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“The Supermarket: A Great American Invention” (1980) is a color, informational film about the history of the American supermarket. Presented by Philip Morris U.S.A., Miller Brewing Co., and 7-Up Company in cooperation with Food Marketing Institute, the film chronicles the story of the supermarket in America from general store at the turn of the 20th century to one-stop-shop superstore by the 1980s. The film is composed of montages of archival images, advertisements, and footage of supermarket chains as well as cultural phenomena of the decade that influenced how supermarkets continued to develop. 





20th century inventions: Western Electric Donut Phone, zipper, typewriter, Singer Sewing Machine (0:16). LED lights illuminate windows of various supermarket chains at night: Waldbaum’s, Foodtown, King Kullen, Savers, Finast (0:50). Mothers with young children in shopping carts (0:58). Ragtime music plays, collage of footage, magazine clippings from turn of 20th century (1:32). Woman in typical dress of early 20th century enters general store, shelves lined with dried food goods (1:59). 1912 Hebe Evaporated Milk ad (2:42). Earliest versions of grocery store: Cash-and-carry in New York, self-service in California 1912 (2:50). Interior first Piggly Wiggly Memphis, Tennessee 1916 (3:03). Exterior Ralph’s Grocer combination store, buggies and horse-drawn carts parked outside (3:14). 1920s: animation, vintage posters, footage of grocers while jazz plays (3:30). Large Everlast boxing glove, image of “Manassa Mauler” Jack Dempsey (3:48). Animation baseballs, bat with clip of Babe Ruth (3:50). Amelia Earhart image in locket (3:56). Charles Lindbergh, Spirit of St. Louis plane (3:57). Ad for first refrigerator (4:07). 1920s perhaps CR-12 radios with horns (4:10). Clip from audio Jell-O Program with Jack Benny (4:18). Illustration of Henry Ford Model T; examples of advertisements from the 1920s (4:38). The Great Depression: montage front page stories of newspapers, portraits of people in despair across the midwest from Dust Bowl to unemployment lines in New York City (5:05). First King Kullen supermarket Jamaica, Queens (6:05). Big Bear Stores Co. Elizabeth, New Jersey (6:31). Staged interviews with elderly men, women about supermarket early days (6:52). Montage archival footage at first supermarkets - housewives at registers, young men bag goods into paper bags (8:17-9:53). Founding of the Super Market Institute (9:54). Invention of folding shopping cart, image of woman with early prototype (10:15). 1930s: National Recovery Administration (NRA) poster for New York World's Fair 1939; King George VI and Churchill; abundance in America rise of supermarket chains (10:25). Animated jukebox plays scenes from 1940s: war mobilization efforts; Bombing of Pearl Harbor, page from War Ration Book One; images of women employed at markets; self-service meats (11:03). End of war: archival footage, still images crowds returning to markets; in-store improvements and inventions: cash register with itemized receipts, fluorescent lighting, open self-defrosting cases (12:54). 1950s: animation swing dancers girl in pool skirt, other cultural icons: Kelly Girl, Arnold Palmer, Roger Bannister, Christian Dior, rise of suburbia  (13:59). Montage car-filled parking lots of shopping centers, suburbanite families doing big shops (14:43). Staged interviews with suburban couples, housewives about rise of shopping centers (14:57). Innovations: automatic door, pre-packaged meat, dairy, produce, automatic conveyor belt (16:17). 1960s: “Age of Aquarius” from Hair plays, images of hippies, Jimmy Hendrix, Moon Landing, Robert Indiana “Love” painting (17:00). Growing scale of supermarkets, forklift operator moves boxes, mass importation fruits and vegetables, competition among supermarket chains (17:28). Consumer groups protesting prices (18:37). 1970s: Saturday Night Fever, John Travolta, Disco, Hank Aaron plays on baseball diamond, Jaws movie, inflation, oil crisis (19:03). Consumerists assess changes to keep businesses afloat; more women join market workforce, convenience stores and fast food on the rise (20:40). Supersizing markets - warehouse stores, food emporiums with competitive prices; rise of the combination store: liquor, medications, food goods (21:44). Modern superstore: aerial view of fluorescent lights, self-service freezers, aisles and aisles of home goods, food, crafts etc. (22:17). Staged interview of manager, consumers (22:44). Narrator final words, image montage of “modern” grocery stores (23:45).

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com