Grocery Lists Looked A Lot Different In The 1950s

The 20th century brought with it a tsunami of innovations for the home cook and shopper. The first modern grocery store appeared in 1916, where customers could pull their own items off store shelves. The shopping cart made its debut in 1937, around the time home freezers became more common. The second half of the century brought with it a plethora of packaged, processed foods, television ads, and larger stores. How was a homemaker to keep track of all this bounty? Through a weekly shopping list, of course. In fact, shopping without a list is one of the common mistakes made at the grocery store. But where today, we might make lists via an app, the mid-century shopper had an unusual option: permanent metal shopping lists.

Shopping lists have probably been around as long as shopping. Archaeologists recently discovered a 3,500-year-old cuneiform stone tablet in Turkey that featured an inventory of furniture purchases. A paper shopping list dating to 1633 was found in the attic of a country home in England requesting the recipient pick up items like "greenfish" and a "fireshovel." But during the first half of the 20th century, someone decided the best way to organize the week's grocery list was via metal tablets printed with dozens of common pantry items. The operator could simply move metal tabs or markers to select which items they needed. What could be simpler and more efficient for the modern shopper?

The pros and cons of permanent shopping lists

There are several variants, but one common version from about the 1950s often pops up on social media. Dubbed a "memorandum device" in its 1949 patent, it consists of two metal plates, with "indica" (metal tabs) at specific intervals. Printed on one face, alongside the indicators are common grocery items like bread, cake, noodles, oil, and poultry. All a shopper had to do was move tabs one way or another to show they needed a given item. This particular version has sometimes been dated in social media posts to the 1920s, but most likely showed up after WWII, based not only on the patent, but by some of the listed items, like "Frozen Food."

It seems like a practical tool for keeping refrigerators and pantries organized. About the size of a small smartphone, it's reusable and doubles as a reverse shopping list, letting you know what you don't need to shop for. On the other hand, it's limiting. When the national diet generally consisted of pot roasts and white bread, the concept probably worked. These days of course, store aisles overflow with culinary options from around the world. In a time of increasingly specific diets and allergies, it can be hard to imagine an all-purpose list that lacks dairy-free, gluten-free, or nut-free options. 

A culinary time capsule

It's possible, particularly if you're Gen-X or older, you've come across these shopping tablets in a parent's or grandparent's house. They still show up in antique stores and on eBay. It turns out, these sorts of permanent grocery store shopping lists were common in England and France as well, and while many were metal and portable, larger wood or metal versions exist which probably just stayed in the kitchen, like an early whiteboard.

Since these boards were popular in the mid-20th century, they also provide a peep into a different world of unusual ingredients and dishes. On the version most commonly seen online, noodles and spaghetti are two different items, and it features the older spelling of "catsup" for ketchup. A vintage British version includes coal, chutney, turpentine, and sago (a thickener). While these metal miracles are no longer mass produced, there are new, artisan versions with modern labels like pizza and pet food. Rather than taking them to the store in place of a smartphone, these decorative items are designed for display in the kitchen or pantry.

At least one person Chowhound spoke with via Facebook hated using the device as a child. "It was a clumsy thing in my hand," recalls Donna Spetrini, a retired food writer. "My mom was always losing it in the bottom of her purse." Due to the limited options, "She always had to have an extra written list of items that weren't on the contraption."

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