"What I. G. A. Means to the Consumer" (1933)

[Brian Lutz]

Here's another little bit that I came across in some of my newspaper research that I thought might be of interest to some people here. It comes from a grand opening ad of a "new" IGA store in Kirkland WA sometime around August of 1933 (actually, it looks like it was an established independent grocer joining IGA.) It appears to be some sort of explanation of how IGA operates, and it boasts of $575 million in sales volume (preusmably a huge number back then, these days it's small potatoes though.)



Here's the explanation. A couple of things stand out here. One is that the printer seems to have gotten lazy somewhere around the second paragraph or so, and the other is that for some reason, IGA is always shown as "I. G. A." in the copy.



On the other page of the ad is a bit more about the store, and it talks about how the store is fully self-service (I'm not sure when this would become the norm. Also note the NRA logo, which seemed to be everywhere in the paper for about two years (Roosevelt signed the act in 1933, and the Supreme Court struck it down as unconstitutional about two years later.)

Nothing too earth-shattering here, but I thought some people might find it interesting.

[Groceteria]

Nothing too earth-shattering here, but I thought some people might find it interesting.

Very interesting. It's also from right in the middle of the period of anti-chain sentiment in the US, when state governments were trying to tax chain stores completely out of existence. It was never all that clear that consumers supported this kind of legislation (although independent operators LOVED it), but "voluntary chains" like IGA made a selling point of the fact that their stores were locally owned and operated and part of a co-op rather than a chain. You see a little of that in the ad as well.

[Jeff]

575 Million in 1933 would amount to about $9.1 BILLION dollars in sales with todays currency rate.

[Brian Lutz]

I haven't really put together the complete history of the chains in this area, but none of the big chains really arrived in this area until after World War 2. I believe Safeway and A&P were the first to arrive after the war, and QFC was actually founded here in 1956, but only had about six stores in 1969.

[Brian Lutz]

575 Million in 1933 would amount to about $9.1 BILLION dollars in sales with todays currency rate.

Which even then is still fairly small compared to now. IGA's website now boasts of approximately $21 billion in total sales among all their affiliated stores. Given the fact that IGA had existed for less than 10 years at this point (they were founded in 1926) that's a pretty impressive number.

[Groceteria]

Safeway divergence moved here and this topic moved to NW forum as well since it's about a specific store.