The opening of the first supermarket in the world:
Memphis, Tennessee (USA) - September 6, 1916
Clarence Saunders (August 9, 1881 – September 23, 1953):
the pioneer of the supermarket
by Franco A. Fava
University of Turin (Italy)
«The history of the supermarkets is also the story of how they have
changed our lifestyle» FFA
A happy birthday to the first supermaret in the world
David F. Miller Center for Retailing Education and Research
- University of Florida - Gainesville (USA)
«The supermarkets sell not only goods, but they establish
social relations between producers and consumers »
Franco A. Fava
Always trade has followed the evolution of society, even in the case of supermarkets
social changes have evolved in the course of the twentieth century thanks to the
evolution of the trade, first with the department store of the nineteenth century and
then with supermarkets.
In supermarkets for the first time different social classes before attending several shops
they did not meet in that place but it was possible to get together. The supermarket
before it was a place of a commercial revolution has been the engine of a social
revolution. I consume therefore I am.
Contemporary trade was also a vehicle for democracy, everyone was free to dream new
consumption to improve their lives.
Food and goods at fixed prices and free access: a revolution comparable to vote for all.
Shopping is not only an act of necessity, but also the opportunity to realize their own
freedom of choice. Being free from the needs is one of the objectives of democracy.
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 plaque recalls the first supermarket in
Memphis at 79 Jefferson Avenue
Clarence Saunders (August 9, 1881 – September 23,
1953) was an American grocer who first
developed the modern retail sales model of self
service. His ideas have had a massive influence on
the development of the modern supermarket.
Clarence Saunders worked for most of his life
trying to develop a truly automated store,
developing Piggly Wiggly, Keedoozle, and
Foodelectric store concepts.
Born in Virginia, Saunders left school at 14 to clerk in a general store.
Later he worked in an Alabama coke plant and in a Tennessee sawmill
before he returned to the grocery business. By 1900, when he was
nineteen years old, he was earning $30 a month as a salesman for a
wholesale grocer. In 1902 he moved to Memphis where he formed a
grocery wholesale cooperative. Through his experiences he became
convinced that many small grocers failed because of heavy credit losses
and high overhead. Consequently in 1915 he organized the Saunders
Blackburn Co., a grocery wholesaler which sold for cash only and
encouraged its retail customers to do the same.
After leaving Clarksville, Tennessee, on
September 6, 1916, Saunders launched the selfservice revolution in the United States by
opening the first self-service Piggly Wiggly store,
at 79 Jefferson Street in Memphis, Tennessee,
with its characteristic turnstile at the entrance.
Customers selected goods for themselves
from the shelves and paid cash.
The original Piggly Wiggly Store, Memphis, Tennessee
The store incorporated shopping baskets, self-service branded
products, and checkouts at the front. Removing unnecessary clerks,
creating elaborate aisle displays, and rearranging the store to force
customers to view all of
the merchandise were just
some of the characteristics
of the early Piggly Wiggly
stores. The concept of the
"Self-Serving Store" was
patented by Saunders in
1917.
Though this format of
grocery market was
drastically different from
its competitors, the style became the standard for the modern grocery
store and later supermarket. By 1922, six years after opening the first
store, Piggly Wiggly had grown into 1,200 stores in 29 states. By 1932,
the chain had grown to 2,660 stores doing over $180 million annually.
Piggly Wiggly stores were both owned by the firm and franchised.
The success of Piggly Wiggly encouraged a raft of
imitators, including Handy Andy stores, Helpy Selfy stores,
Mick-or-Mack stores and Jitney Jungle, all of which
operated under patented systems.
Find everything you need for feeding in the same place
Innovation of vending machines without the
presence of the shop staff .......
The idea behind Keedoozle was to reduce
the number of employees.
Clarence Saunders' first self-service Keedoozle grocery store supply room
Keedoozle was the first fully automated grocery store in the
United States, a vending machine concept developed by grocer
Clarence Saunders in 1937. It is often held that the name
"Keedoozle" was coined by Saunders to refer to the technology
used, in which a "Key Does All" for the grocery shopper, but
another interview with Saunders appears to contradict this.
Clarence Saunders' first self-service Keedoozle grocery store supply room
Before the computer …
… the machines punch
card
The self-service
machine
Make as….
if it means
saving time and
money
Saunders died in 1953
while tinkering with
plans for another
automated store
called Foodelectric.
Going it alone……
means saving time and money
I observe, I choose and pay at
checkout…….
The consumer starts to have a direct
relationship with the products without the
mediation of an operator…
Archeology of supermarkets
To see how we were:
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.
The beginning of franchised stores
The evolution of design shops…
in the fifties of the twentieth century
Advertising through the company brand
Advertising……. is the soul of commerce
The self-service
revolution …
… the customer chooses
the products from the
shelves directly covered
before arriving at the
cash to pay for purchases
made …
In the US with the spread of popular cars,
such as Ford, after King Kullen in New York
(the competitor), also PW introduces the free
parking service for customers:
“no parking no business”
NO PARKING …
… NO
BUSINESS !!!
The promotion of products at
discounted prices to attract
customers to buy
Read more on Piggly Wiggly:
Mike Freeman
Clarence Saunders & the
Founding of Piggly Wiggly:
The Rise & Fall of a
Memphis Maverick
Paperback – July 7, 2011
Piggly Wiggly in Cinema
Only two known portals to Looney Tune Land exist, one
lying beneath a Piggly Wiggly parking lot in suburban
Birmingham, Alabama.
Film: Space Jam (1996)
The beginning of the self-service has been a revolution in our ways not
only to shop but to shop
The customer in the supermarket comes in and choose directly the
products already packaged, sure to purchase a new product, well
packaged hygienically.
The customer does not ask for more discounts on the product, each
product has a label with its price
With shopping trolleys or car wheel the customer sees well-ordered
products on the shelves with many types and then move on to the
cashier to pay
The consumer can freely choose the products, saving time compared to
traditional shops where you had to pack and weigh all the goods,
without the security of choosing the best product
The self-service sales have introduced a revolution in business as we
know it
Thanks to Saunders trade has started to be an important development
and the consumer has purchased new opportunities
The opening of the first supermarket in the world:
Memphis, Tennessee (USA) - September 6, 1916
Clarence Saunders (August 9, 1881 – September 23, 1953):
the pioneer of the supermarket
by Franco A. Fava
with Andrea Fassone, assistant of Prof. Franco A. Fava
University of Turin (Italy)
«The history of the supermarkets is also the story of how they have
changed our lifestyle» FFA
David F. Miller Center for Retailing Education and Research
- University of Florida - Gainesville (USA)
All photo were taken from web