The Supermarket RevolutionFor decades before the supermarket revolution of the 1950s, Europeans shopped in small stores and were typically served by the store owner or members of the family. In the new supermarkets, customers enjoyed self-service from a vastly expanded array of mass-produced goods, colorfully packaged and displayed on open shelves in long, impersonal aisles. Shoppers in this British supermarket in the 1960s carried their selections in baskets or carts to checkout counters at the front of the store. (Mary Evans Picture Library/The Image Works)