By Maggie Blackwell

The Pender’s corner became a meeting place in the late 1930s because everybody had to go to buy groceries almost daily. Cars that could help housewives get the groceries home weren’t plentiful, so there was a family grocery store on almost every corner, says Norris Dearmon, well-known Kannapolis historian. This picture was made on the corner of South Main and A Street about 1938 or 1939.
Supermarkets didn’t begin to show up until after World War II. Grocery shoppers in the 1930s still had to ask clerks behind the counter to give them what they’d come for. There were no buggies. But things were changing. The family grocery stores soon began to disappear. The building which housed Pender’s in this picture was torn down to widen A Street.
For Looking Back information or to submit a picure, contact Joanie Morris at 704-932-3336 or jmorris@kannapoliscitizen, Rose Post at 704-797-4251 or rpost@salisburypost.com, or Norris Dearmon at 704-933-9314.