🍞 July 7, 1928 – Sliced Bread Hits Store Shelves

“The greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped” – that’s how a Missouri newspaper hailed the debut of sliced bread on this day. The Chillicothe Baking Company in Missouri became the first to sell loaves pre-sliced by machine, using inventor Otto Rohwedder’s new slicer/wrapper device. Customers, long used to laboring with bread knives at home, were astonished by the convenience. Within days, local demand surged, and within a few years sliced bread became a household standard across America, giving rise to the famous idiom “the best thing since sliced bread.”

Initially, some bakeries were skeptical that sliced loaves would stay fresh (or that consumers wanted pre-cut bread at all). Those doubts quickly vanished as sales skyrocketed – one national bread brand reported a 2000% increase after introducing sliced bread. By 1930, even Wonder Bread was marketing sliced white loaves nationally. The innovation also boosted sales of spreads like jams and peanut butter, since sandwiches were easier than ever. Sliced bread’s immediate success in 1928 stands as a classic example of a small convenience dramatically changing everyday life.

Interesting Fact: The popular phrase “greatest thing since sliced bread” isn’t just a saying – it originated from sliced bread’s own advertising. The first ads in 1928 proudly proclaimed sliced bread as the greatest step forward in baking, and the slogan stuck in the public imagination.