Piggly Wiggly Opens the First Self-Service Grocery

In September 1916, entrepreneur Clarence Saunders established the first Piggly Wiggly grocery store at 79 Jefferson Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee. The company dates the store's opening to September 6, while other accounts give September 11 as the day it opened for business. Until this point, conventional grocery commerce relied entirely on clerks behind counters. Patrons handed over a written order or recited their requests, waiting while employees fetched each item from storerooms and back shelves. Saunders disrupted this tradition by opening up the shopping floor directly to the public.

The new Memphis establishment required customers to pass through an entry turnstile and follow a guided route through aisles of shelves. Rather than asking staff for individual goods, shoppers picked packaged products off open display shelves themselves. The inaugural store stocked packaged goods arranged on open shelves, each clearly marked with its price. Customers carried their selections along the winding aisle until they reached dedicated checkout lanes, another novel retail feature designed to speed up payment before exiting.