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Memorabilia Day 1: A&P, Pathmark, & Waldbaum's!

Welcome to Day 1 of our Spring Memorabilia Extravaganza! We're starting with some old friends, looking at memorabilia from A&P, Pathmark, and Waldbaum's.

A&P

A&P had several coffee brands over the years, including Eight O'Clock (their most famous), Red Circle, Bokar, and plain ol' A&P. At the time this can was produced (I would estimate 1950s), their headquarters were in New York City. They would later move to Montvale, NJ, near the border of New York State.
A larger can from likely around the same time...
And some of the other brands A&P used...
A question I'd never considered, though: what was the difference among all these brands? Wikipedia offers some answers: Bokar was the premium coffee and Red Circle the mid-range brand, so Eight O'Clock was likely intended to be at the lower end of the market. I'm not positive whether that was the intention or how the brands evolved, though. A&P owned Eight O'Clock until 2003.
These containers are plentiful in many antique stores and flea markets.
A&P also sold tea bags under the "Our Own" brand, as seen here in glass jars:
Meanwhile, grocery items were under the Ann Page brand...
Spice containers, too, are pretty easy to find in antique stores, which is why I don't buy them unless they're a really interesting brand.
This gives us a good summary of the (apparently many) redesigns A&P did for the Ann Page brand.
We know these products were produced before 1974, when A&P moved to New Jersey. I would place these around the 1950s, and the turmeric above is likely from the 1960s.
And I would estimate these cans are around late 1950s/early 1960s...
This antique store had quite a few Ann Page items!
This black pepper looks to be around the same age as the turmeric, since the package design matches.
But notice that this one must be slightly later than the turmeric, as the headquarters are listed as Montvale. Notice too that the package displays the circular A&P logo. Between the presence of that logo and the Montvale address, we can date this black pepper to 1974-1976, and the turmeric to likely the early 1970s.
Eventually, A&P brought everything under their own brand, later to be replaced by America's Choice around 2000. Notice that in the 1970s, the kosher U certification started showing up on the packages.
I don't believe I'd ever seen this packaging style before. I would estimate that this package dates to the late 1970s or early 1980s.
Going back in time again to the mid-1970s, we find the Ann Page black pepper in a slightly different color scheme. This one is actually still in my grandmother's kitchen.
Again, we can date it as post-1974 (when A&P moved to Montvale) but pre-1976 (when A&P changed their logo).
And one more piece of memorabilia, one from the Kenilworth location in 2003!

Pathmark

Now on to Pathmark, with this beauty spotted (and subsequently purchased) at an antique store in Allentown, PA. Judging by a combination of the Pathmark graphics and the toy truck itself (you may recall that I collect toy trucks in addition to, um, pictures of supermarkets), I would place this in roughly the late 80s or early 90s -- though it's also possible it's from the early 80s.
The truck itself is a Yatming, I believe, a lower-end toy car and truck brand from China that made lots of similar branded things as well as their own line.
For a larger scale Pathmark truck, likely from the mid-90s, here's what I found in an antique store...
...and some other cars, such as this which I would estimate from the "fresh" slogan is from around 2000.
And something in my own collection, a recipe for oatmeal cookies based on what seems to be a bulk foods program I didn't even know existed.
Here's a scan of the recipe:
It was quite the surprise to find this Pathmark bathroom cleaner in the closet of a Worcester, MA apartment. Pathmark never had stores in MA as far as I know.
And also in my grandmother's house, these Pathmark light bulbs (my guess is early 00s, and the box has a 2000 copyright)...

Waldbaum's

Not a lot of Waldbaum's memorabilia that I have, but here's a little matchbook with the w-crown logo that was used from 1960 to 1987. That's all for A&P, Pathmark, and Waldbaum's, but tomorrow we'll be taking a look at ACME and Shaw's!

Comments

  1. Zachary, this is an amazing collection of memorabilia! Thanks so much for sharing it.

    There are a few factoids I can share that relate to some of what you wrote above:

    *The sunrise/oval A&P logo made its chainwide debut on or around Sunday, February 8, 1976.

    *The aforementioned logo was used on a very limited basis beginning in late 1975. The first appearance on an actual A&P store may have been in November 1975, when an expansion and renovation of the chain's Park Ridge, NJ location was completed. In newspaper advertisements for the Park Ridge supermarket, an artist's rendering of the building shows that the store sported the sunrise/oval logo.

    *For more details about the 1975-76 A&P logo change, refer to the seventh post of the following thread on the Groceteria message board:

    https://groceteria.ca/board/viewtopic.php?t=4256

    *Surprisingly, the America's Choice brand appears to have made its debut during the second half of 1993.

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  2. I have an Ann Page glass bottle of garlic powder (the actual powder is new, for some reason we kept emptying the newer ones into this bottle).

    It has stamped on it Jan75, however the information on the lower part of the back label still reads The Great A&P Tea Company, New York, NY.

    The logo is just the red square seen on the pepper cans, without all the decor around it, while the cap is a shade of green (Very likely originally the same as the one can shows).

    I also have a bottle of what was chili powder with the design like the can of cinnamon you show. Got that one from our last store here just outside Albany (NY) that didn't close until April of 1997.

    Though I remember that store having many of the America's Choice items somewhere during the 1995 (when I first realized it was still in existence) until it's closing timeframe, I think this chili powder was something they found in the back when cleaning out to close. So that brand must have taken over a bit sooner than you were thinking.

    As to the Pathmark item in MA, I seem to remember seeing something about that brand having drugstores in that state.
    Doing a search, I found the article linked below, and it looks like they owned a 66-unit chain called Purity Supreme in MA, so they very well may have used their own store branded items in that chain at one point (even if it was several decades ago - those cleaning items tend to last almost forever ;) ).

    https://www.company-histories.com/Pathmark-Stores-Inc-Company-History.html

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    Replies
    1. Interesting, thanks for those details!

      I very much forgot that Pathmark once owned Purity Supreme -- if I ever knew it to begin with. That's really interesting!

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  3. Really cool assortment of things! At a church yard sale today I found a Pathmark coffee container full of screws from 1986. I have extra screws now.

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    1. I know I have several cans of assorted stuff like that stored away in the basement (which came from my grandparents house, my grandfather having passed away in 1983).
      Probably should look and see what they are, though I vaguely remember them being branded coffee cans vs. store ones, but that is one of those memories from long ago that may be way off ;)

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    2. That's awesome! I'd love to see what you have, too.

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