"A and P"

Easter is approaching so Lent is coming to a close. A & P Food Store advertised Jane Parker Hot Cross buns for Lent and I believe they are commonly served for Easter breakfast as well.


April 8, 1946 Life Magazine

March 17, 1947 Life Magazine
And spring desserts with A & P's Ann Page preserves

April 25, 1955 Life Magazine

April 13, 1959 Life Magazine
A cup of their coffee would go pretty perfectly with those treats - (and I love the china service they used in their ads)

April 18, 1955 Life Magazine

March 25, 1957 Life Magazine

January 27, 1958 Life Magazine

March 17, 1958 Life Magazine

April 27, 1959 Life Magazine

A&P Food Stores is also known as The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company

A&P's History
More than 150 years ago, The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Inc. (A&P) began operations as The Great American Tea Company. Its first store - on Vesey Street in New York City - sold tea, coffee and spices at value prices. Soon stores sprung up all around the New York metropolitan area, and salesmen took their wares to the road in horse-drawn carriages bound for New England, the mid-west and the south. In 1869, the Company was renamed the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, commemorating the first transcontinental railroad and its intention to expand across the continent. In 1936, A&P became the first national supermarket chain in the United States, one of many company-led innovative concepts that have radically improved and changed the way consumers shopped. Its vast advertising and promotional activities reached so many consumers that A&P became an American icon.

More history on Wikipedia.
Unsourced information indicates there were 16,000 stores in 1930 and in 2011 there were 338.  There don't appear to be any stores in my area but I'm pleased they've been able to survive in some form for over 150 years.