Piggly Wiggly

infobox company
name = Piggly Wiggly
type = Private
location = Keene, NH

slogan = "Piggly Wiggly feeds your life."
foundation = Memphis, Tennessee in 1916

Piggly Wiggly is a supermarket chain operating in the Midwestern and Southern regions of the United States, run by Piggly Wiggly Corporation. The current company headquarters is in Keene, New Hampshire.

Piggly Wiggly was founded in 1916, in Memphis, Tennessee, by the American entrepreneur Clarence Saunders. It was the first true self-service grocery store, a concept patented by Saunders in 1917. Because customers could choose their products directly, packaging and brand recognition became very important. Other grocers soon adopted the self-service format. At its peak, the company was operating 2,660 stores and posting sales of $180 million a year. However in the 1920s, the company was taken over and its stores subsequently were divested and sold to various other regional grocery companies. Presently, more than 600 independently owned Piggly Wiggly stores operate in 17 states from Wisconsin to Florida, primarily in smaller cities and towns throughout the region.

History

Piggly Wiggly was the first true self-service grocery store. [cite web | title =See you at the Piggly Wiggly | publisher =Pink Palace Family of Museums | url =http://www.memphismuseums.org/piggly%20wiggly.htm | accessdate =2007-10-22] 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, a mansion that Saunders initially built as his private residence but 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. Without self-service, modern branded packaged goods, as we know them, would not exist.

Piggly Wiggly was the first to
*provide checkout stands.
*price mark every item in the store.
*feature a full line of nationally advertised brands.
*use refrigerated cases to keep produce fresher longer.
*put employees in uniforms for cleaner, more sanitary food handling.
*design and use patented fixtures and equipment throughout the store.
*give shoppers more for their food dollar through high volume/low profit margin retailing.
*franchise independent grocers to operate under the self-service method of food merchandising.

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, the company operated 2,660 stores and posted annual sales in excess of $180 million. In the 1920s, however Saunders lost control of his company in a famous Wall Street raid, and the company was soon carved up by Merrill Lynch and sold off to regional grocery chains, including Kroger, Safeway, National Tea, and Colonialdn. [Lebhar, Godfrey M. (1959) "Chain Stores in America 1859-1959", Colonial Press: 31.]

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. [cite web | title =Piggly Wiggly: About Us | publisher =Piggly Wiggly LLC | url =http://www.pigglywiggly.com/cgi-bin/customize?aboutus.html | accessdate =2007-10-22]

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 a visit to a Piggly Wiggly store to develop its Toyota Production System (TPS), a philosophy by which the company organizes its manufacturing and logistics, including its interactions with suppliers and customers.

Present company

There are presently more than 600 independently owned and operated stores in 17 states. The company headquarters are located in Keene, New Hampshire. [cite web | title =Piggly Wiggly: About Us | publisher =Piggly Wiggly LLC | url =http://www.pigglywiggly.com/cgi-bin/customize?aboutus.html | accessdate =2007-10-22]

Some of the stores have formed a retailers' cooperative to manage distribution, while using the Piggly Wiggly name (e.g., [http://www.pwadc.com/rpms/ Piggly Wiggly Alabama Distributing Company] ). Piggly Wiggly stores are found predominantly in medium- to smaller-sized cities and towns and remain a fixture in many rural communities. In many of the larger cities and the more metropolitan areas within the company's territory (especially in the faster growing regions), competitive national grocery chains have built larger supermarkets with greater variety and selection than Piggly Wiggly, targeting a more upscale clientele. This action has forced the closure of many former Piggly Wiggly stores and has given the chain a reputation in many areas as having lower quality products, a limited selection, older run-down stores, and in some cases higher prices than the competition. In response, Piggly Wiggly has developed a loyalty card discount membership program similar to many other national merchants.

See also

* Houchens Industries
* Toyota Production System

References

* US patent|1242872 - "Self-serving store" -- C. Saunders

Notes

External links

* [http://www.pigglywiggly.com/ Official website]
* [http://www.memphismuseums.org/piggly%20wiggly.htm Pink Palace Museum exhibit]
* [http://www.shopthepig.com/ Fresh Brands, Inc. home page (Piggly Wiggly franchisee in Wisconsin and Illinois; based in Sheboygan, Wisconsin)]