Some grocery staples are so familiar that their origins feel lost, yet each has a documented start. Between 1912 and 1937, American shelves gained a run of products that are still sold today, from the Oreo cookie to Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.
Here are 6 of them, with the dates and details that official company pages and reference entries record.
The 6 classics at a glance
- Oreo, 1912: first sold on March 6, 1912, to a grocer in Hoboken, New Jersey.
- Marshmallow Fluff, 1917: reached shelves as Toot Sweet Marshmallow Fluff.
- MoonPie, 1917: created by Chattanooga Bakery.
- Velveeta, 1918: developed by cheesemaker Emil Frey in Monroe, New York.
- Wonder Bread, 1921: launched May 21, 1921, in Indianapolis.
- Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, 1936 and 1937: marketed in many states in 1936 and in Canada in late 1937.
Cookies and sweet snacks, 1912 to 1917
The Oreo came first. According to Wikipedia’s Oreo entry, the first one was sold on March 6, 1912, to a grocer in Hoboken, New Jersey. The National Biscuit Company, now Nabisco, developed it at its Chelsea factory in New York City, and the name was trademarked on March 14, 1912.
The original was called the Oreo Biscuit and sold for 25 cents a pound, in novelty metal canisters with clear glass tops. A lemon crème version arrived in 1920 and was discontinued in 1924, and Double Stuf followed in 1974. The entry estimates that more than 450 billion Oreos were sold worldwide from 1912 through 2012.
Marshmallow Fluff followed in 1917. Wikipedia’s entry on marshmallow creme says Archibald Query of Somerville, Massachusetts, sold his version door to door before selling the recipe to candy makers H. Allen Durkee and Fred Mower for $500. It first reached shelves in cans as Toot Sweet Marshmallow Fluff in 1917, and the first two words were dropped in the 1940s when the packaging became a glass jar.
The fluffernutter sandwich debuted in Massachusetts in 1918, a year after the spread arrived. Somerville still holds an annual What the Fluff? festival in Union Square.
The MoonPie arrived the same year. The company’s own history page says Chattanooga Bakery created it in 1917, after a Kentucky coal miner asked a traveling salesman for a snack “as big as the moon.” Earl Mitchell reported the request back to the bakery, which then made the treat. Each cost 5 cents, the page says, and the bakery at the time produced over 100 items.
Nostalgia and the family pantry
Many of these snacks were part of childhood for earlier generations. Readers who like that kind of look back can browse 15 foods boomers loved or favorite Saturday morning cartoon classics, and a guide to clever frugal living tips shows how stretching a grocery budget never goes out of style.
Pantry habits are a popular subject. A piece on turning the grocery list into a handwritten habit and another on people who eat the same lunch every day look at the routines behind everyday shopping and eating.
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Cheese and bread, 1918 to 1937
Velveeta dates to 1918. Wikipedia’s Velveeta entry says Emil Frey of the Monroe Cheese Company in Monroe, New York, developed it by blending cheese byproducts with broken cheese pieces, and the name was meant to suggest “velvety smooth.” Frey incorporated the Velveeta company on February 14, 1923, and Kraft Foods bought it in 1927. The product was reformulated as a “cheese spread” in 1953, and it is now sold as a “pasteurized prepared cheese product.”
Wonder Bread launched on May 21, 1921. The Wonder Bread site says consumers were teased that “Wonder” was coming, and the bread arrived that day in Indianapolis. Elmer Cline named it after the “wonder” of seeing hundreds of hot air balloons gliding across the sky at the International Balloon Race at the Indianapolis Speedway.
Wikipedia adds that Continental Baking Company bought Taggart Baking in 1925, which made Wonder a national brand. Continental sold sliced Wonder nationwide in the 1930s, one of the first companies to do so. Flowers Foods acquired the brand in 2013, completing the deal on July 22, 2013.
Kraft Macaroni and Cheese
The last on the list is the boxed dinner. Wikipedia’s entry on Kraft Dinner says it was first marketed in many states in 1936, with Canadian marketing beginning in late 1937. The 1936 box sold for 15 cents, with the slogan “grated cheese and macaroni, dinner for four in nine minutes.”
The entry credits St. Louis salesman Grant Leslie, who attached grated cheese to pasta boxes with a rubber band during the Great Depression. It also notes that James Lewis Kraft won a 1916 patent for a processed cheese method that made shelf-stable products like this possible.
The product grew during the Second World War. Wikipedia says milk and dairy rationing, more meatless meals and more women working outside the home increased demand, that one food ration stamp bought two boxes and that 50 million boxes sold during the war.
In Canada the product is Kraft Dinner, known as KD, while in the United States it is Kraft Mac and Cheese. The entry says the American version kept “Dinner” in small print until a 2022 rebrand.
What the list shows
All 6 products have changed since they launched. The Oreo has added flavors and sizes, Velveeta was reformulated, Fluff moved into a jar, and mac and cheese is sold under different names in different countries. What stayed the same is the shelf space, since all 6 are still on grocery shelves today.
The MoonPie shows the scale. The company says it now produces about a million a day, and that factory workers were already boxing hundreds each day in 1929.
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
