can; saying the prices out loud to himself in Yiddish, and he never ever made a mistake.
        Fortunately, we didn't have far to go with those groceries. Now keep in mind, that's just groceries. Of course "man does not live by bred alone"; there's other stuff you gotta buy too. Well, Raymond and Diane need composition books and pencils for school, and mom needs sewing thread and needles and I need a pair of shoes; so it's off again.

This isn't "Kays" but there was a
"Kress" downtown

        Back on Pitkin Avenue a few blocks past the pork store was a 5 and 10 cents store. I believe it was "Kay's Variety Store". It was a tiny, tiny tiny, tiny version of a "Walmart". They sold everything from housewares to hardware (my dad got all his hardware stuff at "Mostoff's Hardware", also on Pitkin Avenue) to toys to millinery (sewing) stuff and clothing. We got the stuff for my mom, Raymond and Diane, but we had to go back to Blake Avenue for my shoes.
        So it was back to the house to drop off what we bought and back to Blake Avenue again.
        Well, we didn't always shop for everything in one day but you can see that no matter what; it was quite a project. I would note here also that since there was no such thing as using preservatives in food back then, so you could only food shop for a couple of days then............back out again.
Don