On 7 July 1928, a full-page newspaper ad announced the first presliced loaf of bread. It included instructions: 1) âOpen wrapper at one endâ; 2) âPull out pinâ; 3) âRemove as many slices as desired.â At the time, as everyone knew, cut bread quickly went stale. Anticipating consumersâ fears, Otto Rohwedder, a Missouri-based inventor, inserted a U-shaped pin at both ends of his presliced loaf to hold the bread together inside the resealable bag, creating an illusion of wholeness that signified freshness.
Rohwedder was careful to take his customers into account in other ways as well, interviewing women to find out exactly what they wanted, down to their preferred slice thickness (half an inch). Then he teamed up with a baker named Frank Bench who supplied â literally and figuratively â the dough. The product they created became a runaway hit. By 1930, sliced bread had spread to almost every town in America.
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