Piggly Wiggly is a supermarket chain operating in the Midwestern and Southern
regions of the United States, run by Piggly Wiggly, LLC, an affiliate of C&S
Wholesale Grocers. Its first outlet opened in 1916 in Memphis, Tennessee,
which is notable for having been the first true self-service grocery store,
and the originator of various familiar supermarket features such as checkout
stands, individual item price marking and shopping carts. The current company
headquarters is in Keene, New Hampshire. Currently, more than 600 independently
owned Piggly Wiggly stores operate in 17 states, primarily in smaller cities and
towns. History
Piggly Wiggly was the first true self-service grocery store. It was
founded on September 6, 1916, at 79 Jefferson Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee,
by Clarence Saunders. A replica of the original store has been constructed in
the Memphis Pink Palace Museum and Planetarium, a mansion that Saunders
built as his private residence, and was later sold to the city.
Piggly Wiggly Corporation secured the self-service format and issued
franchises to hundreds of grocery retailers for the operation of its
stores. The concept of the "self-serving store" was patented by Saunders in 1917.
Customers at Piggly Wiggly entered the store through a turnstile and walked
through four aisles to view the store’s 605 items sold in packages and organized
into departments. The customers selected merchandise as they continued through
the maze to the cashier. Instantly, packaging and brand recognition became
important to companies and consumers. Piggly Wiggly was the first to:
provide checkout stands. price mark every item in the store.
provide shopping carts for customers, starting in the year 1937 in Oklahoma.
The success of Piggly Wiggly was phenomenal, so much so that other
independent and chain grocery stores changed to self-service in the 1920s and
1930s. At its peak in 1932, the company operated 2,660 stores and posted annual
sales in excess of $180 million. In November 1922, Saunders attempted a
squeeze on the substantial short interest in the stock, running the share
price up from 40 to 120 and profiting by millions on paper. The Stock Exchange
Governors responded by deciding that a corner had been established in Piggly
Wiggly and removed the stock from the Board eventually forcing Saunders to
turn over his assets to the banks that had financed his leveraged position.
Saunders reputedly lost nine million dollars in the attempted corner.
Following these events, the company was divided into strategic units and sold to
regional grocery chains, including Kroger, Safeway, National Tea, and
Colonial. In 1935 all 179 Canadian Piggly Wiggly were also sold to Canada
Safeway, which merged with Sobeys in 2013.
After losing control of Piggly Wiggly, Saunders had no further association with
the company although he remained interested in the concept of automated
shopping which he experimented with initially with the Keedoozle store until
his death in 1953. The smaller Piggly Wiggly Corporation
continued to prosper as franchiser for the hundreds of independently owned
grocery stores licensed to do business under the Piggly Wiggly name. During the
decades following the 1920s divestment, the company has operated successfully
under a variety of owners. Management of the Toyota Corporation
were inspired by Piggly Wiggly's Just-in-time inventory strategy and used
this model to develop its Toyota Production System, a philosophy by which
the company organizes its manufacturing and logistics, including its
interactions with suppliers and customers.
= Name= According to the Piggly Wiggly website,
Saunders was "reluctant" to explain the origin of the company's name. There are
two theories: 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. 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."
Present company Fleming Companies bought Benson
Wholesale, the owner of the Piggly Wiggly name, in 1978. Fleming filed for
bankruptcy in 2003, and C&S Wholesale Grocers acquired most of the business,
including Piggly Wiggly. There are presently more than 600
independently owned and operated stores in 17 states. The company headquarters
are located in Keene, New Hampshire. Some of the stores have formed a
retailers' cooperative to manage distribution, while using the Piggly
Wiggly name. Piggly Wiggly stores are found predominantly in medium to smaller
size cities, and remain a fixture in many rural communities. In many of the
larger cities and more metropolitan areas within the company's territory,
competitive national grocery chains have built larger supermarkets with greater
variety and selection than Piggly Wiggly, targeting a more upscale
clientele. In response, Piggly Wiggly has developed a loyalty card discount
membership program similar to many other national merchants.
References in popular culture A Piggly Wiggly store is featured in the
1989 movie Driving Miss Daisy. In the 2000 movie O Brother, Where Art
Thou?, Delmar O'Donnel declares that all his sins have been washed away,
including the Piggly Wiggly he knocked over in Yazoo.
American rock band Green on Red referenced the Piggly Wiggly brand in
the lyrics to their song "Zombie for Love", from their 1988 album Here Come
the Snakes. In the 2001 film Pootie Tang, the main
character has a magical belt that his father bought at a Piggly Wiggly for 95
cents. See also
Supermarkets in the United States Houchens Industries
References External links
Official website North Carolina Stores
Pink Palace Museum exhibit Piggly Wiggly Midwest, home page