This Is Coffee - 1961

[mixfinder]

The Good The Bad and The Ugly

Wal-Mart Superstores are the propietary distributer of 8 O'Clock Brand Coffee in the Northwest. Is very expensive. $4.99 looks like a great price until you look closer and realize its an 8 ounce bag. After driving 30 miles to a South King country hotbed of drive by shootings and grocery parking lots filled with gangs, 8 O'Clock didn't taste as good as I'd remembered.

 

[danemodsandy]

Scott:

"I had no idea 8 o'clock coffee started its life as an A&P brand, not that we ever had A&P where I lived."

"A & P" was short for "The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company," begun in 1859 as a purveyor of teas, the most popular beverage at that time. They expanded over the years, and in 1912, branched out into groceries, eventually becoming one of the planet's largest retaillers, with a whopping 16,000 stores in the early 1930s, including one in a building at Colonial Williamsburg (where the Craft House is today). It was all downhill from there, slowly at first, then faster and faster. By 1970 they were down to 4,000 stores; today it's only 460.

For many years, A & P was the most reliable grocery for many U.S. communities, with national brands at fair prices, store brands (including those Eight O'Clock coffees) that were consistently good, and a distribution setup that guaranteed fresh merchandise. Those things are givens now, but they were not in the first half of the twentieth century.

Here's a Wikipedia link if you ever want to know the whole story:

A&P - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[alr2903]

We are Maxwell house fans, Master blend, mild. Thanks for the video. Does anyone remember the Coffee Mate commercial in 1960 San Francisco the guy rides the street car the friend is not home, he looks for cream and finds coffee mate. this is as close as i could find

 

[danemodsandy]

A & Ps Were Everywhere:

Scott: If you don't think you ever had A & P where you are, keep your eyes peeled in the older parts of town. You will often see old early-'50s A & Ps that have been re-purposed, often as thrift stores or auto-parts places, that kind of thing. The stores from this era are usually fronted in yellow brick, and the plate-glass windows in front usually have some glass brick above them. A modest-size parking lot was originally adjacent to most stores; A & P understood the suburban lifestyle before most grocers did. In their day, these were extremely modern stores, air-conditioned and very clean. Here's one that was in Gainesville, GA, a place that hasn't seen an A & P probably in decades:

 

[danemodsandy]

Also Look For:

This "Colonial" style of A & P store; the company replaced a lot of older stores with this type in the late '50s and the '60s. You see these re-purposed all over Atlanta, usually with the cupola shorn off. This example has the current A & P logo on it; when these were new, they had a logo more in keeping with the Colonial architecture:

 

[jamiel]

A&P was definitely in Los Angeles until the mid 60s. They covered the entire country east of the Mississippi and were in Missouri/Kansas as well. Don't believe they had anything until you got out to LA/Seattle. They reached their peak in about 1960 or so and it's been a long decline from there. They were slow to move out of their first generation supermarkets and got caught in declining parts of cities with an increasingly obsolescent store base. At the same time, they really ramped up their private label business so were trying to sell more and more private label stuff as mass consumption/television ramped up. They started retreating in the mid-70s (oddly, leaving St. Louis Missouri much earlier than leaving Kansas City) and performed their last retreat 2 years ago (leaving Detroit and New Orleans) to be focused on the Washington-Boston corridor.

 

[chuffle]

Our A & P

left town in the mid 1970s, as I recall that they were still here while I was in high school (and I was graduated in 1974). The chain was running their WEO promotion, and we were wearing the WEO give-away buttons to our classes.

In a different time (the 1960s), I do remember my parents taking their glass gallon jug to the store, as in the back corner stood a large barrel with a pump on the top. The barrel contained cider vinegar, and one filled their own container, then paid for it at the register with other purchases.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,911360,00.html

 

[norgeway]

A and P

I remember well our A@p store in Lenoir N.C. when I was A child,Oh to get a Jane Parker fruitcake again,there has never been another one as good,I also remember the coffee isle, with those big red commercial grinders, and hearing them run while grinding coffee for my grandmother,the store is gone now,but I have 8 o clock beans in my coffee grinder as we speak, strangely enough,I cant stand coffee in any form, but I love to make it for company because it smells so good,my mom used a Corning Electromatic percolator for years....But I use a Westinghouse.

 

[veroroger]

Maryland Club/Chock Full 'O Nuts

Polkanut: Last I was up there, Maryland Club/Butternut was available in the Super Valu stores as well as IGA. Of course, that was over 10 years ago but it was a big seller then and may still be available. I'm a Yooper by birth.
As far as Chock Full 'O Nuts, it's available everywhere down here EXCEPT WalMart. In fact, I just bought a can a few weeks ago on sale.

Alan: I do remember that Coffee Mate commercial. Didn't it run for several years and then, later, come back in another promotion?

Oh, I forgot about the Cinamon Raison rolls and Spanish Bar Cake! All these memories of the past pleasures....now I'll have to find someone in the northeast who shops at A&P to get these for me if they are still available.

 

[scott55405]

Thanks, Danemodsandy for all the info. I did read the Wikipedia article as well. Jamiel, I did learn there were stores in LA that later became Safeways. I can think of any number of them going by the article that could have been an A&P. I'll have to keep an eye open for any of those former small ones.

I grew up in Minneapolis area, where national chains did not generally do well or last long because for whatever reason we had several very dominant local chains.

 

[danemodsandy]

WEO:

Stood for Where Economy Originates. It was a recessionista ad campaign designed to lure shoppers who were hit hard by the steep inflation of the mid-'70. Most people today don't know, or they forget, but those wonderful '70s we remember were marked by a steep, stubborn recession, and an energy crisis. Gasoline was so scarce at times that many late-model luxury cars were sold for a song and replaced with smaller cars; the gas for a big car just might not be there. The inflation was so bad that there is a reference to it in the opening credits of later seasons of The Mary Tyler Moore Show; Mary is shown grocery-shopping, and in the meat department, she looks at a roast's price tag and rolls her eyes in frustration. At the time, everyone knew what that meant - the price had climbed way up since Mary's previous visit.

Scott: You're welcome, and if you ever see an older store building fronted in a strange, creamy yellow-tan brick, you'll know you're looking at an old A & P location. For some reason, Advance Auto Parts loves to remodel those buildings for their locations.

 

[jeffg]

There was no "energy crisis", just an obscene supply manipulation from the US/UK/OPEC oil cartel. It was almost as profitable for the cartel as the recent thievery we had under Bush/Cheney.

 

[danemodsandy]

JeffG:

Politics aside, the energy crisis was very real in one aspect that cannot be denied: there were times and places where no gasoline was available. Whatever caused that - and I don't really wanna go there - it was a serious problem for people whose jobs depended on transportation.

I would also like to point out that some very effective measures were taken to deal with the problem. The size of cars and their engines fell quickly and drastically for a time. "Lights out" rules limited the amount of lighting in commercial buildings at night. A 78-degree limit was set for the air conditioning in public buildings. Whatever one believes or doesn't believe about the cause of the problem, some very effective, common-sense measures were taken to help with it. I wish we had such "horse smarts" today; everyone's yammering about carbon credits and plug-in hybrids and LED light bulbs and bamboo cutting boards instead of just looking at ways to use less.

We had more sense in the '70s. You turned the light off. You set the thermostat up. You switched the ignition off, or planned your trip to get the most things done for the gasoline expended. People today seem to think they can somehow have it all and save energy. It's certainly possible to design new products that are more energy-efficient, renewable and "green," but those things only work up to a point. The "OFF" switch is the best energy-saving gadget ever devised by the mind of man.

 

[jeffg]

Sandy, I honestly don't see people going out of their way to waste energy today. If anything, I've found most people are far more energy conscious today than they were in the 1970's/80's.

Look at Figure 2 at the following DOE link, and you'll see the average energy use per person in the U.S. is lower today than it was in 1973.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/aer/pdf/perspectives.pdf

 

[whirlaway]

Energy Saving

Not so Jeff in the 70s we tried very hard to be energy -savers.During that time gas prices went sky high and our power bills also and natural gas.Food was about our only saving grace. I worked for the A&P from the time I was 15 till I graduated from high school.I still remember lots of the prices.We had manual scales to weigh produce at the checkouts and the machines were manual.In other words you had to think!!!!! Regular cigs were 37&39 for 100's.When I was little in the late 50's my grandmother would let me wind the key on the Maxwell House coffee can.I would always hear that familiar Whoosh! I miss those days the perc on the gas stove it smelled so good in the mornings and I was allowed a small cup of coffee with my breakfast, Bobby

 

[jeffg]

> Not so Jeff in the 70s we tried very hard to be energy -savers. <

All one needs to do is look at which automobiles sold the most in the 1970's. My dad bought a '74 Cadillac that was the size of a studio apartment.

Also, advances in technology have a lot to do with it. Just one invention, microwave ovens, substantially reduced our energy consumption. Or the internet.. how much gas is saved by online shopping and people working from home? I'd imagine lots.

 

[danemodsandy]

JeffG:

It may be something of a regional thing or something. I know you're in California, where people are more sensitive to energy and green issues. Here where I am (Atlanta area), an awful lot of people continue to party like it's 1972. I have neighbours on this street who own four cars between the two of them, they watered nightly all through several years of drought and a total watering ban, they have a huge pool nobody uses except to sit beside with a drinkie-poo in the evenings. You go in their house and it's 70 degrees inside. Any long holiday weekend is spent jetting to Vegas for a few days of gambling. They don't care at all, they have the money to get away with not caring, and they're not atypical around here. They pride themselves on stuff like their evasion of the watering ban; they think they're clever because they set the sprinkler system's timer for 3 am, when no one was likely to be around to see them flout the ban (I am ashamed to say that I did not rat them out, but in my defence, they are armed and not shy about saying so, especially when they're a little tipsy, which is a lot of the time).

You got so-called tree-huggers, we got Neanderthals with high credit limits. I guess it evens out somewhere in the middle.

 

[whirlaway]

How old are You

Jeff,how old are you? We had microwave ovens and those big Caddys were styled in the sixties.We had loads of Pintos and Vega's and Gremlins.Most of my friends parents and mine were very saving,and grandparents,because of the depression.You have to remember not everybody owned those big cars and homes actually the upper-middle class.Credit wasnt as easy then,much easier now,Bobby

 

[cadman]

Good Coffee...

For the midwest folks, Menards of all places, carries a pretty wide assortment of 8 o'clock ground coffee. I think I even picked up the Bokar blend a while back. At 3.99 (or was it 2.99?) with a "dollar off your next purchase" coupon in the bag, it's tough to go wrong.

I get tired of cleaning the percolator every morning, but it's difficult to start my day without a thermos of Chock Ful'O.

Cory

 

[whirlaway]

Perc Filters

I use perc filters made by Mr.Coffee,just put them in the basket,put in the grounds.When you are finished take them out put them around your roses or whatever,great for them.Much easier cleanup too. No grounds in the sink.Look for them at the super with the rest of the filters.Hope this helps, Bobby