Photos of old grocery stores in Toronto make it quite plain how much more sanitized supermarkets have become.

While this tendency might not appear quite as stark it does when looking at old photos of the St. Lawrence Market, it's still intriguing to note the amount of butchering that went on in-house.

Also interesting to track is the sheer growth in size of these outfits. Loblaws and Sobeys (formerly Dominion and A & P), for instance, had quite humble beginnings as neighborhood grocery stores before expanding to cover the city with supercentres.

1900s

William Davies Store (Queen and Bay)

1910s

Meat Display (unidentified location)

First Loblaws, 511 Yonge St.

1920s

Brunswick Meat Market, Bloor St.

1930s

Scott's, Davenport and Dupont

Stop and Shop, Avenue Road and Dupont

Loblaws Warehouse, Bathurst and Fleet

On the Danforth

1940s

Dominion, Yonge and Bedford Park Rd.

Dominion, near Old City Hall (via Grocerymania on Flickr)

1950s

Dominion, Cloverdale Mall

Dominion, Cloverdale Mall

Dominion, Cloverdale Mall

Dominion, Cloverdale Mall

Dominion, Avenue Road (south of St. Clair)

Loblaws iced tea display

Loblaws, Bathurst and Glencairn

Power Supermarket (2055 Danforth Avenue, more info here)

Power Supermarket staff

Via jbcurio on Flickr

Via jbcurio on Flickr

1960s

Dominion, near Yonge and Eglinton

Steinberg's, Bathurst and Shepherd