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TIME: Almanac of the 20th Century
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TIME, Almanac of the 20th Century.ISO
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1994-02-27
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<text>
<title>
(1950s) Shopping Centers:Man, Oh Man!
</title>
<history>Time-The Weekly Magazine-1950s Highlights</history>
<article>
<source>Time Magazine</source>
<hdr>
TIME Magazine
February 1, 1954
"Man, Oh Man!"
</hdr>
<body>
<p> As the U.S. population has grown, it has shifted from the
cities to the suburbs. In Chicago last week, Sears, Roebuck's
Retail Sales Manager Clarence C. Choyce told an admen's
convention just how big the shift has been, and what it means
in terms of changing markets. A few Choyce words:
</p>
<p> "A study of 32 of the metropolitan areas...showed that
in the central cities of 27 of these areas, the number of retail
stores had decreased by as much as 20%. Increases in the number
of retail outlets in the suburbs, however, were as great as
67.6%...Certainly this movement to the suburbs means more
automobiles, more mileage per car and more multiple-car
families...I will leave it to your imagination to think of
what it means in terms of automotive home workshops, sporting
goods, lawnmowers, garden tools, casual clothing...Furthermore, this suburbia is pointing the way to the next
development, which is the sundown farmer and his demand for the
small power tractor with its many pieces of ingenious extra
equipment...
</p>
<p> "Married couples today are having far more second, third,
fourth and fifth children. Just for the record, 1953 v. 1940
shows us 90% more second children per family, 85% more third
children, 60% more fourth children, and 15% more fifth children...We have 65% more children under five years of age and 50%
more between five and nine..."
</p>
<p> The combination of bigger families and suburban living,
reminded Choyce, has opened up a whole new retail field--the
"do-it-yourself" market. "The mother of this large family in
suburbia wants her family to dress well. Maybe the upswing in
sewing-machine and washing-machine sales indicates that she is
doing more of her own work than was the case a while back. She
wants harmony in her home decorating and cannot afford your
interior decorator. Plumbing, painting, electrical work, wall
and floor tile, car service and what have you, all feel the
influence of this desire and need for `do-it-yourself.'"
</p>
<p> Concluded Choyce: "Man, oh man, think what this means in
the sale of goods!"
</p>
<p>Kitchen Comeback
Said a Seattle housewife last week: "We spend at least 50%
of our waking hours in the kitchen. It would be a silly not to
make it one of the nicest rooms in the house."
</p>
<p> Making the kitchen a nice room has meant a drastic change
in kitchen design. In the '30s and '40s it was fashionable to
compress the kitchen into a space-saving, antiseptic cubicle.
But as postwar families grew, kitchens grew with them. Since the
war and the shortage of domestic help, whole houses are
virtually being designed around colorful, labor-saving kitchens
that can also serve as all-purpose living space for the family.
</p>
<p> No Stoop, No Stretch. It is not only the housewife who
calls for all the changes; her husband, especially if he has to
help clean up with the children underfoot, is often more
insistent. Kitchens can be equipped or renovated for anywhere
from $500 to $15,000. The lower price pays for about twelve
running feet of cabinets and counter tops, a sink, but no
appliances. A $15,000 kitchen would include custom-built wood
cabinets, stainless steel sink and counter tops, dish-washer,
disposer, freezer, refrigerator, washer, dryer, an electric oven
in the wall, a fireplace, special cabinets for trays, bottles,
cutlery and vegetables.
</p>
<p> Many new kitchens virtually eliminate stooping and
stretching. The refrigerator and oven fit into the wall at waist
level. A mixer folds into the counter like a secretary's
typewriter. Wall cabinets are low, and floor storage shelves
roll out on bearings, or rise to work level as they are pulled
out.
</p>
<p> Last week General Motors showed off some new gadgets in its
"kitchen of tomorrow." Electronically controlled cabinets slide
down to easy reach with a wave of the hand, and cabinet doors
pop open by light pressure in the front panel. A new appliance
provides a choice of cold water, ice cubes or crushed ice. For
easy reading, recipes are flashed onto a screen when they are
placed in a photographic viewer. The sink provides water at any
temperature from a single faucet. An electronic oven rises at
the press of a button, bakes potatoes in five minutes or roasts
a turkey in 45. Even the flour-sifter is motor-driven.
</p>
<p> Barbecue Bonanza. Thanks largely to the kitchen craze, the
appliance business, which grossed only $685 million a year
prewar, is now a $5 billion giant. Stores that supply kitchen
furnishings have never had it so good. Chicago's Carson Pirie
Scott & Co. separated its kitchen furnishings from its
appliances 18 months ago and sales rose from $35,000 a year to
$90,000. The American Rack Merchandisers' Institute announced
that 1953 sales of housewares in supermarkets came to $135
million, v. $113 million a year earlier. Sales of kitchen
furniture last year totaled $500 million, up 8% from 1952, v.
a 5% rise for all furniture sales.
</p>
<p> Perhaps the most notable change goes farthest back into
American life, cooking over an open fire. In the newest
expensive kitchens, fireplaces or barbecue pits are standard
equipment. Other householders use broilers or rotisseries.
Broiler sales last year reached $72,402,000, more than quadruple
the 1952 total. One new firm, the Broil-Quik Co., grossed around
$1,000,000 in 1950, its first year; by last year, sales had shot
up to $10 million, and the company expects to gross between $15
million and $20 million in 1954. Welbilt Stove last year put an
electric rotisserie in one of its gas ranges and sold 25,000;
one-eighth of its total business.
</p>
<p> Open and Shut. Not everything that is new in the kitchen
meets with unanimous approval. One fad against which many
housewives rebel is the "open" kitchen, separated from living,
dining or utility rooms by just a serving counter, bar, or room
divider. Such kitchens not only make privacy impossible, but
often fill the house with smells and smoke.
</p>
<p> Nevertheless, most housewives want all the new features,
while those who already have them still dream of something more.
Said a Michigan housewife: "We have almost all the appliances
there are. And we do have a nice kitchen, with white cabinets
and blue walls, chintz draperies in a Wedgewood-blue print, and
matching wallpaper on the ceiling. But when we build the one we
want, we'll have a kitchen about 20 feet long, with all the
cooking equipment at one end and a big Lazy Susan table with
captain's chairs and a fireplace at the other."
</p>
</body>
</article>
</text>