Potatoes, white · per lb · 1939 Estimated
This figure may be significantly off. It is projected back 41 years from the first recorded price, using general inflation. Items do not track inflation evenly — groceries in particular were far more expensive relative to other goods before modern agriculture, so a figure this old can understate the real price by two-fold or more. Use it for a sense of scale, not as a historical price.
$0.15in June 1939 — about $3.52 in today's money.
- Price in 1939$0.15
- Same money today$3.52
- Estimated price today · projected from March 2020$3.20
- Change since 1939+2102%
Price history
Record & method
No price was recorded for 1939. This figure is estimated: we took the earliest observed price (January 1980) and moved it back along the category inflation curve — a back-cast of 41 years. The further back it reaches, the less it should be trusted. Treat it as an approximation, not a historical fact.
- Source
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics via FRED. Public domain.
- Series
- APU0000712406
- Estimated for
- June 1939
- Coverage
- January 1980 – March 2020
- Adjusted by
- CPIAUCNS · 13.8 → 333.952 (June 2026)
- Back-cast
- 41 years before the first record · very low confidence
- License
- Public domain