Saunders' entrepreneurial genius was decades ahead of his time.
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Sadly, he passed away just as the full impact of his better idea for grocery merchandising was becoming apparent. Saunders had captured the country's attention with his latest venture, but mechanical failures eventually closed the store.Īt the time of his death in October 1953, Saunders was developing plans for yet another automated grocery store system he called the "Foodelectric." His new automated store, which was to be located just two blocks from his first Piggly Wiggly® store, never opened.Ĭlarence Saunders never fulfilled his dream of opening a truly automated store. In 1937 he designed and constructed a prototype of a new, automated grocery store, which he called the "Keedoozle" (for "Key Does All").
In fact, many of the conveniences and services that American shoppers now enjoy were introduced first by Piggly Wiggly®. Piggly Wiggly's introduction of self-service grocery shopping truly revolutionized the grocery industry. Someone once asked him why he had chosen such an unusual name for his organization, to which he replied, "So people will ask that very question." Regardless of his inspiration, he succeeded in finding a name that would be talked about and remembered. One story says that, while riding a train, he looked out his window and saw several little pigs struggling to get under a fence, which prompted him to think of the rhyme. Saunders' reason for choosing the intriguing name “Piggly Wiggly®” remains a mystery he was curiously reluctant to explain its origin.
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The stock was successfully traded on the New York Stock Exchange for some time, but through a series of trades in the early 1920s, Saunders lost control of Piggly Wiggly® and had no further association with the company.ĭespite Saunders’ departure, Piggly Wiggly Corporation continued to prosper as a franchiser for hundreds of independently owned grocery stores operating under the Piggly Wiggly® name. Piggly Wiggly Corporation became the owner of all Piggly Wiggly® properties - the name, the patents, etc., and Saunders began issuing company stock soon after. Piggly Wiggly Corporation, which Saunders established when he opened his first store in Memphis, secured the self-service format and issued franchises to hundreds of grocery retailers to operate their own Piggly Wiggly® stores. There were shopping baskets, open shelves, and no clerks to shop for the customer – all of which were previously unheard of! Operating under the unusual name ‘Piggly Wiggly®’, it was unlike any other contemporary grocery store. Saunders, a dynamic and innovative man, noticed that this method resulted in wasted time and expense, so he came up with an unheard-of solution that would revolutionize the entire grocery industry: he developed a way for shoppers to serve themselves.ĭespite predictions that his novel idea would fail, Saunders’ first store opened on Septemat 79 Jefferson Street in Memphis. In grocery stores of that time, shoppers presented their orders to clerks who then gathered the goods from the store shelves. Piggly Wiggly®, America's first true self-service grocery store, was founded in Memphis, Tennessee in 1916 by Clarence Saunders. Dollar Tree: Crawfordville - 44.3 milesĬlick for more St George Island store hours.Piggly Wiggly Stores: Bristol - 46.7 miles.Piggly Wiggly Stores: Apalachicola - 6.9 miles.
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