The "golden age" of supermarkets was the 1950s and 1960s.
For parents navigating the aisles of a supermarket with a child in tow, the seat section of the shopping cart is a necessity, I'd say.
It's better to keep young'uns confined in the wagon than risk having them slip unwanted boxes of sugary cereal into the cart when mom isn't looking, or worse, handle and drop things leading to the dreaded call of "cleanup in aisle five!"
When I was a kid, I had to accompany my mother on countless grocery shopping trips. And, to fight the boredom, I would mentally add up the running total of everything my mother bought and see if it matched what the cashier rang up at the end.
Then, New Jersey instituted sales tax in 1966 and messed everything up.
MORE: Vintage photos around New Jersey
The "golden age" of supermarkets was the 1950s and 1960s, according to groceteria.com. Supermarket ads dominated daytime television and advertisements were a great source of revenue for newspapers. The centrally located stores stocked everything we needed.
Well, almost everything.
Where a supermarket didn't fill the bill, local food stores and shops completed the task. One of the most enduring aroma-triggered memories many of us have is the delicious smell of the local delicatessen, ethnic food store, butcher shop or mom-and-pop grocery.
Here's a gallery of vintage food vendors large and small in New Jersey. Be sure to have captions enabled to read all about them.
Want more? Click Here and here for a couple of galleries from previous years.
Greg Hatala may be reached at ghatala@starledger.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregHatala. Find The Star-Ledger on Facebook.