The Grocery Store Got A Lot Less Weird
The 80s grocery store was packed with products that seemed completely normal at the time.
Then the 90s showed up—and a surprising number of them were suddenly gone. Seriously, how many of these do you actually remember?
Swanson Le Menu
If you ate frozen dinners in the 80s, Le Menu was the fancy one. Swanson launched the upscale meals with entrées like chicken breast Florentine and more ambitious side dishes, all served on surprisingly sturdy microwaveable plates. And these weren't some tiny experiment. Le Menu became a major 80s freezer-aisle success before finally disappearing in 1994.
Giggles
If you remember these, you've probably just pictured the faces. Nabisco's Giggles were sandwich cookies with smiling and laughing expressions baked into them, plus vanilla and fudge creme inside. They became a familiar lunchbox treat during the 80s, and then those slightly creepy little smiles disappeared before the 90s really got started.
Pillsbury Food Sticks
Most people remember them by their original, much cooler name: Space Food Sticks. Pillsbury had developed the idea through its work on food for NASA, then sold the chewy sticks as a convenient energy snack here on Earth. They were still hanging around as the 80s began, but by 1983 they had vanished from supermarket shelves.
Apple Slice
Slice began as Pepsi's lemon-lime soda, but by 1986 the company was expanding into flavors including apple. Yes, apple soda had its moment. The original Apple Slice arrived in regular and diet versions, but the experiment was short. By 1988, Pepsi had already removed the apple flavor from the lineup.
Mymomisnotreal, Wikimedia Commons
Pepperidge Farm Croissant Pastry Pizza
Frozen pizza met croissant dough in 1985, when Pepperidge Farm began testing Croissant Pastry Pizza before rolling it out more widely. The flaky pizzas came in several varieties and were even recognized among notable new products of the era. Somehow, that still wasn't enough to keep them around.
C-3PO's
Kellogg's released C-3PO's in 1984, one year after Return of the Jedi. The wheat-and-corn cereal pieces resembled interlocking rings, while the golden droid himself took over the box. It had prizes, Star Wars branding and everything else kids actually cared about. Yet C-3PO's breakfast career lasted only a few years.
Screenshot from C3PO Cereal, Kellogg Company (1984)
Betty Crocker Stir 'n Frost
This was convenience baking before convenience baking got really lazy. Stir 'n Frost came with cake mix, frosting and even its own disposable baking pan. Just add water, stir, bake and frost. It remained a familiar pantry shortcut through much of the 80s before eventually disappearing from grocery shelves.
O'Grady's Potato Chips
O'Grady's weren't trying to be delicate. These Frito-Lay chips were extra thick, extra crunchy and came in flavors including Regular and the especially remembered Au Gratin. They became a genuine 80s favorite rather than some forgotten test product, then disappeared around the turn of the decade.
Frusen Glädjé
Before the premium ice-cream freezer became dominated by the names we know today, Frusen Glädjé was a serious contender. The deliberately Scandinavian-sounding brand arrived in 1980 and by 1985 held about 10% of the super-premium ice-cream market. Corporate changes followed, and the brand eventually disappeared during the early 90s.
Chef Boyardee Roller Coasters
Before every canned pasta needed to look like a superhero, Chef Boyardee had Roller Coasters. The pasta pieces were shaped like the twists and curves of an amusement park ride and came swimming in tomato sauce with little meatballs. They had been around since the 70s but finally took their last ride in the late 80s.
Nature Valley Peanut Butter Boppers
These weren't really granola bars. They were peanut-butter logs covered in crunchy coatings with names like Fudge Chip and Honey Crisp. Better yet, they were a genuine hit, grabbing about 9% of their market segment within their first 90 days. By 1989, though, the original Boppers were gone.
Nature Valley, Wikimedia Commons
7UP Gold
Regular 7UP was clear and lemon-lime. Then somebody apparently got bored. In 1988, 7UP Gold arrived as an amber-colored, caffeinated and spiced departure from the familiar soda. Shoppers never really figured out what Gold was supposed to be, and by 1989 the entire experiment was finished.
John Margolies, Wikimedia Commons
Swanson Duets
Microwave ovens were taking over American kitchens, and Swanson was ready. Duets arrived in 1986 with chicken nuggets stuffed with fillings such as pizza, ham and cheese, spinach and herb, and Mexican-style combinations. Bigger versions followed. Then, around 1990, the stuffed-nugget experiment quietly vanished from freezers.
Unknown author, Wikimedia Commons
Keebler Swirly-Q's
Swirly-Q's didn't need a cartoon character or strange gimmick. They were shortbread cookies with a thick swirl of chocolate running through them. Simple, recognizable and apparently still memorable enough that people complain about their disappearance decades later. Keebler discontinued them before the 90s arrived.
E.T. Cereal
Two years after E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial took over movie theaters, General Mills decided the little alien belonged at breakfast too. E.T. Cereal arrived in 1984 with peanut-butter-and-chocolate-flavored pieces shaped like E's and T's. For an 80s kid, it was almost impossible marketing to resist. But E.T.'s trip through the cereal aisle was short.
Pepperidge Farm Coffee Cakes
There was a time when Pepperidge Farm's freezer and bakery offerings went far beyond bread and cookies. Its coffee cakes came in flavors including apple streusel, blueberry crunch, butter pecan and cinnamon almond. They had been around for years, but sometime during the 80s those familiar cakes disappeared from shelves.
Pepsi Light
Before Diet Pepsi completely owned Pepsi's low-calorie identity, there was Pepsi Light, a cola with a noticeable lemon flavor. It actually began in the 70s but was still being sold in the first half of the 80s. Pepsi changed its diet-drink strategy, and by the middle of the decade Pepsi Light was being phased out.
PETEYTHEREF, Wikimedia Commons
Chef Boyardee Cosmic Kids
Chef Boyardee apparently decided ordinary pasta shapes weren't going to cut it in 1982. Cosmic Kids came shaped like little aliens, robots and flying saucers, with versions in tomato sauce, tomato sauce with meatballs and chicken-flavored sauce. The space-age lunch hung around for several years, then blasted out of grocery stores by the mid-80s.
Screenshot from Chef Boyardee Cosmic Kids, American Home Foods (1983)
Oreo Big Stuf
Someone at Nabisco looked at an Oreo and decided the problem was clearly that it wasn't enormous enough. Big Stuf turned the familiar cookie into an individually wrapped, roughly three-inch monster. It survived through the 80s, but not much longer. By 1991, Big Stuf was gone.
Campbell's Souper Combo
Campbell's took one of America's most ordinary lunches and turned it into an elaborate freezer-aisle product. Souper Combo paired frozen soup with things like grilled cheese, cheeseburgers and hot dogs, all designed for the microwave. The late-80s product generated plenty of attention before disappearing around 1991.
Nintendo Cereal System
Calling it "cereal" apparently wasn't futuristic enough. Ralston introduced the Nintendo Cereal System in 1988 with two separate bags inside one box: a fruity Super Mario Bros. cereal and a berry-flavored The Legend of Zelda cereal. Nintendo kept getting bigger. Its breakfast system didn't.
O'Boisies
Keebler wasn't always just cookies and crackers. O'Boisies were crunchy potato snacks with a distinctive bubbly texture and flavors including Original, Sour Cream and Onion, and Barbecue. Keebler's potato-snack business became significant enough to use an impressive amount of America's potato supply. Yet O'Boisies eventually vanished around the early 90s.
Hostess Pudding Pies
Hostess already knew people liked fruit pies, so in 1986 it replaced the fruit with chocolate or vanilla pudding. Hard to argue with the logic. Yet the original Pudding Pies lasted only about a year before Hostess pulled them in 1987, creating another snack people would spend decades asking about.
Michael M. Santiago, Getty Images
Apple Raisin Crisp
Not every 80s cereal was trying to turn a cartoon into breakfast. Kellogg's Apple Raisin Crisp arrived in the early 80s with dried apple, raisins and crunchy flakes, making it one of the more grown-up choices in the aisle. Adults apparently liked it, but around the beginning of the 90s it disappeared anyway.
Dooley's Filled Snacks
Dooley's were sort of like Combos if somebody had started with a potato snack instead of a pretzel. The crunchy shells came stuffed with fillings such as sour cream and onion and nacho cheese. They were popular enough to inspire some very loyal fans during their short 80s run, then disappeared from the snack aisle.
chee.hong from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Wikimedia Commons
Pepperidge Farm American Collection Desserts
In 1987, Pepperidge Farm filled freezer cases with single-serving desserts named after places across America. There was Mississippi Mud Pie, Boston Cream Pie, Manhattan Strawberry Cheesecake, Charleston Peach Melba Shortcake and more. It was an ambitious little freezer-section road trip, but the collection didn't survive much beyond the start of the 90s.
Josefine Linnea Jonsson, Wikimedia Commons
Rocky Road Cereal
General Mills apparently looked at rocky road ice cream and saw breakfast potential. Introduced in 1986, the cereal mixed chocolate and vanilla corn puffs with marshmallows and nuts. It even had its own little rock band of mascots. By 1989, however, the band had broken up and Rocky Road Cereal was gone.
stu_spivack, Wikimedia Commons
Hostess Choco-Bliss
Hostess apparently wondered how much chocolate could fit into one snack cake. Choco-Bliss debuted in 1986 with chocolate cake, chocolate creme and chocolate icing. By 1988, it had reportedly become one of Hostess' bestselling products. Somehow, that still wasn't enough to save it. Production ended in 1992.
Chef Boyardee Zooroni
Open a can of Zooroni and instead of ordinary pasta, you got little elephants, giraffes and other zoo animals floating in tomato sauce. Kids didn't need much more convincing than that. Zooroni was already on shelves entering the 80s, but by around 1982 the animals had escaped for good.
Screenshot from Chef Boyardee Zooroni, American Home Foods (1982)
Nestlé Alpine White
Nestlé launched Alpine White in 1986, combining white chocolate with almonds in a wrapper that made the candy bar seem unusually sophisticated. For several years, Alpine White was a familiar sight beside America's regular chocolate bars. It survived into the early 90s before Nestlé discontinued it in 1993.
Dunkin' Donuts Cereal
In 1988, Ralston turned Dunkin' Donuts into cereal, with tiny pieces inspired by glazed and chocolate doughnuts. It even featured Fred the Baker from Dunkin's famous commercials. Apparently there was a limit to how many forms people needed their doughnuts in. The cereal lasted only a short time.
Screenshot from Dunkin' Donuts Cereal, Post Consumer Brands (1988)
So...How Many Do You Remember?
5? 10? If you remembered 15 or more, congratulations. Apparently you weren't wandering behind the grocery cart asking when you could go home. You were taking inventory.
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