Shopping for grocery bargains in old-time Phoenix


It's 1921, we're in Phoenix, and we're looking at the paper. It looks like the Sugar Loaf and The Bon Ton Basketeria have some specials on Friday and Saturday. Let's time travel-travel!

I declare! Prices just keep going up! I don't know how a body is expected to afford this! Lookie here, eggs for thirty cents a dozen. And they call that a special price! I remember when they didn't cost more than a dime! Prices have sure gone up since the war!

And who would pay fifteen cents for that awful Kellogg's Korn Krisp? What? Oh, that's for two boxes, I guess that's reasonable. Not that I would eat anything like that.

And nine cents for Palm Olive soap! What do they think, that I'm made out of money? My grandpappy taught me how to make my own soap, anyway. Who would pay good money for soap?

That hundred-pound bag of sugar for $9.80 sounds reasonable. Could you carry 100 pounds? I wonder if they'd sell me ten pounds of it for 98 cents? Pro'ly not, I reckon you'd have to buy it in quantity to get a good price. A hundred pounds of sugar?

Ten pounds of onions for two bits? That's crazy - I can raise onions here in my backyard, and the back shed is just about bursting with them!

What's that? A package of Jello for nine cents? It's highway robbery, that's what it is. Just plain and simple highway robbery. There oughta be a law!

But you know, I think we should go over there. The Sugar Loaf is north of Washington on 1st Avenue, and the Bon Ton is at Central and Adams, which is closer?

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