The Complete 1977 Shopping List

As the grocery shopper in our house, I usually bring a list the length of a toilet paper roll and end up spending anywhere between two to three hundred dollars.  The other day, as I drove home from the store (exhausted), I thought back to a simpler time, when I had a much smaller list to bring to the store. 

Here's what my typical shopping list looked like in June of 1977:

A Marvel Superheroes Slurpee® drink.

Pop Rocks: The carbonated candy that literally sizzled in my mouth.  Add a swig of Coca-Cola for extra head-exploding fizzing action.

Zotz: Hard candy in a variety of flavors, each with a fizzy sour center.

A pack of bubblegum cards from that
cool new "Star Wars" movie.

...and last, but certainly not least...

Comic books!  From an authentic 7-11 squeeky spinner-rack, no less!  The trick was to get there before all of the comics had been bent over the wire rack from careless browsers...and to avoid the clerk scolding us that "this ain't a library"!

In case you're wondering, YES...these ARE the very same comics that came out in June of 1977...I remember buying them!

TOTAL:  Oh, this is just a guess...but it was probably three bucks for the whole works.  You know, the price of one comic book today!  Arrgghh!

Comments

[David Rathert]

I loved the 7-11 spinner racks! Getting some new comics gave me that same excited feeling in my stomach as Christmas morning. Of course, my purchases were a whopping 60 cents per comic when I was a lad...

[adam barnett]

Ah, the spinner rack. I loved going to Safeway with my mom because she'd dump me there while she shopped. Comics were about a quarter each when I started, so it was pretty easy to get away with putting 5 or 6 in the cart. I *hate* that comics cost so much now. I blame the distribution method - where your purchases were just a tiny part of the grocery store's income, you are now expected to support an entire Comics Shop. I hate that for kids.

[Mark Engblom]

You know, one could make the argument that comics have just risen with inflation, and that proportionately a kid today is spending as much as a 1977 kid was spending for a 30¢ to 35¢ comic book...but I suspect that's not the case. The Direct Market business model really does seem to have distorted the pricing beyond normal inflation rates, in that comic book companies are now catering to a very, very narrow niche market instead of a mass market.

Sure, they're starting to play catch-up now (with trade paperbacks in bookstores), but we're definitely (and literally) paying the price for all those years of apathy from the Big Two and Diamond's distribution racket.

[Siskoid]

I don't think inflation is a fair excuse. In still wax romantic about the days when the change from my lunch money would pay for a comic every day (with tax, that was 83¢ Canadian in the mid-80s).

Would a kid really have more than 3$ of lunch money left every day?

[Mark Engblom]

Siskoid-

Thanks for the anecdote. It helps make it clearer that it's NOT the inflation excuse. You're right...the occasional comic book here and there was pretty easy to swing for a kid back then. Now? Comics definitely aren't an impulse or casual purchase.

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