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Showing posts with label Canned. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canned. Show all posts

Monday, April 29, 2019

The WGY Food Stores

Photo: Hoxie!
If there's one thing that pairs up with a great cup of coffee, it's great radio. And for a few glorious decades from the 1930s to the 1950s, people in the Capital Region of New York got both from the legendary WGY Radio.


WGY is one of the pioneering radio stations in America. Broadcasting continuously since 1922, it was home to many firsts in broadcasting, including the first remote broadcasts, the first radio dramas, the first high powered broadcasts, the first experimental TV station and one of the very first FM radio stations, among them. It's local reputation as a media powerhouse also lent itself to some unusual diversifications.



With the blessing of WGY's ownership (General Electric), WGY Food Stores was launched in the 1920s.


How WGY entered the grocery business isn't like how you would expect. WGY Radio itself never directly handled the grocery business. Instead, they licensed their "brand" (i.e. their call letters) to a local distributor and chain operator for a cut of the profits or a set fee.

This arrangement, plus the chain's whopping 130 stores in the full blast of it's signal (a full 75 miles around Schenectady!), gave both operators an advantage. The grocer had an instantly identifiable brand and the radio station had instant free advertising and a great promotional asset.


Because radio was a marvel for people in the 1920s and it's tie-in with anything sold well.

Photo: Hoxie!

Though best known for it's coffee (as evidenced by the many WGY coffee tins that circulate in the antique underground) WGY Food Stores also offered other branded products, such as canned evaporated milk (as mentioned in the ad above), fruits and vegetables, spices and tea. There were likely other WGY branded products as well.





WGY was still operating in the grocery business as late as 1958. But with the 1960s came the first waves of distributor consolidation and grocery stores became supermarkets. But the WGY stores seemed to be smaller stores, which were fading away to the supermarkets.

WGY Coffee jar, 1940-50s
But WGY could be considered the Amazon of it's day. It's one of the earliest examples of how one could get both their staples and entertainment from the same source (in name.)

Today, WGY has been long out of the grocery business. But still broadcasting to to the Capital Region.


Friday, December 06, 2013

Christmas Tinner


 If you just can't put down the game controller of the PS4 or X-Box One Santa (may) bring you for Christmas, I have GREAT news.
Layer one – Scrambled egg and bacon
Layer two – Two mince pies
Layer three – Turkey and potatoes
Layer four – Gravy
Layer five – Bread sauce
Layer six – Cranberry sauce
Layer seven – Brussel sprouts with stuffing – or broccoli with stuffing
Layer eight – Roast carrots and parsnips
Layer nine – Christmas pudding

No need to break out the "good" dishes, just eat it right out of the can! (But then again, when your idea of interior decorating include fake bookshelf wallpaper, who needs formality?)
 Sadly for the rest of us, it's only available in the UK.... And completely SOLD OUT this year.....

http://www.game.co.uk/en/game-christmas-tinner-181968?pageSize=20&categoryIdentifier=10210

Monday, August 12, 2013

More Old Food

 It's amazing what lurks forgotten in the backs of some people's cupboards.......

Town House was a Safeway brand.




Friday, April 12, 2013

A Rock N' Roll Food Fight


Some bands/artists with food or food related names:

Smashing Pumpkins
The Lovin' Spoonful
Cranberries
The Honey Cone
Meatloaf
Lemonheads
Blind Melon
Bread
Cibo Matto
The Cookies
The Platters
Artichoke
Hootie & The Blowfish
Olive
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Blind Lemon Jefferson
Cake
Dead Milkmen
Belly
The Raspberries
The Applejacks
The Honeycombs
Humble Pie
April Wine
Black Grape
Amy Winehouse
Taco
Pigmeat Markham
Fine Young Cannibals
Ambrosia
Matthew Sweet
Salt & Pepa
Pearl Jam
The Fat Boys
Soup Dragons
Gin Blossoms
My Cat Puddinhead
Spice Girls
Sugaland
100 Proof Aged In Soul
Cream
Vanilla Ice
Dave & Sugar
Sugarloaf
Neutral Milk Hotel
Ice-T
The Moldy Peaches
Green Jello (Jelly)
Brandy
Fiona Apple
Phish
Fattburger
Grapes Of Wrath
Chet Baker
T-Bone Walker
1910 Fruitgum Co.
Hot Tuna
School Of Fish
Wings
Sausage
Anita Baker
Uncle Kracker
Hall & Oates
Dishwalla
Buckcherry
Bowling For Soup
Korn
Vanilla Fudge
The Black Eyed Peas
Jon Butcher Axis
Breakfast Club
Country Joe & The Fish
Captain Beefheart
G. Love & Special Sauce
Wild Cherry
The Spoons
Richard Cheese
Feeder
Mudhoney
Meat Puppets
Fishbone
The Flaming Lips
Pop Will Eat Itself
A Taste Of Honey
Cherry Poppin' Daddies
Reel Big Fish
The Lemon Pipers
Fatback
Fischerspooner
Veruca Salt
Peaches
Moby Grape
Jello Biafra
Squirrel Nut Zippers
Peaches & Herb
The Electric Prunes
Sugar Ray
The Jam
Custard
Sugar Hill Gang
Mushroomhead
Everclear
Marc Almond
Mighty Lemon Drops
Neneh Cherry
Strawberry Switchblade
Sweet
The Brand New Heavies
Toni Basil
Tangerine Dream
Big Pig
Sugar
Heavy D
Strawberry Alarm Clock
Spacehog
Ultimate Spinach
Kid Creole & The Coconuts
Prefab Sprout
Vitamin C
Vitamin Z
Joy Of Cooking
Juice Newton
Limp Bizkit
Hot Chocolate
The Sugarcubes
DJ Quik
Apples In Stereo
Rachel Sweet
Bananarama
Eagle Eye Cherry
Jimmie's Chicken Shack
Chuck Berry
String Cheese Incident
Leadbelly
Hot Butter