04. June 2023

This ca. 1925 passbook for the provision store Dombey & Son from our collection, is the equivalent to the “order history” tab of modern ecommerce or grocery delivery apps. A unique glimpse at how advanced retail was in Shanghai already back then. Dombey & Son was a high-class grocery store established in 1899 and the location on 143 Bubbling Well Rd (today’s Nanjing West Rd) existed since at least 1909. As Shanghai grew into an international metropolis the address was renumbered...

05. March 2023

Do Chinese people eat cornflakes for breakfast? It turns out, it is as difficult to chew on this question today, as it was in the 1920s. Discover the century-long struggle of Kellogg's in cracking the Chinese market and where the company and its former partners stand today.

14. June 2021

Taken from the book "Food Facts" published by The Shanghai Times. J.A. Folger & Co. was established 1850 in San Francisco as Wm. H. Bovee & Co and was the first coffee brand to offer roasted and ground coffee ready for brewing. Procter & Gamble acquired Folger's in 1963 and during that time became the number one coffee brand in America. The "Agent for China", Getz Bros. mentioned in the ad was also founded in the 1850s in California by Joseph and Max Getz. By the 1870s, the brothers...

31. May 2021

Another unique little piece of commercial and economic history during the Shanghai foreign concessions "Solitary Island" period - still managed by the Shanghai Municipal Council and the French authorities respectively, but surrounded by Japanese military forces. Supply from the Shanghai hinterlands was heavily restricted by the Japanese and left the concession's population with mostly overseas imported goods at increasingly high prices: In fact from 1939 to 1941 prices practically doubled as...

17. January 2020

Gail Borden invented the process to create condensed milk in 1853. Nestlé licenced the product and in 1874 "EAGLE Sweetened Condensed Milk by assignment of the Borden company", was the first brand ever to be trademarked and sold in China by Nestlé. A Nestlé sales office was later opened in Shanghai in 1908.

15. October 2019

Quaker Oats was founded in 1877 and has been active in China since the early 20th century. In 2001 the company was bought by PepsiCo and in 2015 opened it's first local manufacturing facility in Beijing.