Here's What It Looked Like To Grocery Shop In The '80s
We've explored old-school kitchen trends from the '80s, but how did those oak-paneled cabinets get stocked? Much like you, folks 40 or so years ago went to the grocery store! They pulled up their leg warmers or grabbed their Members Only jackets, popped a Madonna cassette in the station wagon, and bopped down to many of the same supermarkets you visit today.
However, things could look a lot different! While many aspects of buying groceries transcend decades, like pushing a shopping cart and browsing for sales, there were multiple elements of the grocery store experience that would absolutely blow your mind nowadays ... and we aren't just referring to the retro-cool products on the shelves like the discontinued Nerds candy cereal.
Enjoy a stroll back in time with the following images, which encapsulate the 1980s grocery store experience. Can you imagine stocking your pantry from a trip to these stores? Would you remember to bring your checkbook? Would you be able to prepare all the meals you're used to today, or would you wander, lost and confused, wondering where all the Dubai chocolate went? Could you handle shopping without your cell phone? It's a fun mental exercise.
Cashiers were more likely to wear uniforms
You might be used to seeing your grocery store butcher (who can debone meat for you!) wearing all white, but many cashiers nowadays are more casual, maybe sporting a store polo. Kroger, for instance, will allow employees nowadays to wear jeans and tees ... but, in the photo above, the Kroger cashier is kitted out in a full uniform. Publix is another example of a grocery store that has seen its uniform policy evolve similarly through the years, and, according to social media, Walmart also used to require uniforms.
The first supercenters were appearing on the scene
Whole Foods and Sam's Club (the latter of which is connected to Walmart) were founded in the 1980s, but several existing stores were already changing up their concept from smaller to bigger — way bigger. This decade saw the genesis of the supercenter, big box stores that incorporated groceries and general merchandise all under one roof, setting the stage for the Super Target and Walmart Supercenters we rely on for one-stop shopping today. These stores had a near-immediate impact on local communities, with some mom-and-pop grocers shuttering when they couldn't match the competition's convenience and value.
People smoked in grocery stores
Although smoking indoors was already illegal in some states (like New York, which banned it in elevators and supermarkets in 1974), the habit was still seemingly everywhere in the 1980s, and that included your local grocery store. We've discussed various points of etiquette 'round these parts, like the rule you shouldn't break when cooking in public, but in the '80s, clean air wasn't a privilege to take for granted. Anecdotally, many stores had pillar ashtrays throughout to prevent ashes and butts from littering the floor.
Stores were a lot dimmer
"Remember when grocery stores back in the 80s used to be really dark especially in the produce and frozen sections?" a Facebook post asks. "Why were grocery store[s] so dimly lit back then?" The answer may have to do with technology. Today's omnipresent LED lights are much brighter than their fluorescent predecessors, providing abundant, clean white light. It's only in the last 20 years or so that LED lights have become cheap and readily available. Now, you can get a really good look at those grocery store baked goods you should think twice about purchasing.
Some stores doubled coupons to increase foot traffic
Who among us doesn't remember their mom or grandma clipping a binder full of paper coupons for savings at the grocery store? Nowadays, grocery stores play music to get you to spend more money; back in the 1980s, some stores doubled manufacturers' coupons to attract customers. According to social media, some stores even tripled coupons on certain days! Over time, double coupon events didn't drum up the same amount of excitement as before, so stores terminated these programs. Of course, the only coupons we "clip" nowadays are more likely to be on store-specific apps.
Paper or plastic might not have been a question
The single-use plastic grocery bag wasn't omnipresent in grocery stores until the 1980s. It took a while for stores to adopt the plastic bags en masse; before that, there were pretty much only paper bags. Proponents of plastic bags pointed out how many ways they could be reused — folks were definitely not thinking of the environmental impact back them. Today, we worry more about how to store our reusable grocery bags, since plastic bags have been banned in several eco-conscious municipalities and states.
Store aesthetics were products of the times
Nobody's going to mistake a supermarket for a museum of modern design — even if bougie specialty markets like Royal Blue Grocery of Texas openly embrace trends — but all stores conform in some way to the tastes of the time period in which they were built or remodeled, and groceries that were "current" in the 1980s did just that. Geometric designs (seen in floor tiles) and neon lights became popular and would have lent stores an attractive, contemporary vibe that appealed to customers.
You probably didn't wear PJs to the store
"Remember dressing up just to go grocery shopping?" a Facebook post asked wistfully. In the '50s and '60s, American housewives often considered grocery shopping a social occasion. At worst, she might wear a housecoat and a scarf over the curlers setting her hair. While running to Walmart in sweats and a tank top might pass muster in 2026, the 1980s were a liminal period between "dressing up" and "dressing down." Today, one of the few social rules to worry about at the store is the one for how many items to bring through self-checkout, not your 'fit.
Buying a grocery store lotto ticket may have been a novelty
Today, you might think nothing of picking up a scratcher or a Mega Millions ticket after you grab the ingredients for your miso and ginger-glazed salmon recipe, but doing so was a very new pleasure in the 1980s. Not all states had a lottery at the beginning of the decade, and, as more and more locations rolled them out, so did customers have the increased opportunity to pick up a ticket at the service desk. They likely didn't imagine the lottery vending machines in certain states today!
Checkout was not nearly as convenient
During the worst time to go grocery shopping, it may seem like getting out of the store takes forever. Fans of quick trips would have hated certain aspects of the 1980s shopping experience all the more. Food stamps were actual paper products, for instance, and debit cards didn't widely exist — to use the money in your bank, you'd have to write a check, which took a while. There were no self-checkout machines, either! Next time you whip through the store, scan your own groceries, and tap to pay, aim a little "thanks!" at the heavens for 21st century technology.