When I was growing up, my parents always bought margarine.
Mom would use sticks for cooking/baking, and we always had a tub of something for spreading.
Greg, thank you for mentioning Shedd's. That was the most recent one I remember them buying.
I think they believed margarine was healthier because it didn't have the fat of butter.
When I met my now in-laws, they only used butter. I thought they were trying to be all hoity toity or something. But, MIL's thought was, I'd rather eat the fat in butter than the chemicals in margarine.
So, now we use butter almost exclusively. And, we do leave the stick that we're using out at room temperature. We usually buy Land O' Lakes. Yes, I will miss the Indian/native American woman on the package. Sometimes political correctness does go too far. I certainly don't think she's presented in a disrespectful way. *steps down from soap box*
I did recently buy a package of stick margarine, (also Land O' Lakes), to make my mom's old layer cake filling recipe that specifically called for it. That required one half stick. I don't know what I'm going to do with the rest of the package. Unless I start baking a lot more cakes! Oh...twist my arm!
Barry