I just now spotted a UPS truck across the street and had a flashback to The Jewel Tea Companyand how every so often the guy would come to our place and my mother would order all sorts of stuff from him. It was much later that I became aware of Avon and other such door-to-door sales. Later still it was Amway and no telling what all other scams and ripoffs.
Anybody else remember those folks? Got any fun stories to tell about them?
Okay, so how about Grit (newspaper) - Wikipedia?
The only door-to-door salesman I was aware of us a child was the Schwann’s man. My grandmother bought a lot from him.
I was the latchkey kid of two working parents, so there might have been door-to-door salesmen in our neighborhood, but we never saw them.
I never met an Avon Lady until I went to college, where lots of girls sold Avon in the dorms.
Tell us more about the company. I associate Schwann’s with a record catalog from the 1960s (or thereabouts).
I definitely remember the Jewel Tea man!
I also used Schwann’s when we lived in the country. Excellent products. In that small town, people would leave their list in the kitchen, the back door unlocked, and he’d come in and put the stuff in their freezers. He always had a supply of dog biscuits, so the dogs loved it when his truck came up the driveway. The guy made a fortune; our Schwann’s man retired at 37.
Oh, sorry. I assumed it was so common everyone would know it and be bored with it 
It was a frozen food company. I think you generally had to make an order with the guy at one visit, and he would deliver it to you at his next. Grandma wasn’t much of a cook, so she bought a lot of Schwann’s frozen foods, but what I remember most were the orange push-pops. I don’t know if “Dreamsicle” was a Schwann’s product or not, but that’s what they were.
Visits to grandma over the summer–in the evening we would eat dinner with Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy on in the background, the windows open, cicadas screeching in the trees, and afterward we’d all sit in the dark watching Mystery and eating Schwann’s orange push-pops.
My mom still orders from Schwann’s. My nieces like the chicken nuggets and mom likes their scones. There’s a Schwann’s truck that comes through my neighborhood sometimes but I’m never home when he comes around.
Ooh! I remember the Jewel Tea man and his sample basket. He used to come around every couple of months and Mom would sit down and talk with him and order stuff. (Mid-70s, so I was around 5 or 6.)
I remember them coming to my grandparent’s farm. Does anyone remember this truck?
Yup. Jewel Tea came to our house. So did Omar Bread.
Schwann’s still comes around our neighborhood, though we’ve never used them.
Yes, and the refillable potato chip can. 
The only guy who came around to our house was the dry cleaner in his panel van dropping off/picking up my dads suits.
I remember him well, because my dad was one (a Jewel Tea Delivery Man)! They changed their name from Jewel Tea to just Jewel when I was a wee lad - so I only really know it by that name. But dad always called it Jewel Tea because he had known it for so long that way.
I know this is an old thread, but i was searching for info on Jewel Tea and this post popped up. I noticed you are also from TN - what part?
My Grandfather was one of the last Jewel Tea men from middle Tennessee. He went door to door for almost 60 years selling anything you could think of.
Cool to see this thread back in action – after a good rest! Brings back some fun memories!
I’m in Middle Tennessee, but the memories of Jewel are from Central Alabama in the 1950s. Best I can recall, Mama did a fair amount of shopping with Jewel but I forget how often he came around. There’s at least one other sales type from that era but I 'm not clear in my memory of what company he was with. Similar offerings, though.
The town we were in had to rely on that type of shopping since the downtown stores were pretty plain vanilla, and it was much easier for the main shopper (Mama) to “have the store come to us.”
That is really cool about your Granddad! Tell us more!
I knew that the Chicago-based Jewel grocery store chain was somehow related to Jewel Tea, but I wasn’t sure of the details, so I looked it up.
It appears that, up until the early 1980s, they were one and the same company, but at that point, Jewel decided to get out of the home delivery business. They spun the delivery part of the business off to its employees, and it became known as “J.T.'s General Store.”
The Jewel grocery chain is still here in Chicago, though it’s gone through repeated ownership changes. I have no idea if the home delivery service company is still around.
Nice details, there. Thanks for the lookup. Any idea on who their main competitors were? And how far afield they operated? A link to your source might be fun, too.
Upthread there’s mention of Omar Bread. Might it have been like Merita? That was the main sponsor of the radio version of The Lone Ranger show in my area. They offered all sorts of prizes and stuff you could “save up and send off and get.”
This is getting to be a Nostalgia Trip. eh?
You’re welcome! Just plain old Wikipedia for the source:
The article says:
I can’t easily find (via googling) a current company operating under either of those J.T. names, which suggests to me that it either changed names entirely, or (probably more likely) went out of business entirely sometime after 1995.
I’m really only familiar with the company due to living in Chicago, and shopping at their grocery stores. I only ever learned of their former delivery business a few years ago, and know next to nothing about it.
