Photos show how much grocery shopping has changed since the first supermarkets opened a century agoNEWS | 10 October 2025This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.
For most Americans who don't use Instacart, grocery shopping today probably doesn't look all that different from their childhoods — they may mourn the discontinued Dino Pebbles cereal or be grateful for the option to self-checkout, but the fundamentals aren't all that different.
Go back over 100 years, though, and many familiar features wouldn't be found. Many US city-dwellers relied on markets, peddlers, and small shops to get most of their goods. If they did pop into a grocery store, a clerk would wait on them, selecting each item from a shelf or back room.
Throughout the 1920s and '30s, food shopping started to change. Larger grocery stores started popping up around the country. At these new supermarkets, customers would pick out their own groceries, place them in their shopping cart, and haul them out to the parking lot. A decade earlier, all of that would have been unheard of.
Photos show how the US transitioned from small grocery stores to massive supermarkets.Author: Enter Your Email. Jenny Mcgrath. Source
