Delivered to Your Door

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could have anything you bought delivered directly to your house for free? Companies, like the Birmingham-based Shipt, firmly believe that the convenience of having someone shop for your groceries and deliver them to your door outweigh the added cost from using this service. Grocery and store delivery used to be the custom instead of it being an innovative service.

In 1917, the citizens of Birmingham were accustomed to go into a store picking up what they wanted and having the goods delivered to their house. One of the reasons for this was because not everyone owned a car. With the outbreak of World War I, merchants saw an opportunity to cut back on delivery service and reduce their overhead. Under the guise of patriotic duty and a war measure, Birmingham merchants reduced their delivery service to once a day and charged an additional 10 cents fee for special deliveries. The slogan was “A bundle in hand is a badge of patriotism.”

Hill Grocery Company went even further than the other Birmingham merchants by abolishing free delivery service beginning August 18, 2017. The business adopted the idea that customers should just “take with” them their purchases, and in turn, the customers would pay a lower price for their goods. Owner James Hill suggested that “It was fashionable for women to carry bundles. It is coming to be a demonstration of patriotism to carry home purchases.” He added, “The capable housewife is going to see that there is no wasted money, no wasted strength of resources in the operations of her household.” This “Take With It You” plan was a means of reducing waste that could be measured in savings in the household budget.

Enjoyed this story of life 100 years ago in Birmingham? It is part of our Throwback Thursday series that runs each week on the Southern History Department’s Facebook page.