greatest thing since sliced bread

• best thing since sliced bread
• best thing since sliced pan (Ireland)

Adapted from the advertising slogan used in 1928 by the Chillicothe Baking Company (the first company to sell sliced bread), which was as follows:

The greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped.

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greatest thing since sliced bread

1. (idiomatic) Something amazing, outstanding or praiseworthy, especially a relatively recent invention likely to improve people's lives.
   • 1962 December 19, Jeanne Boardman, “Hints from Heloise”, in St. Joseph Missouri Gazette, page 5:

     This column is about the greatest thing since sliced bread.

   • 1978, Joe Girard, Stanley H. Brown, How to Sell Anything to Anybody, page 104:

     Because if he starts to write a check for the full amount and I say, “Take off $250”, or “I'll throw in door-guard trim and five steel radials for nothing”, Charley is going to think I am the greatest thing since sliced bread.

   • 2007, David S. Platt, Why Software Sucks: ...and What You Can Do About It, page 208:

     It was the greatest thing since sliced bread when it first came out, and I remember selling a big project to a customer by demonstrating it.

• greatest thing since sliced bread on Wikipedia.Wikipedia