Why was Piggly Wiggly so important?

  • Patented Design

    In 1916, Clarence Saunders became the first person to successfully patent a self-service store design. 1,242, 879, October 1917.

  • Factory-Produced Interior

    The Piggly Wiggly factory in Jackson, Tennessee produced store interiors for grocers across the United States and in Canada. “Making Fixtures for Piggy Wiggly Stores,” The Wood Worker, March 1923.

  • Franchisees

    Piggly Wiggly franchisees made Piggly Wiggly the only self-service chain with a national distribution network before 1940. "Union Square, Hickory, N.C." Durwood Barbour Collection of North Carolina Postcards (P077), North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel Hill.

  • Advertising

    The Piggly Wiggly chain used newspaper and magazine advertising in innovative ways to sell self- service as a new shopping method. The chain became the most influential example of self-service retailing in the early twentieth century. Ladies Home Journal, June 1929.

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Piggly Wiggly originated in a segregated New South city.

Southern Origins

In an advertisement announcing the opening of a new Piggly Wiggly store at 165 Beale Street, a newspaper advertisement reassured African American customers in the neighborhood that Piggly Wiggly treated all customers equally. Memphis News Scimitar, June 17, 1918.

Piggly Wiggly store, 165 Beale Street, Memphis, Tennnessee. Memphis Public Library

Library of Congress

In a segregated city, where Black customers were used to waiting for White customers to be served first, the racially integrated Piggly Wiggly checkout line was an equalizing experience. The radical equality of the checkout line seems incompatible with racial segregation. One of the questions I explore in Beyond Piggly Wiggly is: why was self-service store experimentation so popular in the segregated South?

In rituals like the Piggly Wiggly Beauty Contest, Clarence Saunders present self-service as an appropriate activity for White women. The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, September 7, 1916.

Piggly Wiggly Blues

Piggly Wiggly became a popular culture icon of the 1920s for diverse audiences. Sinclair Lewis used it as a symbol of White middle class respectability in his novel, Babbitt, while African American blues singers brought new meaning to the idea of serving yourself in the song, Piggly Wiggly Blues.