What Was It Like To Grocery Shop In The ’80s?

When you think about the 1980s, you might think of Netflix’s “Stranger Things” or of painfully bright neon colors. Either way, the first thought to come to mind was likely not about that decade’s grocery stores. But maybe it should be. The ’80s were a time of change for retailers around the country, and the way people shopped for ingredients for dishes we’ve since lost to time was vastly different. As grocery shopping goes more high-tech with dynamic pricing, self-checkouts, and app-based loyalty programs, it can be easy to long for the nostalgia of a less digital time.

Anyone who shopped in a grocery store in the 1980s remembers when one of the only digital things in the shop was a clock, and that you might be asked for a preference of paper or plastic bags at checkout. But what other curiosities would you have noticed amongst the aisles? Here’s what it was like to grocery shop in the 1980s.

Sodas, juices, and milk were all bottled in glass in the early 1980s. Even when plastic 2-liter sodas were introduced in plastic containers, smaller bottles of the drinks remained glass. And people didn’t throw the bottle away, either. Instead, customers could return the glass to the store for money or credit. Many people claim the drinks tasted better in glass, but it’s hard to test that theory now.

It wasn’t until the mid-’80s when plastic began to make its way onto the grocery scene. Plastic was a cheaper, lighter alternative to glass packaging that generally wouldn’t shatter when it fell from a shelf. Another reason plastic became popularized was because it was easier to use for frozen microwave dinners. You’d just take it out of the icebox and put it right in the microwave — in the plastic, which was revolutionary at the time. Another change plastic made to the grocery world was nearly eliminating the use of brown paper bags for food items. Lightweight plastic bags made their appearance in the mid-1980s, marking a significant shift in consumer culture at the time.

Barcodes were first introduced in the mid-1970s, when a pack of Wrigley’s gum became the first item in the world purchased with a Universal Product Code, or UPC, per WYSO. But the public wasn’t ready to trust digital scanners yet, and it was costly to implement the necessary scanning system. That changed in the early 1980s as retail juggernauts like Kmart and Walmart began standardizing the labels across their stores. Increased familiarity and efficiency led to more scanners and UPC labels being used in around half of the nation’s grocery stores by the end of the decade.

An unexpected benefit of the barcode system was loyalty programs at grocery stores. The scanners kept track of what a customer bought, making it easier to offer discounts the shopper was likely to use. UPCs are also responsible for helping supermarkets decide what to put on sale by telling the store what’s selling and what isn’t. That’s quite a lot of change implemented in the grocery store scene for a few lines on a rectangle.

Produce wasn’t the most exciting area of the market in the early 1980s, as produce available to purchase was mostly seasonal. But as the ’80s continued, more international produce was introduced and products that hadn’t been available year-round before were suddenly always in the aisle. Even garnishes, like parsley, were suddenly showing up in the produce section, thanks to people wanting to follow the latest ’80s restaurant plating trends.

Another veggie innovation of the era was the baby carrot. Invented by a farmer who wanted to sell imperfect carrots, the mini orange sticks were born when the man carved the rough edges away, leaving an attractive product grocery stores would stock. That expansion of the produce aisles helped spur self-checkout technology when a way to pay for produce you weighed yourself was patented in 1990.

In the 1980s, paying by check was the gold standard. In fact, it was the way many people paid for things during the decade. Debit cards didn’t exist yet, and credit cards weren’t as popular. Cash was a great backup, but forgetting your checkbook often meant not making larger purchases, as ATMs were rolling out globally throughout the decade. So writing a paper slip for groceries wasn’t seen as strange at all. That’s mind-boggling to many now, particularly since 46% of people nationwide didn’t write a check at all in 2023, according to Go Banking Rates.

But that’s not to say that banking advancements weren’t being made over the decade. Pay-by-phone options and updated point-of-sale services were introduced in the 1980s. But when it came to getting groceries back then, having a check or enough cash was an essential part of the shopping experience.

You would probably expect grocery prices to be lower in the 1980s, and for the most part you’d be right. But some items, like milk or butter, were comparatively more expensive back then, according to U.S. Inflation Calculator. A lot of that has to do with the fact that the 1980s were directly shaped by the recession of the 1970s. Inflation soared at the end of that decade and into the ’80s. While we’re facing many of the same problems today, there were still other items, like eggs, that were much cheaper 40 years ago.

One reason the prices strike us as being so different to today is because people’s wages were much less in the 1980s. According to research by The Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median weekly wage then was $358, although those on the lower end of the scale were making less than $160 per week at the time. When you look at it like that, $50 a week for groceries was still a significant chunk of the budget.

The first supermarket was created in 1916 in Memphis, Tennessee. Customers would enter the Piggly Wiggly grocery store and follow the single aisle through the space, taking what products they needed and paying at the end. The simple concept started a revolution where people no longer had to have food delivered from a dairy, a butcher, and so on. It wasn’t until the 1980s, however, that supermarkets began to replace hometown grocers.

Retailers like Kroger and Walmart were on the rise, thanks to new economic policies that rewarded the largest businesses. Kroger had introduced the concept of a “superstore,” where groceries and more general items would be sold together, in the 1970s. Walmart took the idea and ran with it, debuting its first supercenter in the late 1980s (and inadvertently, Walmart changed the direction of Whole Foods Market while it was at it). These oversized markets offered a one-stop-shopping experience where customers could find frozen foods, fresh produce, household supplies, and more. As the decade continued, many of the supermarkets would add sit-down dining and takeout options to allow guests to fill their bellies before or after filling their carts.

Spread by juggernaut shows like Miami Vice and the iconic advertisements of the Memphis Design Firm, the color palette of 1980s America was bright; with flashes of neon and vibrant primary colors. Everything from clothing to home kitchens took on ’80s geometric patterns in playful, eye-catching shades. Grocery store interiors followed the fashion of the times and got bolder and brighter, replacing the earthy tones of the 1970s with vivid color-blocking.

The decade was guided by consumerism and optimism, a combination that led to designs that are still in use today. Maximalism was everywhere, so the bolder the colors, the more many people liked it. Hot pink, teal, and mint green could provide a pop of color or dominate a palette. But there were plenty of shades of brown and gray around, too. Depending on which market your family shopped at, you could encounter any of the above colors on a trip to the grocery store.

While items like Campbell’s soup and Kellogg’s cereal dominated brand-name food items in the ’80s, there were plenty of people searching for ways to make even the most delicious ’80s struggle meals even cheaper. That’s where private labels come in.

Generic grocery store products began in the recession of the 1970s. As food prices rose, grocers began working directly with manufacturers to create “no-name” brands the stores could sell directly to the customer. The resulting products began popping up regularly on shelves in the 1980s, in black-and-white packaging that might look fake to many people today.

The only problem is that the products generally weren’t very good. While “white label” products were economical, they didn’t have a reputation for quality until a few years ago. According to a 2024 survey by The Food Industry Association, over half of shoppers were buying private grocery store labels based on the products’ taste and quality. The participants went on to say that they chose certain stores based on the generic items there. What were once bottom-shelf purchases are now the norm for many people, and it all started in the supermarket aisles of the 1970s and ’80s.

Coupons were serious business back in the ’80s. People would faithfully clip paper advertisements from the newspaper each week in the hopes of saving anything from a few cents to big money. In fact, for those who wanted to take collecting coupons to the next level, a practice known as “refunding” meant sending box tops and labels back to the manufacturer for discounts, free products, or cash.

Not only was couponing a common thing to do, but many grocers would offer double or triple coupon days. This meant customers could get deeply discounted items without waiting for a sale. There were other ways to save that didn’t involve waiting for those times when coupons were multiplied either. Instead, grocers offered several types of deals. Two-for-one promotions let customers pay for one item and receive two, while those manufacturer coupons averaged $0.20 off a product, according to this The New York Times article from 1982.

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