"The Front Line" 1965 Supermarket Checker Training Film

If you love old grocery stores as much as I do, this is one of those holy grail films....check out the glorious supermarket interiors (so much pastel!), the beautiful food packaging and the little magazine kiosk at each station. It's product placement heaven for the Reader's Digest family of magazines. (I guess you are entitled to do that when you finance the film.)
Also, I really love the cute little pink uniforms these checkers are wearing, not the blue one so much though.

I actually took a supermarket checker course at the community college back in 1990 and this is one of the films they showed us.....this one, and a really awesome 60's one about shoplifting, called The Shoplifter. Find it if you can, it's completely worth your time. It's full of hammy acting and it does show the fabulous interiors and merchandise of quite a few types of stores.

Lastly, I don't think we have a Checker of the Year anymore here in the states, but it looks like New Zealand does! :)

For The Love Of Old Grocery Stores....

Oh maaaan....I miss old style grocery stores. I miss the garish lighting, gaudy colors and the entrance doors with the rickety metal dividers. I miss the pastel produce cases and the real fishnets full of plastic replicas of crabs and swordfish in the meat/seafood department. I miss the shiny vct (most likely asbestos) square tiles, the check cashing/courtesy booth and the cluttery decor. I miss the hand painted signs on white butcher paper and the 'cha-ching' sound the clunky cash registers made. By the time the 70s rolled around and I was was shopping in there, these places were beginning to lose their luster. They were still wonderful, but the lighting was dingy and floors were stained & crumbly in places. the pastel produce cases were out of style in a brown world and the carts were squeaky & had bad wheels. Eventually the clunky cash register would be replaced by the kind that beeped and the front door electronics were failing, making them sticky & hard to open. I didn't care, I loved them just the same. Obviously I still do. I'd give my eye teeth for one more trip to 'Bob's Thrift' on 33rd and Perry to buy a Mad magazine, some 'Grease' bubble gum cards and a package of wax bottle candy. Unfortunately, it will never be possible because Bob's is now a Library.