1934 Montgomery Ward Catalog Chicks

[nonsuch]

Here is a page from the 1934 Montgomery Ward Catalog when baby chicks were only $1.90 for 25!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I love these old ads. Thanks for posting.

Someone, I think it was Imp but I'm not sure, had one where they were advertising Delaware chicks as meat birds long before the current broiler hybrids took over that market. Their claim was that their Delaware chicks could hit 4 pounds at 10 weeks age. That was a good meat bird!!!

Of course, once the broiler hybrids took over, all that breeding was lost.

According to the site I found, gasoline was $0.10 per gallon in 1934. Something to think about when comparing these prices.

 

[shuss]

I bet $1.90 was probably a whole days wage back then

 

[my sunwolf]

I love these old ads. Thanks for posting.
Someone, I think it was Imp but I'm not sure, had one where they were advertising Delaware chicks as meat birds long before the current broiler hybrids took over that market. Their claim was that their Delaware chicks could hit 4 pounds at 10 weeks age. That was a good meat bird!!!
Of course, once the broiler hybrids took over, all that breeding was lost.
According to the site I found, gasoline was $0.10 per gallon in 1934. Something to think about when comparing these prices.

I'm going to pull some math out now, because I'm curious.

$1.90 was the cheapest deal, but let's go with an average price, something more like $2.50 for 25 chicks. That would be $0.10 per chick in 1934. If gas was $0.10 a gallon, 1 chick = 1 gallon of gas.

Today, my average gas prices are around $3.50 a gallon... about the same price of a hatchery chick, especially when you include shipping cost. Basically, today, 1 chick = 1 gallon of gas.

Kind of interesting.


Another note: if the average wage was $1.90, as shuss suggested, then the yearly wage would be $693.50.

Pretending inflation happens proportionally across the whole spectrum of the economy (it most certainly doesn't), gas prices from 1934 to 2012 were multiplied by 35.

Apply this to income, and you get an average yearly wage of $24,272.50... a very close estimate of the average yearly wage in the U.S.

That means that the average daily wage in 2012 would be $66.50... enough to purchase about 25 chicks.

Still interesting.


(Hey look, I'm not doing chicken math anymore, I'm doing math about chickens!)