What Things Cost During the Great Depression (2024)

FAQs

What Things Cost During the Great Depression? ›

A new house had a price tag of $3,900, which sounds attainable given that the average income was $1,731 per year. A new set of wheels would set you back $860, a movie ticket was just 25c, gas was 10c per gallon and a postage stamp was 3c.

Particularly notable is that technology (such as radios and wrist watches) were actually much more expensive during the Great Depression than today. That's an example of one of the few major exceptions to inflation: Technology tends to decline, rather than rise, in price.

The Great Depression had a huge negative impact on the economy, including access to food. There was a scarcity of food during the Great Depression, which means there was not enough food to feed everyone.

The average price of a gallon of milk in 1931 was 26 cents. Milk was considered a kind of superfood, and the government advised kids to drink up to a quart a day. Popular Depression-era recipes that used milk were creamed chip beef on toast, cold milk soup (milk, bananas, and sugar), and hot milk cake.

Not everyone, however, lost money during the worst economic downturn in American history. Business titans such as William Boeing and Walter Chrysler actually grew their fortunes during the Great Depression.

Bananas, 15 cents/pound. Flour, 4.8 cents/pound. Rice 18.4 cents/pound. White bread 12.5 cents/pound.

Another cheap meal including hotdogs is Hoover Stew, named after the U.S. president elected right before the start of the Depression. This meal was able to feed families, and was given to soup kitchens to feed large quantities of hungry people looking for a free meal.

Sugar cost 59c for 10 pounds, vitamin D milk was 50c a gallon, ground coffee cost 39c per pound, bacon was 32c per pound and eggs were 18c a dozen. For those who could win a place, tuition at Harvard cost $420 a year.

The best performing investments during the Depression were government bonds (many corporations stopped paying interest on their bonds) and annuities.

What happened to grocery stores during the Great Depression? ›

The January 1935 issue of Progressive Grocer noted that total retail sales declined an unbelievable 49 percent from 1929 to 1933 (retail sales of all kinds sold through all types of stores). By comparison, food stores showed a slightly smaller decline — 37 percent. The number of food stores declined 5 percent.

80 Years of Car & Gas Prices

$600 is all you needed back in 1930 to own that new car smell, and to fill up your tank would have cost you less than anything at Starbucks.

In the 1930's the average annual income was about $1,970, and the average cost for house rent was about $18.00 per month.

Basic foodstuffs like milk, eggs, vegetables, and meat were expensive. Advertisem*nts argued processed foods combined with basic goods stretched a home budget. Canned soup, for example, could be mixed with other ingredients to create a casserole.

As for the average price of a loaf of bread today being $2.50, in 1932 a fresh baked loaf of bread cost seven cents. The average price of a pound of coffee today is $1.75 compared to a pound of ground coffee in 1932 being only 35 cents.

Overall, the very rich remained prosperous. Multi-millionaires, such as J D Rockefeller, kept their wealth in items like gold and property so they did not suffer as much as small businesses, workers and farmers when the banks failed.

From the fall of 1930 through the winter of 1933, the money supply fell by nearly 30 percent. The declining supply of funds reduced average prices by an equivalent amount.