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Consumer Advertising During the Great Depression: A Resource Guide

Grocery and Food Advertising

[Full page advertisement for Kraft Mayonnaise]. Evening Star. (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, June 16, 1931, Page A-16, Image 16.
"NOW try this mayonnaise ... it's always KITCHEN-FRESH! Evening Star. (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, June 16, 1931, Page A-16, Image 16.

Automobile registrations, department store sales, and ten-cent store sales all had negative percent change in sales at then end of 1929, while grocery store sales showed a small but positive percent increase in sales for the same time period.1 As the Progressive Grocer noted in 1930, "...fortunately people must buy food regardless of whether they can buy other things, so grocery sales have held up much better than other lines."2 Despite the necessity of food, many grocery chains and food manufacturers struggled and went under during the Great Depression. Some scholars argue that the food brands and industries that best weathered the storm, such as Kraft, the Hawaiian pineapple industry, and children's cereal brands, did so because they spent more money on advertising, increasing brand recognition and loyalty.3 Food advertising also emphasized nutritional value and quality for an economical price, and used recipe books as a promotional tool. This page provides a sample of historical sources, books, and articles related to grocery and food advertising during the Great Depression.

These historical books discuss grocery advertising and are primary sources published shortly before or during the Great Depression.

Historical Books about Grocery Advertising and Business

The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.

Cookbooks

Brands would publish cookbooks of recipes that highlighted their products. The What America Ate External project includes an archive of community and corporate cookbooks published during the 1930s. The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.

Trade Publications

Published during the Great Depression, these were written for an audience of grocery industry members and professionals. The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.

Databases and Websites

These databases include useful historical primary material related to grocery and food advertising. The subscription resources marked with a padlock are available to researchers on-site at the Library of Congress. If you are unable to visit the Library, you may be able to access these resources through your local public or academic library.

These are books published more recently about grocery advertising and the grocery business during the 1930s. The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.

These are articles published more recently (at least decades after the Great Depression) about grocery advertising and the grocery business during the 1930s. The following articles are linked to their location on their journal's homepage or other stable URL. At times, a subscription may be required to access the full text of the article. When available, a link is provided to the journal's Library of Congress catalog record and/or subscription where the article can be found.

Notes

  1. Christina D. Romer, "The Great Crash and the Onset of the Great Depression." The Quarterly Journal of Economics 105, no. 3 (1990): 597-624. p. 607 Back to text
  2. "Business Highlights," Progressive Grocer, vol. 9, July 1930, p. 13. Back to text
  3. Richard A. Hawkins, "Advertising and the Hawaiian Pineapple Canning Industry, 1929-39." Journal of Macromarketing 29, no. 2 (June 2009): 172-192; Kyle Asquith,“Join the Club: Food Advertising, 1930s Children’s Popular Culture, and Brand Socialization.” Popular Communication 12, no. 1 (2014): 16-31. Back to text