One hundred years ago, before Walmart and Whole Foods and Albertson's and Kroger, grocery shopping was a very different experience.
Many American city dwellers flocked to the indoor public markets — huge, high-ceilinged halls lined with vendors hawking everything from fresh fruit and vegetables to full-service meat and fish counters.
Some were centrally located, like Eastern Market in Washington, D.C. and West Side Market in Cleveland. Seattle's Pike Place Market, now 105 years old, is still going strong. But smaller neighborhood public markets also thrived, as did roadside stands in the summer.
Over time, though, the brightly lit supermarket, with aisles of already packaged goods, emerged as a more convenient option for mid-century America's harried housewives. And in many cities, the old public markets were demolished.
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