Grocery Shopping At A&P In 1982

Did you ask for your Schraffts in French?!

A&P had a string of unsuccessful ad campaigns in the 1970s. The weirdest was WEO.

OP, please regal us with all the other wonderful things from 1982.

Then do 1981.

Then 1983.

Then 1984.

Then 1980.

^^^^ you mean 'regale'

R1 beat me to it. Drat!

Every A&P had Red grinder near cash registers for Eight O'Clock, Bokar and Red Circle coffee beans.

I remember those grinders!

It's the eat in the meat that counts at A&P.

I worked at the A and P from 1977 to 1982 in Brooklyn on Flatbush Ave near Kings Plaza. I worked evenings and nights unloading trucks and stacking out shelves. My mom worked in the meat dept during the day. I'm sure that grueling work is what kept her living until 96 years old. I was there all during High School and College. I saw a lot of crazy shit and still think about it lol. Customers are crazy! I also made a lot of friends too.

OP, you reminded me that we used to go out to Schrafft’s for ice cream as a rare treat, maybe once every few years - especially if we were visiting relatives who lived near one.

That’s a very depressing grocery store.

Do you know what that silly nephew of yours did, Mrs. Burnside? He spoke FRENCH to a waitress at Schraffts. Imagine anybody speaking French to a counterman at Schrafft's!

R10 Schrafft's at 61 Fifth Avenue became Lone Star Cafe with 40-foot iguana on roof. Today on display at Fort Worth Zoo. Building replaced by apartments and retail.

We had an old man drop dead in one of the aisles. The store manger had us drag him out in the street so the store wouldn't be involved. What did I know? I was a stupid kid at the time.

R12- You are SO gay

and I approve 👌

A&P was the store for old people r14.

Thanks, R15 - It's rare I post something like that before someone else does.

YES! Shrafft’s Coffee Ice Cream. Yum. Good flavor and lovely consistency.

OP's video and the responses, especially R5 made me chuckle and feel warm feelings for the first time in a few days. Thanks guys <3

I'm a Schrift!

I don't think I ever shopped at an A&P. I think the ones near me as a kid (mid 70s) had all closed. We had a few IGAs, though.

Analog cash registers. Paper bags. Milk in cartons. Double Cola. One liter Coke bottles. The fashions.

That's a lot of nostalgia in five minutes.

You don’t miss A&P OP, you miss 1982. If it were around today it would be a disappointment like everything else.

[quote]Schraffts Ice Cream ca. 1979 was the Haagen Dazs of ice cream.

Hardly. It was a small regional brand.

My local A&P became a Food Emporium. I sat shiva.

Bokar and Eight O'Clock coffee. Pies and coffee cakes - Anne Page

Next to the annual Passover display, at the end of aisle 3?

R24- In the NYC metropolitan area it WAS the Haagen Dazs of ca. 1979- high quality and rich and tasty 😋

IGA was the Midwestern equivalent

It was better in the 50’s and 60’s.

One roll of paper towels - two cans of Aqua Net...

R22- I guess you mean mechanical cash registers as opposed to digital.

I remember my mother buying Friendship Cottage with Pineapple at the A&P in the 1970's. That stuff was fun to eat.

She would also buy these large glass jars of Ann Page Pineapple Preserves- tasty too.

I bet most of it tasted like shit - our tastes, quality and flavors have drastically improved.

And those paper bags with no handles. Hard to carry, tear easily.

We lived like animals.

R33- I'm not sure about the Friendship Pineapple Cottage Cheese but the A&P Pineapple Preserves was probably good because in those days their store brand products were generally good quality.

"I bet most of it tasted like shit - our tastes, quality and flavors have drastically improved."

Disagree. Food actually tasted better in the 1980s.

Jane Parker bread

A company bought the Jane Parker name and recipes and now offer them for sale online.

They're expensive, but available if you're craving some of those sweet treats.

Where I grew up, our local A&P merged with Stop & Shop. They called the new supermarket Stop & P.

Jane Parker was a WHORE.

R37- But what ever happened to Ann Page?

R35- Our food supply has degraded siginificantly since about 1980- GMO's and high fructose corn syrup replacing cane sugar and everything designed for maximum addiction ( sugar, fat, salt)

Those people are so porky. They could stand to lose a few, just like I told my daughter in 1982.

r40 Please provide a single shred of evidence that GMOs cause any health issues.

R35 - I disagree - particularly when so much of it was canned, frozen or boxed food which is what we see in this video.

And you cannot dispute we have so many more flavors of everything now and much more international options.

You are misremembering. I'm not talking about fresh fruit and vegetables. I'm talking about the average family household's weekly purchases.

For those who grew up in the 70s and 80s - it's shocking to look back at the crap we ate. And my mom was not unique in the stuff she bought.

The A&P stores in the Philly area had a reputation is being dirty, disorganized and featuring high prices.

Sometime in the early 1980's, they rechristened the stores as Super Fresh. They closed a lot of the smaller stores, and cleaned up/remodeled what remained. They still had a reputation for high prices, though.

They managed to hang on for another 30 years, but closed @2015, along with the rest of the chain.

I was a kid back then. I remember the cigarette packs at the register, above the candy. People could just grab a pack themselves and throw it on the conveyer belt. Cigarette cartons were on an end cap of an aisle, just take a carton and throw it in your cart.

If a grocery store did this today, it would be the lead story on the local news.

I think the A&P in my hometown in Connecticut closed in the 70s but I can still remember going in there with my grandmother. (My mother never shopped there). I remember those coffee grinders at the registers and smell of coffee as you walked in.

Some Levy levity.

The look and reaction from the training person is priceless.

You want to see depression, R11? See R47.

My A&P is now an Acme.

In the 80s, you began to see the trend towards people buying more fresh vegetables and fruits. Growing up, we had grapefruit, melons, and berries at breakfast when they were in season. Lettuce was mainly iceberg. You had fresh tomatoes in the summer, but in the winter I remember three tomatoes coming in a narrow plastic package wrapped in cellophane. By the 80s we had fresh asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli et al, but I recall more frozen Bird's Eye veggie beforehand. My mother refused to buy Wonderbread. It was always Pepperidge Farm.

Our family shopped at Kroger's. The A&P was across town & I never even entered one until I was a young adult.