WWSC countdown to 75 — Quiz show at A&P

This is the latest in an occasional series of posts leading up to the 75th anniversary of Glens Falls radio station WWSC on Dec. 18, 2021.

My loving wife often corrects me at the supermarket.

“It’s not called a ‘buggy,’” she says. “It’s a ‘cart.’”

At the “completely modernized” A&P “store of tomorrow” at 29 South Street in 1949 it was called a “pushmobile.”

Which ever term you prefer, Mrs. Howard Wendell of Glens Falls won one fully loaded with groceries, baked goods, candy and deli items as the jackpot prize in the “Radio Quiz Show” WWSC broadcast live from the newly remodeled and expanded store’s ribbon cutting and open house celebration from 8 to 10 p.m. Aug. 30.

Wendell won by correctly announcing that A&P was founded in 1859.

Other contestants won prizes of coffee and steaks for correctly answering questions about A&P brand products.

The store was in the building that most recently housed the local Off Track Betting parlor and a diner. The building was recently demolished as part of the Glens Falls Downtown Revitalization Initiative redevelopment project that will include a year-round farmers market building at that site.

In 1949 the Glens Falls City Band led the parade of curiosity seekers to the entrance of the 9,000-square-foot market, where Glens Falls Mayor John Bazinet cut the ribbon so all could go inside and check out the latest in retail innovation, such as a self-service meat department that employed 20 butchers and assistants.

“Displayed in gleaming cases are meat, fish and poultry, cut, trimmed and weighed and marked with the price per pound and total price.”

The renovation and expansion project cost $75,000 — the equivalent of about $810,000 in 2020 dollars.

Sources: The Post-Star Aug. 29, 31, 1949.

Click here to read the most recent previous post in the series.