Ice delivery was a seasonal business, and when the season was summer, prices had a way of going up. This iceman’s employer, Consumers Co., controlled 60 percent of Chicago’s ice business in June 1918, five years after this photo was taken, when the state’s attorney’s office accused the city’s big suppliers of price fixing. Federal officials stepped in and worked out a price structure.
– Retail price of 100 pounds of ice, enough for a week or two in the average household, in 1918: 48 cents.
– Average weekly pay of a Chicago iceman in 1920: $39.
– Price of a Frigidaire household refrigerator in 1920: $1,000.
– Price of a Sub-Zero 48-inch side-by-side refrigerator-freezer at Abt Electronics in 2001: $6,789.
— Sources: Tribune files, Abt Electronics, memagazine.org.
