What year was the movie set in?

Shelly's movie was intended to be a modern-day fairy story, which is why much of the film is deliberately unrealistic. It is a regrettable fact that most battered women do not receive a massive cheque the moment they elect to leave their control-freak husbands, and their erstwhile abusers will rarely vanish in a puff of smoke never to be seen again. On average two women in the UK are murdered every week by a partner or ex-partner - and I'm sure the figure in the gun-toting Deep South is a lot higher.

The State that the events in 'Waitress' unfold is never specified, and that, along with the mixture of technology, music and clothing is meant to convey a Once Upon A Time quality. What some people have perceived to be 'errors' and anachronisms are, in fact, quite intentional. This film is extremely naturalistic in it's setting and performances, but it was never, NEVER intended to be realistic slice-of-life from post-war America.