Have you ever wondered how modern grocery stores came into existence? It had to start somewhere, and that somewhere was in Memphis, Tennessee.

We have the Piggly Wiggly chain to thank for shopping baskets, price tags, and prepackaged goods because the chain was the blueprint for today’s supermarkets. Founder Clarence Saunders was a man of many ideas, and he wanted to revolutionize the way people shopped for groceries.

When Saunders was young, he moved to Tennessee and started working in the grocery business, first at a wholesale house, and then as a salesman. Back in those days, there were lots of middlemen involved in getting groceries to the customer.

One of those middlemen was the store clerk who would fetch the items for a customer’s order. That would often include weighing items like sugar and flour before bagging them up. With so many steps, Saunders thought about ways to make things more efficient, and that’s how he came up with the concept of a self-service grocery store.

In 1916, he had a huge grand opening for the first Piggly Wiggly store in Memphis. It was reported that over one thousand people showed up as Saunders greeted everyone with a band, flowers for the women, and balloons for the kids. He even advertised for a beauty contest and had members of the press act as judges.

That day in September 1916 forever changed the way people shopped for groceries. Instead of clerks hustling to put orders together, shoppers grabbed baskets and made their way up and down one-way aisles, grabbing what they wanted themselves. Sugar was prepacked, products were labeled by brand and price, and customers received a printed receipt.

It was such a success that by 1923, Saunders had opened more than 1,200 Piggy Wiggly locations and was the country’s third largest grocer. A series of patents helped him turn his idea into a franchise and eventually, he sold public stock on the New York Stock Exchange.

Sadly, that is how Saunders lost his fortune during the Great Depression. That didn’t stop him from continuing to start new ventures in the grocery business, and he found success with some, and misfortune with others.

Today, you can find Piggly Wiggly stores in the South and Midwest, though there are little more than 500 in operation. But you will find more than enough pieces of Saunders’s legacy in Piggly Wiggly and other stores; he is credited with things like impulse buys at the register – candy candy candy – and uniformed employees.

Betcha didn’t know about the rich history of Piggly Wiggly, did you? One thing is still shrouded in mystery: the origin of the store’s name. A couple of theories have floated around, but you’ll have to watch to clip below to hear them.

The next time you roll through a neighborhood with a Piggly Wiggly in it, you may want to drop in just for the sake of American nostalgia.

Have you ever heard of Piggly Wiggly and do you shop there? Did you know about Clarence Saunders (or his Pink Palace)? What are your thoughts on how grocery shopping has evolved?

Sources:
Tennessee Encyclopedia
Time