![]() “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.” Another option is branding, Piggly Wiggly writes: “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.’” “He was curiously reluctant to explain its origin,” Piggly Wiggly’s corporate history reports. “One day Memphis shall be proud of Piggly Wiggly… And it shall be said by all men… That the Piggly Wigglies shall multiply and replenish the earth with more and cleaner things to eat,” Saunders said a few months after the store’s opening, according to Freeman.Īs for the name, nobody knows. By the end of that first year there were nine Piggly Wiggly locations around Memphis. ![]() Shoppers on that first day did see some employees stocking shelves, Freeman writes, “but they politely refused to select merchandise for visitors.” Just like today, a shopper picked up a basket (though Piggly Wiggly’s were made of wood, not plastic) and went through the store to purchase everything. Saunders’s model cut costs by cutting out the clerks. Even chain stores used clerks.Īlthough the chain store model helped keep costs down, the University of Michigan Library writes, the “small army of clerks” necessary to fill orders were expensive, the university writes, and at least part of that cost was passed on to the consumer. Before Piggly Wiggly, groceries were sold at stores where a clerk would assemble your order for you, weighing out dry goods from large barrels. This enthusiastic greeting was necessary because Saunders was trying something completely new. A brass band serenaded the visitors in the lobby.” “Newspaper reporters posing as contest judges awarded five and ten dollar gold coins to every woman, while the supply lasted. “At the door Saunders shook their hands and gave to their children flowers and balloons,” Freeman writes. For the store’s opening ceremonies, writes Mike Freeman for the Tennessee Historical Quarterly, Saunders promised to hold a “beauty contest” that he advertised in local newspapers. But its founder Clarence Saunders was clearly onto something-today, self-service grocery stores are the norm. Its founding is one of the stranger stories in the history of retail. Today, the chain has more than 530 stores across 17 states, according to its website. On this day in 1916, the first Piggly Wiggly opened in Memphis, Tennessee. The one question is why their innovator named the first one Piggly Wiggly. -serve grocery stores saved shoppers money and made financial sense.1928 Polk’s Oakland, California City Directory.OMCA Collections: 40th Street at Piedmont Avenue Oakland Museum of California.Oakland History Center, Oakland Public Library College Avenue, looking north toward Shafter Ave. ![]() 1 1928 directory listi30th and Grove (MLK) 6Ĭirca 1927, Piggly Wiggly sponsored an amateur baseball team in Oakland. ![]() This is taken from the east side of the street at Lawton. The store with the "CIGARS" sign is now the bar Ye Old Hut. Also visible is the Uptown Theater, Campbell’s Shoes, and Tower’s Gift Shop with “Merry Christmas” banner over the street. Piggly Wiggly Store, College Avenue looking north toward Shafter Avenue in the Rockridge District, Oakland, California - 1930. “was one of the earliest grocery chains, established by Andrew Williams about 1921.” 2 Piggly Wiggly Pacific was purchased by Safeway Stores in 1928, and all existing Piggly Wigglies in Oakland were converted to Safeways by the mid-1930s - which helps explain why over 80 Safeway stores are listed in the 1941 Polk’s City Directory for Oakland. 3Īccording to OMCA Collections, Piggly Wiggly Pacific Co., Inc. One was on College Avenue in Rockridge another was at 3966 Piedmont Avenue. The 1928 Polk’s City Directory for Oakland lists fully 39 stores citywide (plus another 11 in Berkeley and 4 in Alameda). The Piggly Wiggly grocery-store chain was heavily represented in 1920s and 1930s Oakland. Note the "All Over the World" slogan on the sign, and the "We Double dog dare anyone to undersell this store" painted on the window. ![]()
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