Someone once asked him why he had chosen such an unusual name for his organization, and Saunders’ reply was, "So people will ask that very question." He wanted and found a name that would be talked about and remembered. One story is that he saw from a train window several little pigs struggling to get under a fence, and the rhyming name occurred to him then. Saunders’ reason for choosing the intriguing name Piggly Wiggly ® remains a mystery he was curiously reluctant to explain its origin. Piggly Wiggly Corporation continued to prosper as franchiser for the hundreds of independently owned grocery stores allowed to operate under the Piggly Wiggly name and during the next several decades, functioned successfully under various owners The stock was successfully traded on the New York Stock Exchange for some time, but through a series of stock transactions in the early 1920s, Saunders lost control of Piggly Wiggly and had no further association with the company. The original Piggly Wiggly Corporation became owner of all Piggly Wiggly properties: the name, the patents, etc., and Saunders began issuing stock in the Corporation. Piggly Wiggly Corporation, established by Saunders when he opened the first store in Memphis, secured the self-service format and issued franchises to hundreds of grocery retailers for the operation of Piggly Wiggly stores. There were shopping baskets, open shelves and no clerks to shop for the customer – all unheard of! Operating under the unusual name Piggly Wiggly, it was unlike any other grocery store of that time. Saunders, a flamboyant and innovative man, noticed that this method resulted in wasted time and expense, so he came up with an unheard-of solution that would revolutionize the entire grocery industry: he developed a way for shoppers to serve themselves.ĭespite predictions that this novel idea would fail, Saunders’ first store opened Septemat 79 Jefferson Street in Memphis. In grocery stores of that time, shoppers presented their orders to clerks who gathered the goods from the store shelves. The Piggly-Wiggly mascot was on hand for Wednesday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony.Piggly Wiggly®, America’s first true self-service grocery store, was founded in Memphis, Tenn. Readers of say there was a Piggly-Wiggly in Beckley in the 1950s and in Martinsburg around 1980. Piggly-Wiggly has supermarkets in 17 states and stretches as far north as Wisconsin and Minnesota.The new West Virginia stores aren’t the first ever in the Mountain State. Our prices and products are outstanding.” “I don’t know if it will be right away but there’s a lot of interest out there. “We are the first in West Virginia but I think you’ll see more in the future,” Johnson said. The Johnson family ran the Milton Foodland and the Galaxy grocery store in Hamlin - both of which are Piggly-Wiggly franchises - and Adam Johnson said he expects more of the franchises in the Mountain State. “A lot of people vacation in the south and they’re familiar with Piggly-Wiggly brand, and they’ve come and checked us out today. The first Piggly-Wiggly grocery store franchises in West Virginia since the 1980s have opened their doors, bringing a familiar sight to state residents used to seeing the chain when they vacation in the south, especially Myrtle Beach.Īdam Johnson, who’s managing the Milton store in Cabell County, said it’s great to open a business that already has some familiarity to customers. Piggly-Wiggly, a familiar sight to West Virginians when they head south on vacation, has now opened two locations in the Mountain State.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |