Shopping At An A&P Supermarket in 1982

Someone needs to bring back the Spanish bar cake.

All the old people in that video are dead, now.

All supermarkets in NYC are cramped.

Borax!

Not necessarily, R3. There was an A&P (or whatever it was later called in NYC) in the basement of a building that was quite spacious.

I didn't realize A&P still existed at that time. I vaguely remember them from the 70s but most of them seemed to have shut down by the 80s.

That cashier is SLOW as fuck.

Move it along, Bernice!

We had one in Osterville.

I remember the coffee smell and my grandmother making me ask Gene "Match Game" Rayburn for his autograph in the parking lot.

And the Tiger Beat magazine she would buy me.

TWO cans of Aqua Net at a time?

Obviously you’ve never had to stop a New York wind with your bangs, R9.

My random observations.

1.) What a dreary bunch of shoppers.

2.) The introduction of Diet Coke on 8 July, 1982 seemed to have made no headway by October of that year.

3.) Packaging seems more minimal, with fewer instances of a plastic wrapped food packed in a cardboard container, and few instances of those one-piece moulded plastic containers with attached top/cover. The paper bags are a nice touch.

4.) Look at the jams and jellies section, or the yoghurt selection (or the offerings of cheese or ketchup and similar sauces) . They are miniscule compared to American supermarkets today.

I didn't notice a single Red Weirdo.

I lived in the DC area in 1982. By then A&Ps were pretty much on their way out. But there were a few left that I remember shopping at (although the dominant chains were Giant and Safeway.) I can't say I remember ever seeing a coffee grinder in a checkout lane at ANY supermarket, though.

That big head baby in the purple jacket must be in his 40s now

R6- Perhaps where you lived but A&P soldiered on in the NYC metropolitan area until 2015.

In the early 1990's they introduced a line of upscale frozen pizzas called Master Choice- Spinach, Four Cheese, Peperoni and one other. They were so tasty back then. They phased out those pizzas over 20 years ago.