shopping process early 20th century
weightsand
measures old bakers shops old butchers shops old fishmongers old grocers shops old
Co-op shops old
dairies old greengrocer shops old sweet shops
Shopping before supermarkets
Based on notes by the webmaster's mother (1906-2002), see sources
We paid in pounds, shillings and pence, i.e. £-s-d. In practice, though, most things we ever bought in the early 1900s only cost a few coppers. More expensive things were normally priced at a penny below the next shilling. For how these prices were displayed in shop windows, written in handwriting and pronounced, see the separate pages.
Women shopped locally when I was a child in the early 1900s, and I sometimes went with my mother to our local shops in Edmonton. (Never with my father, as it was unheard of for men to be seen doing women's work.)
Why shopping took such a long time
Wicker-work (cane) shopping basket. Such baskets were heavy even when empty, made in the early 1900s by a professional basket maker, courtesy of Richard Cole.
There were no supermarkets to sell everything in one visit. So we had to go to all sorts if different shops - see the above menu. So shopping was a lengthy business. This was especially so because even everyone was served individually and had to wait while the shopkeeper went to get or took out every single item. Also many of the goods had to be weighed out and wrapped for each customer, and social chit-chat was expected. It was, though, quite interesting for me to stand and watch the shopkeepers rapidly manipulating the weights on the scales as we waited in turn to be served. They did it so quickly and they always seemed to get it nearly right just from size alone.
Why shopping was such hard work
Quite apart from the time that shopping took, it really was physical work. This was because we had no cars to carry our purchases back home, and the wickerwork baskets were heavy even before anything was put in them.
Fortunately it was common for shops to deliver. It was also common to send children on small errands. I often had to go and pick something up when my mother ran out.
How goods were wrapped
Note from the webmaster
My mother wrote nothing about how loose goods were wrapped, but I understand that that it was much as I remember in the early 1940s.
Paper bags on a string, ready for one to be torn off for use.
Some goods like potatoes were tipped straight into the customer's bag, suitably lined with newspaper.
Small goods were packed in white paper bags which were often printed with the name of the shop for publicity purposes - although this was an extravagance that could not be maintained during the austerity of the Second World War. Larger goods went into brown paper bags. The paper bags were supplied by the shopkeeper who kept them on a thin string and tore one off as it was needed.
Heavy goods into sacks.
In my mother's time in the early 1900s, children's sweets went into a cone of twisted newspaper, but I never saw this.
When shops were open
Guest contribution
Why shops stayed open late on Saturdays
Men worked a five and a half day week and were paid on a Saturday morning. After that there was money in people's pockets. So shops would be open till perhaps 8 pm.
Bert Felgate
whose family owned a greengrocer shop
Shop buildings
Note from the webmaster
Although most of the shops were built as shops with flats above for the shop keepers, some shopkeepers opened shops from the front rooms of their Victorian/Edwardian terraced houses - see for example, the photo of the shop front in Leicester.
If you can add anything to this page or provide a photo, I would be pleased if you would contact me.
Text and images are copyright
sources: early 20th century material
sources: ww2 home front and other material
contact
the webmaster/author/researcher/editor
privacy policy
