Goodbye to the Market Issue

With the arrival of my new issue of one of my favorite reads, Saveur magazine, focusing on Greece this time, guess it's time to say goodbye to the last one, The Market Issue, which I think was one of the finest they've ever produced. In addition to elegant and thought-provoking prose, that issue featured some of the most sumptuous photography I've ever seen. While many of the photos were of markets, food, and people from around the world, the most intriguing photo of all to me appeared in the article on the American supermarket. It's a photo taken in a Super Giant supermarket in 1964. You can see it a bit in the article here, but it's nothing like having the issue in your hands, where the photo, in razor-sharp focus, spreads across two pages. It's details are endless, including a view from the back of a customer's well-coifed beehive, a display of Wise potato chips, and Maypo cereal one of the many products to be seen on the shelves (anybody else remember Maypo?). The photo magnificently captures a moment in time in 1964. Another great photo, which doesn't appear to be in Saveur's web content at all, is one of opening day at a Piggly Wiggly supermarket in 1962. The cashiers, all women, pose in an attentive line in their checkout lanes, all wearing uniforms meant to evoke French maids. As I say goodbye to this issue, it will head to the free magazines bin at my local library, where I hope someone else will enjoy it as much as I did, and will pass it on again when they're done.