Giant Food in 1979: What Groceries Cost in Washington DC

Wow, remember these days? It’s humorous looking at these prices. This is an advertisement from the Washington Post printed on June 25th, 1979.

Giant Food in 1979
Giant Food in 1979

Source: The Washington Post

4 thoughts on “Giant Food in 1979: What Groceries Cost in Washington DC”

  1. I love real evidence of historical prices! According to this calculator http://www.minneapolisfed.org/index.cfm? one dollar in 1979 would buy $3.22 of goods today. Take the ketchup sale price of $0.69 x 3.22 and you would expect the same ketchup to cost 2.22 today. Here it sells for $2.48 http://www.walmart.com/ip/Heinz-Tomato-Ketchup-32-oz/15529427 which isn’t too far off, but this is a non-sale price.

    If you consider the non-sale 1979 price of $0.99 you would expect ketchup to cost $3.19/32oz today. Perhaps today’s prices are actually lower (or at least relatively unchanged)…at least on ketchup.

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