Amazing Photos Capture Grocery Stores in Massillon From the Late 19th Century _ Throwback American Life

A grocery store is a store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged.

Beginning as early as the 14th century, a grocer (or “purveyor”) was a dealer in comestible dry goods such as spices, peppers, sugar, and (later) cocoa, tea, and coffee. From the late 1600s until the 1850s, the word “grocery” referred to a place where people went to drink.

As increasing numbers of staple food-stuffs became available in cans and other less-perishable packaging, the trade expanded its province. Today, grocers deal in a wide range of staple food-stuffs including such perishables as dairy products, meats, and produce. Such goods are, hence, called groceries.

Here is a set of amazing photos from Massillon Museum that shows what grocery stores of Massillon looked like in the 1880s and 1890s.