You watch old movies where the characters go out to dinner and the movies and it only costs a few dollars. You hear stories from parents or grandparents about how they paid a few cents for a piece of candy when they were kids.
You hear stories about how a single income could support an entire family comfortably decades ago. You wonder why and how prices have become so high that the idea of something costing just a couple dollars doesn’t feel real.
The short answer is inflation. While many of us are making more money that generations in the past, it is not necessarily going as far because the cost of everything else has also gone up.
Food, housing, gas and transportation, clothing, etc. The costs of goods now would probably seem entirely outrageous if we were able to show someone from 1940.
Let’s take a look at some old photos of menus, markets, housing and vehicle adds, and gas prices over the last 100 years.
An old McDonald’s menu showing all their meal options. Nothing was over $4
An old diner menu where nothing costs more than $1.00
A grocer’s window display showing oranges for a penny and grapefruits for 5 cents
A hot shave for 10 cents and a restaurant menu on the window next door
1969 and 1970’s cars for well below $3000
Grocery store signs. Nothing over $1.00 in sight
Less than $1000 to furnish an entire, brand new house in Chicago
A deli menu with sandwiches that cost a few dollars
Fresh eggs for 19 cents
A gallon of gas for 22 cents
A beach stand snack and food shop. The sandwich bar menu shows sandwiches and burgers for around 30 cents
Less than $1000 for all the materials needed to build a brand new home
A Led Zeppelin concert ticket in 1973 for $5.00
Full homes for less than $17,000
Stylish new pants for less than $5.00
A butcher menu showing the low cost of meat
The cost of delivery a baby and a hospital stay in 1957
A $59.00 hospital discharge receipt from 1933
A very old McDonald’s menu
A coupon menu
Monthly mortgage payments for $47.00
A $2.00 ticket to the orchestra in 1960
$170 for the cost of one semester at Harvard in 1869
An old-school KFC menu
The cost of living breakdown from 1938
A cocktail menu with drinks that cost around $1.50
