Thanksgiving Ads in 1924 were all about the Chain Stores

The most striking image in the Thanksgiving advertising from 100 years ago is the man of wealth and taste in a heavy overcoat hauling a turkey carcass. In one image part of the turkey is wrapped, but in another it is unwrapped and undressed, maybe even oozing or dripping on the fine new overcoat. It doesn't quite add up!

November 20th, 1924

November 23rd, 1924

But what we're really interested in here are the grocery ads.

November 27th, 1916

You may recall that as recently as 1916, the Thanksgiving advertising featured neighborhood corner stores.

• "Thanksgiving Weekend in 1914 Illustrates History of Autoism"
• "1916 Thanksgiving Grocery Ad Shows Frequent Corner Stores"
• "Thanksgiving Ad for 1917 Frets over Loss of Neighborhood Stores"
• "It was Hoover and War, not Flu, that Shaped our Thanksgiving in 1918"
• "Thanksgiving in 1919 Showed National Advertising, Probable Decline of Corner Store"

Not even a decade later, in 1924 the corner store in advertising has faded greatly.

It's nearly all chain store advertising.

November 22nd, 1924

November 25th, 1924

Even the local store with advertising was a chain. Like Skaggs (which became Safeway here in 1927) and Piggly-Wiggly, they were a cash store and "standardized." Standardized national brands, standardized pricing and sizing and processes, it's all in the orbit of Fordism.

November 24th, 1924

The ad buys aren't a direct proxy for Salem shopping behavior, but they must index to it broadly. The neighborhood corner grocery had not completely disappeared, and the scope of advertising was influenced by national ad dollars, but the trend for centralized and larger stores and more shopping done by automobile is clear. The local corner store is not as important any more.

The clip art, too, is mostly national and not anything local, but it is interesting. Here's the one patriotic note, with Uncle Sam and Columbia praying before tucking into the feast. The blessings may be "bounteous," but it sure looks joyless and severe.

November 27th, 1924

Here's a scene that might be more happy, but they're in formal dress, and it's stiff also. (That 1916 ad looks like a happier dinner table.)

November 23rd, 1924

A scene with Pilgrim iconography asserts "everybody made merry," but it required multiple guns to secure the possibility of merriness, and maybe wasn't so merry after all.

November 26th, 1924

The day after Thanksgiving the morning paper editorialized on the Pilgrims and praised the arms.

We are too apt to belittle the present in comparison with the past and to believe our Pilgrim ancestors possessed virtues that we have lost today. If we study the authentic documents of those far off times instead of being led by the myths and romances that have grown around them we shall find our men and women in 1924 are as religious, as brave, as optimistic, as self helpful, as hospitable and as human as were the first grateful Americans of 1621, exercising their arms, enjoying their first successful harvest and hobnobbing with the wild aborigines.

I think there's just as much myth-making going on in this editorial!

November 26th, 1924

The Oregon Electric also highlighted change in transportation technology, though it was itself being superseded.

Other ads, as we've seen in previous years, highlight the demise of the turkey.

November 26th, 1924

The afternoon paper featured a staged photo with a small child, axe, and turkey.

November 27th, 1924

Through our factory farming we've hidden the reality of killing animals to eat, and these images are more truthful in that regard. But aren't they a little morbid and blood-thirsty also, exulting a little too much in the implied blow of the axe?

In the end what is most interesting in 1924 Thanksgiving advertising is the absence of the neighborhood grocery store and the dominance of the chain store. 

The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde have published a teaching pamphlet for K-12, "Rethinking Thanksgiving Activity Guide." They say, "Instead of placing focus on the popular First Thanksgiving myth, this guide emphasizes the value of harvest, food, family, and thankfulness." It's well worth a look!