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Shopping baskets through the years

(97 Posts)
mittens1 Fri 16-Jan-15 10:45:33

Just been reminiscing about my grocery shopping over the decades. I couldn't believe that breakfast cereal only came in in the 1950s..what on earth did we eat before then I wonder!
www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30828142

J52 Fri 16-Jan-15 10:47:55

Miss read the title, I hated wicker baskets they always snagged your tights/stockings! X

J52 Fri 16-Jan-15 10:48:26

Porridge! x

shabby Fri 16-Jan-15 11:55:22

Toast for breakfast in our house in the 50s and 60s and an egg on Sunday if we were lucky!

grannyactivist Fri 16-Jan-15 12:20:31

Quaker oats. Made with water and salt, served up with sugar on the top and a tiny splash of milk.

rockgran Fri 16-Jan-15 13:29:10

We had toast or bread rolls, but I know shredded wheat was a staple of the family from the thirties or even earlier as we had some oblong shaped willow patterned bowls which were made for shredded wheat - single and double. You can still buy them on eBay.

Agus Fri 16-Jan-15 13:33:36

I do remember wicker Hen Baskets as we called them. My Mother also had coloured plastic string type bags.

We too had porridge long before cereals came on the market.

J52 Fri 16-Jan-15 14:21:35

Agus: are the similarities due to our Scottish heritage? x

Elegran Fri 16-Jan-15 14:26:35

If the BBC magazine says that breakfast cereals were only introduced in to this country in the 1950s they are talking through their muesli.

From the Kellogs website -

"1922 – Kellogg’s arrives in the UK and goes on sale in grocery stores up and down the land

1940 — During World War II you could only buy Kellogg's products in the North and Midlands. Kellogg created Wheat Flakes and Wheat Krispies to help feed war time Britain. Made of home grown wheat because of import restrictions, both brands have now long gone.

1950s — Kellogg’s launches Special K and Kellogg’s Frosties."

etc etc

Elegran Fri 16-Jan-15 14:27:45

Forgot the link. www.kelloggs.co.uk/en_GB/our-history.html

rosequartz Fri 16-Jan-15 20:31:56

I am sure I ate Weetabix as a child and it says on a link that it is 80 years old (although I am not). I remember my DF eating Shredded Wheat, and I ate it sometimes but never liked it that much.

When we go to Australia I see DGS eating Weetbix and I thought it was a poor copy of our Weetabix, but in fact it was the precursor of it, both invented by an Australian.

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1945-OUR-CEREALS-Nutrition-unit-for-4th-5th-graders-/150260173656

rockgran Fri 16-Jan-15 20:52:27

I think the link is sayng that "the shopping basket" concept started in the 1950s. Certainly cereals have been eaten since the 1890s.

Juliette Fri 16-Jan-15 21:12:18

Anyone remember Force. Wheat flakes I think, there was an illustration of a character called Sunny Jim on the box. We collected tokens and I had a rag doll version. Loved Sunny Jim but really disliked the cereal.

Agus Fri 16-Jan-15 21:27:33

More than likely J52 and I'm sure there must be many similarities we share due to our heritage.

Deedaa Fri 16-Jan-15 21:36:31

I liked Force. I was eating it in the 50's but my mother told me it was a real old fashioned blast from the past. We usually had Weetabix or Shredded Wheat or plain old cornflakes.

rosequartz Fri 16-Jan-15 22:12:03

My DM used to send me with an order to the Co-op - written in the same book 'the Order Book', and used to tell me to bring back certain items from the list and then the rest would be delivered.
I remember the tea was called 'Indian Prince'.

KatyK Sat 17-Jan-15 11:29:35

Oh yes Force, I remember that. We used to go to the Co-op with our mum's list too. I bet everyone can all remember their mum's Co-op divi number!

henetha Sat 17-Jan-15 11:36:25

Eggs, lots of eggs, as we always had large numbers of chickens in the back garden.

janerowena Sat 17-Jan-15 11:38:59

No - we didn't have a co-op!

We had boiled eggs or porridge or toast and marmalade for breakfast. I hate cereals now, I did try them when I got married because Ex had been brought up on them. I couldn't understand why people liked to eat small pieces of sweet cardboard floating in milk. However, I do now love granola. Once when I went to stay at a small friend's house, I was offered a box of cereal, removed a Weetabix, wondered what it was, and spread it with butter and ate it. It was quite hard, so I took another but spread more butter on it to make it easier. No-one said a thing! I went home and told my mother, she bought a box of it and gave it to us and we all loathed it. I think it must be something you have to have been used to having from an early age in order to like it.

Shredded wheat used to enter our house once a year, and that was to make chocolate nests for Easter eggs.

Gagagran Sat 17-Jan-15 11:53:43

I remember we had Puffed Wheat occasionally. We didn't have cereal often because it used too much milk. Dad always had some fried bacon but the rest of us usually had bread and jam or marmalade or marmite for breakfast. Didn't Weetabix used to be much bigger than they are now?

Liz46 Sat 17-Jan-15 12:00:36

You're right KatyK - 15163. It came to mind instantly but I don't want to try and guess how many years it was since I used it!

annsixty Sat 17-Jan-15 12:13:56

Oh yes mum's was 15945 and it came to mind instantly.Do you also remember the butter cut from huge slabs and was called "tub butter" because it came in big wooden tubs and almost everything was weighed out and bought by even small amounts? Every one was known and called by name on entering the shop and "divi day" which I think was every Quarter was a day to look forward to.

janerowena Sat 17-Jan-15 14:53:50

My first shopping basket was a great big heavy round wicker thing that caught my tights and laddered them!

vampirequeen Sat 17-Jan-15 17:23:32

We had porridge or Weetabix for breakfast.

rosequartz Sat 17-Jan-15 17:27:02

My SIL complained that she used to be able to butter the Weetabix for breakfast years ago but that it is too crumbly to do that now.