Can you remember that far back?

[Alpo]

When was the last time you saw an actual grocery store that did not have an automatic door?

 

Today's FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE comic strip has the mother at the grocery store. She is pushing the baby buggy while pulling the loaded cart, and has to ask someone to open the door for her.

 

I know that these strips are recycled - and she ran the comic as far as she wanted to and then started over again at the beginning. But this particular strip was originally published in 1991.

 

My first job was a bag boy in a Piggly Wiggly. In 1973. And that store had automatic doors.

 

I can't remember a grocery store that did not have automatic doors. Back then you had to step on the pad, instead of it using motion detectors, but they still opened for you.

 

Anyone recall a non-automatic door at a grocery store?

[LawMan Mark, SASS #57095L]

Last one I can remember burnt in the early 90s.  

 

[Rye Miles #13621]

A store here in my town had non automatic doors and also priced all the items with stickers because they had no scanners. The cashiers rang up the items on an old fashioned cash register. They closed about 6-7 years ago. Nice little neighborhood grocery store with produce, meats and they even delivered!

[Charlie Harley, #14153]

I was born in ‘65 and remember the fascination of the first automated door. My sister and I took turns stepping on the pressure pad just to see it move. Mom thought we’d “wear out” the motor and made us stop. 
 

I also remember the first UPC scanners. They were a pen which the clerk rubbed over the bar code. No fancy remote laser scanners. 

[Wild Will Bartell]

The last one I can remember, was in a local grocery store called Hart’s Market, back in the early 60’s. They would prop the door open in the summer and run a fan to circulate the air. The windows would frost up in the winter because of the fact the door would stick, and not close all the way by itself. They had wood floors that creaked when you walked on them. They were eventually bought out by a bigger chain, Star Markets, who eventually succumbed to the Wegman’s empire.

[Yul Lose]

We’ve got a grocery store here in town that was built about 6 years ago and the doors are not automatic. They are propped open most of the time when  the store is open except when it’s real hot in the summer. 

[Dawg Hair, SASS #29557]

Yep.  I do.  I was born in 1942 and never saw an automatic door opener 'til the late 50's or early 60's.

[Buffalo Creek Law Dog]

6 hours ago, Alpo said:

When was the last time you saw an actual grocery store that did not have an automatic door?

 

Today's FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE comic strip has the mother at the grocery store. She is pushing the baby buggy while pulling the loaded cart, and has to ask someone to open the door for her.

 

I know that these strips are recycled - and she ran the comic as far as she wanted to and then started over again at the beginning. But this particular strip was originally published in 1991.

 

My first job was a bag boy in a Piggly Wiggly. In 1973. And that store had automatic doors.

 

I can't remember a grocery store that did not have automatic doors. Back then you had to step on the pad, instead of it using motion detectors, but they still opened for you.

 

Anyone recall a non-automatic door at a grocery store?

 

Back in the late 1950's when I was in high school, I worked as a grocery packer at Safeways after school and on Saturdays and the front doors were not automatic.

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

Small supermarket in the community I moved from nine years ago still has manual doors.

 

They're out there~!  

[Smoken D]

Yep, I remember. I recall the first store that had the pad. Drove the manager nuts because all us kids would run in and out of the store because we were so fascinated that a door could open on it's own.

[Four-Eyed Buck,SASS #14795]

My Mom's favorite store had one those air curtains as an entry door. At an early age, I thought that thing was really cool

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

A friend of mine was at Joanns shopping for fabric, got to the register and “I’m sorry, our card processor is down.” Then “ oh, here’s a machine but I don’t know how to use it”. “ Do you have the carbon forms?” My friend helped the clerk, put the card here, the form here, now push this across...

 

then some gen Xer said “Is that what you did back in the day?”

[SHOOTIN FOX]

Mustang, OK. Cashsaver plus. Manual doors. Today.

[Waxahachie Kid #17017 L]

We have a small grocery store here, that has no automatic doors.  It has no scanner either, just a register.  There is a card scanner in there, for the folks that use plastic money, and aren't dry behind the ears. 

You can buy minnows,  or a soft drink (Dr. Pepper), or jerky, or pickled quail eggs, or locally made fried pies, or a can of Crisco, or a fly swatter. Sorry, no caviar.     

Of course, I imagine the big chain grocery stores all have automatic doors, that you and I pay for in elevated prices. 

 

W.K.

[watab kid]

im not even trying to remember the manual door - im having difficulty remembering a checkout with a person , 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

16 hours ago, Alpo said:

When was the last time you saw an actual grocery store that did not have an automatic door?

 

Today's FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE comic strip has the mother at the grocery store. She is pushing the baby buggy while pulling the loaded cart, and has to ask someone to open the door for her.

 

I know that these strips are recycled - and she ran the comic as far as she wanted to and then started over again at the beginning. But this particular strip was originally published in 1991.

 

My first job was a bag boy in a Piggly Wiggly. In 1973. And that store had automatic doors.

 

I can't remember a grocery store that did not have automatic doors. Back then you had to step on the pad, instead of it using motion detectors, but they still opened for you.

 

Anyone recall a non-automatic door at a grocery store?

I worked at three grocery store, na F. W. Woolworth, an Arden's ladies' ready to wear, a hardware-lumber company and a  others.  I don't recall any self-opening door until they put them in the Student Union building at USU in about 1963.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

5 hours ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

A friend of mine was at Joanns shopping for fabric, got to the register and “I’m sorry, our card processor is down.” Then “ oh, here’s a machine but I don’t know how to use it”. “ Do you have the carbon forms?” My friend helped the clerk, put the card here, the form here, now push this across...

 

then some gen Xer said “Is that what you did back in the day?”

I had a similar experience at a hobby shop a couple of years ago.  The kid who waited on me was the son of the owner and he drug out an old "wrist breaker" and ran my card, called it in, and thanked me.  I went back a few weeks later and he remembered me.  I made a small purchase and he counted my change back to me correctly, then asked what project I was working on.  I told him I was building a 1950 vintage Marx toy train set and he knew exactly what I was talking about.

 

It was just like being back home again.  He joined the Navy and his dad saw the kid graduate from Annapolis and then he died a couple of months later.  He had lots to be proud of with that lad.

[Texas Lizard]

Not sure on auto doors but do remember food bring boxed not bagged....Of course that was the early 50s...Feel like I am dating myself that far back...

 

Texas Lizard

 

Still 39....

[Perro Del Diablo]

I cant remember as far back as breakfast, maybe on good day

[sassnetguy50]

How do you define automatic doors? The local store added a bump bar that makes it an assisted opening door.  Push your cart into the bar across the glass door to start opening the door, then an actuator engages to help open the door.  This system keeps a more stable temperature for the cashiers and baggers than the motion activated double sliding doors in the big grocery store the next town over.

[Utah Bob #35998]

16 hours ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

A friend of mine was at Joanns shopping for fabric, got to the register and “I’m sorry, our card processor is down.” Then “ oh, here’s a machine but I don’t know how to use it”. “ Do you have the carbon forms?” My friend helped the clerk, put the card here, the form here, now push this across...

 

then some gen Xer said “Is that what you did back in the day?”

That must have been a while ago. Today’s cards won’t work in a manual machine with carbon paper.

 

[Alpo]

A few months after the hurricane (funny - around here all you have to say is "the hurricane" and everyone knows you're talking about Michael in October of 18, but the rest of the world probably wouldn't understand that) Harbor Freight had opened back up. There were two registers working. One had a sign on it that said CASH ONLY. So I go to the other one.

 

The lady explained that their phone line was down. They could not swipe cards. But she had the old carbon paper machine, and it was going to take a little time.

 

I told her it was a good thing that I still had my Visa card, because my new Discover card that had arrived two weeks before did not have raised numbers on it.

 

She looked shocked, then announced to everyone in line, that if they had a card that did not have raised numbers, they could not use it here.

 

3 people left and walked over to the "cash" register.

[Cholla]

23 hours ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

A friend of mine was at Joanns shopping for fabric, got to the register and “I’m sorry, our card processor is down.” Then “ oh, here’s a machine but I don’t know how to use it”. “ Do you have the carbon forms?” My friend helped the clerk, put the card here, the form here, now push this across...

 

then some gen Xer said “Is that what you did back in the day?”

I remember working at a gas station back in the 70s and for some reason we didn't even have the card machine one day. We had to hand write all the info on the slips! Talk about time consuming.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

7 hours ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

That must have been a while ago. Today’s cards won’t work in a manual machine with carbon paper.

 

Yeah, the new ones don't have raised letters and numbers.  A real loss.

 

I went to Lowe's this morning and used the new card they sent.  IT DOESN'T HAVE A CHIP!!!  They have gone back to swipe strips, but no one there could tell me why.

[Warden Callaway]

Kind of a hijack, but I seen something the other day that took me back - making arm signals when driving.   We were driving home on our blacktop secondary road and came up on something like a motor scooter.  He was zipping right along and I gave him pleanty of room and he had taillight and turn signals.  But he went ahead and used an arm signal too when he turned into his driveway. I can't remember the last time I saw someone use arm signals.  When I took my driving test in 66 we had to know these.

[Alpo]

Adam-12 episode. They were doing a vehicle safety inspection on this little OLD lady in a 30s-something car. Seems like it was a Lincoln.

 

Father MALLOY IS standing behind the car amlo AND HE  hollers for her to turn on the left turn signal. No Blinky Blinky. He again tells her to make a left turn signal, and she tellS them HIM she is, and he looks up as she spoke, and she has her arm sticking out the window.

[Mud Marine,SASS#54686 Life]

We have one here in the middle of nowhere by our family place reached by gravel roads. Nothing automatic.

[watab kid]

i miss the S&H green stamps that we used to get when we paid for our groceries to a real live person , that we knew behind the counter , there were so many things back then , but we had cowboys on naer every channel back then too , grated the channels went off the air at ten and didnt get back on till mid morning , so many improvements since and yet so much is lost , 

 

 

[Warden Callaway]

5 hours ago, Alpo said:

Adam-12 episode. They were doing a vehicle safety inspection on this little OLD lady in a 30s-something car. Seems like it was a Lincoln.

 

Father MALLOY IS standing behind the car amlo AND HE  hollers for her to turn on the left turn signal. No Blinky Blinky. He again tells her to make a left turn signal, and she tellS them HIM she is, and he looks up as she spoke, and she has her arm sticking out the window.

 

I remember cars and trucks - maybe as late as 1950 - that didn't come with turn signals standard from the factory.  JC Whitney and Western Auto sold kits to upgraded them.  The switch would be mounted on the steering column with a pair of hose clamps.  

 

Remember "3 on the tree"?  Now it would be an anti-theff device.