# Jewel Tea
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewel-tea/716496
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [April 1, 2015, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewel-tea/716496 "2015-04-01T14:23:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2015, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewel-tea/716496/1 "2015-04-01T14:23:35Z")
I just now spotted a UPS truck across the street and had a flashback to [The Jewel Tea Company](http://www.nalcc.org/jewelTeaCompany.php)and 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?
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2016, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewel-tea/716496/2 "2016-03-20T15:31:16Z")
Okay, so how about [Grit (newspaper) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grit_(newspaper))?
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### Author:  [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2016, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewel-tea/716496/3 "2016-03-20T16:12:34Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2016, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewel-tea/716496/4 "2016-03-20T16:19:56Z")
> [@Sattua](#):
>
> 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…
Tell us more about the company. I associate Schwann’s with a record catalog from the 1960s (or thereabouts).
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### Author:  [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2016, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewel-tea/716496/5 "2016-03-20T17:11:35Z")
I definitely remember the Jewel Tea man!
I also used [Schwann’s](http://www.schwans.com/) 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.
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### Author:  [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2016, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewel-tea/716496/6 "2016-03-20T17:14:07Z")
> [@Zeldar](#):
>
> Tell us more about the company. I associate Schwann’s with a record catalog from the 1960s (or thereabouts).
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.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2016, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewel-tea/716496/7 "2016-03-20T17:20:54Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2016, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewel-tea/716496/8 "2016-03-20T18:42:15Z")
[Schwann’s](http://www.schwans.com/)
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### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2016, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewel-tea/716496/9 "2016-03-20T23:13:32Z")
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.)
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### Author:  [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2016, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewel-tea/716496/10 "2016-03-22T17:54:32Z")
I remember them coming to my grandparent’s farm. Does anyone remember this [truck](http://www.jamespreller.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/389299134_8bfa4cd031.jpg)?
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### Author:  [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2016, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewel-tea/716496/11 "2016-03-22T22:19:58Z")
Yup. Jewel Tea came to our house. So did Omar Bread.
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### Author:  [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2016, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewel-tea/716496/12 "2016-03-22T23:53:07Z")
> [@Sattua](#):
>
> 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.
Schwann’s still comes around our neighborhood, though we’ve never used them.
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### Author:  [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2016, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewel-tea/716496/13 "2016-03-23T02:21:40Z")
> [@jasg](#):
>
> I remember them coming to my grandparent’s farm. Does anyone remember this [truck](http://www.jamespreller.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/389299134_8bfa4cd031.jpg)?
Yes, and the refillable potato chip can. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2016, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewel-tea/716496/14 "2016-03-23T13:09:17Z")
The only guy who came around to our house was the dry cleaner in his panel van dropping off/picking up my dads suits.
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### Author:  [@Fear\_the\_Turtle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_the_Turtle)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2016, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewel-tea/716496/15 "2016-03-23T20:36:15Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@bigsmitty1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bigsmitty1972)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2019, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewel-tea/716496/16 "2019-02-25T18:19:01Z")
> [@Zeldar](#):
>
> I just now spotted a UPS truck across the street and had a flashback to [The Jewel Tea Company](http://www.nalcc.org/jewelTeaCompany.php)and 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?
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.
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2019, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewel-tea/716496/17 "2019-02-25T20:02:10Z")
> [@bigsmitty1972](#):
>
> 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!
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2019, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewel-tea/716496/18 "2019-02-25T20:17:25Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2019, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewel-tea/716496/19 "2019-02-25T20:31:20Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> 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?
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2019, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewel-tea/716496/20 "2019-02-25T21:05:34Z")
> [@Zeldar](#):
>
> 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.
You’re welcome! Just plain old Wikipedia for the source:
> **[Jewel-Osco | Beginnings with home deliveries](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewel_(supermarket)#Beginnings_with_home_deliveries)**
>
> In 1899, Frank Vernon Skiff founded Jewel in Chicago as a door-to-door coffee delivery service. In 1902, Skiff partnered with his brother-in-law Frank P. Ross, renaming the venture the Jewel Tea Company. By 1903, they had six routes, then 12 routes in 1904 with expansion into Michigan City, Kankakee, and Kewanee. There were 850 routes by 1915. In the late 1900s, it ran a "coffee train" of 40 cars carrying coffee beans exported from South America.
> During WWI, the company faced soaring costs for m...
The article says:
> [@](#):
>
> In 1949, deliveries were provided on 1876 routes in 43 states to customers mostly in small towns while customers in cities could go to 154 company owned grocery stores.
>
> Later, the service expanded to include 350 grocery and 10,000 general merchandise items by 1981 when Jewel decided to sell its “Jewel Home Shopping Service” division to its employees and divest itself from its roots. At the time of the divesture, the division provided service to customers in mostly small towns located along 1000 routes in 42 states. The division became a 700-member owned cooperative called “J.T.'s General Store” in which each route sales persons were independent self-employed agents.
>
> In October 1994, a group of the company’s managers acquired the assets of “J.T.'s General Store” and “created J.T. Dealers Sales and Service”. By 1995, “J.T. Dealer Sales and Service” was providing service to 60,000 customers along 250 routes in 35 states.
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.
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