Lenawee County History: ‘Good old days’ of store prices
In doing history research for various projects and organizations, I often hear comments about how things were cheaper in the “good old days” — a loaf of bread was 25 cents a loaf and a good, new car was $3,000.
While the dollar, of course, has less buying power than it did then, it is still important to note that wages were by comparison much less than now.
In 1992, when I had my first official job during college, gas was $1.10 per gallon and my wage was $4.50 per hour (when minimum wage was $4.25 and a Big Mac meal was $3.15). By comparison, despite a gallon of gasoline now being $3.69 as of this writing, it is cheaper by percentage for me to fill up.
I looked back at the time when my great-grandparents were young adults and the prices facing them at the local general store or mercantile, at a time when general laborers made an average of $500 a year. Pancake flour in 1904 cost 10 cents for a 3-pound package at A.J Kaiser in Adrian. Coffee was 25 cents per package, and 21 pounds of sugar was $1. At George Nufer’s store in Adrian, a pound of cream cheese was 16 cents, and tea was 50 cents a pound.
In 1940, when my grandparents were building a household at about $1,000 per year, coffee averaged 25 cents per pound, a five-roll package of toilet paper was 25 cents (don’t get me started on toilet paper “math” of today), a head of lettuce was a nickel, and 10 pounds of sugar was 50 cents.
This week, a three-pound bag of apples at Meijer is $3.99, an average box of cereal is $3.50 to $4, 28 ounces of name-brand peanut butter is $3.99, and a 10-count package of ballpoint pens, just in time for the start of school, runs $1.29
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It is tricky to accurately calculate what a dollar today is “worth” against the dollar of, say, 1910 or 1950. Multiple factors come into the equation when trying to determine what the cost of goods and services are when compared to the same across different decades. General consumer and inflation index calculators estimate the spending value of $100 in 1913 is “worth” about $3,000 in 2023, or nearly $31 today for a comparable dollar 100 years ago.
Prices go up, wages increase and inflation makes a mess of things, as it always has. As it has also been, in 20 years or so we will likely long for the prices of the “good old days” in 2023, when a jar of peanut butter was “only” $3.99.
Dan Cherry is a Lenawee County historian.
This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Lenawee County History: ‘Good old days’ of store prices
