# 1lb Salt 18 Cents, How Old? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 3, 2015, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1lb-salt-18-cents-how-old/711752 "2015-02-03T19:53:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![richw211](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@richw211](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/richw211)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2015, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1lb-salt-18-cents-how-old/711752/1 "2015-02-03T19:53:57Z")
I was clearing out a family member’s kitchen last month and after I was done I took the non-opened, non-expired items to the local food bank. As I was handing one of the boxes to the volunteer, I noticed that the price stamped on a 1 pound cylindrical cardboard container of Morton table salt was 18 cents (no expiration date). When I shook the container, the salt sounded fine - no clumps. I pointed the price out to the volunteer and he indicated that there are people inside that go over everything closely, so not to worry. Does anyone have an estimate of when 1lb of salt cost 18 cents? ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2015, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1lb-salt-18-cents-how-old/711752/2 "2015-02-03T22:25:38Z")
Are you sure it’s a 1-lb cylinder? The standard size is 26-oz. Assuming it’s a 26-oz container, which is something like [$1.25 now, $0.18 would be about 1968](http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=1.25&year1=2014&year2=1968). That assumes also the price of salt has been following inflation. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2015, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1lb-salt-18-cents-how-old/711752/3 "2015-02-03T23:03:48Z")
I just bought a kilogram of salt a couple of weeks ago and I’m sure I paid 99 cents CDN for the kilo. That’s about 35 cents US per pound which would have been 18 cents circa 1989. YMMV ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1lb-salt-18-cents-how-old/711752/4 "2015-02-04T02:34:26Z")
1958=12 cents for the 26 oz size. 1968=12 cents 1976=19 cents 1978=21 cents From grocery ads. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1lb-salt-18-cents-how-old/711752/5 "2015-02-04T02:48:07Z")
Whatever the date you bought it, the salt itself is likely millions of years old, so I wouldn’t worry about it. ---
**Author:** ![No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_umlaut_for_U)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1lb-salt-18-cents-how-old/711752/6 "2015-02-04T03:40:50Z")
I would say ca. 1979 at Aldis or similar. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1lb-salt-18-cents-how-old/711752/7 "2015-02-04T04:30:02Z")
Here’s their logo history. The logo was changed in 1968 and 2014. [http://www.mortonsalt.com/our-history/history-of-the-morton-salt-girl](http://www.mortonsalt.com/our-history/history-of-the-morton-salt-girl) ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1lb-salt-18-cents-how-old/711752/8 "2015-02-04T22:37:16Z")
:slight hijack: Aldi always had the best deal on ice-melting salt. Until this year, when they stopped carrying it. I asked the store and they told us the headquarters just didn’t send it this year. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2015, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1lb-salt-18-cents-how-old/711752/9 "2015-02-05T02:48:51Z")
I threw out my old salt supply in 2008. It had a .18 on it as well. I would have bought that c 1980 in the SF bay area (I moved 3 times in 2 years - don’t remember where I picked it up).