In looking through a copy of Life magazine from 1949 in the course of researching something about that era, I came across a picture of a neighborhood grocery store that was actually striking by virtue of its drabness—at least in comparison to the sorts of retail milieus we're used to today.

What prevailed on all counts were the simple, literalistic facts of the physical environment:   the outlines of the squarish room itself registering first, then the rows and rows of shelves, then the cans and bottles and boxes resting on the shelves, and finally the labels on the packages, which told their manufacturers' names and described their contents.