Piggly Wiggly is a supermarket chain in the in Midwest and South regions of the United States. Image File history File links Pigglywiggly. ... Packaged food aisles in a Fred Meyer store in Portland, Oregon A supermarket is a departmentalized self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise. ... Regional definitions vary from source to source. ... Historic Southern United States. ...

History

Historical marker near the site of the first Piggly Wiggly store in Memphis, Tennessee.

Piggly Wiggly was the first true self-service grocery store.^[1] It was founded on September 6, 1916, at 79 Jefferson Street in Memphis, Tennessee, by Clarence Saunders. A replica of the original store has been constructed in the Memphis Pink Palace Museum, which was originally a mansion that Saunders built as his private residence which was later sold to the city. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1024x768, 481 KB) Summary Licensing File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Piggly Wiggly Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1024x768, 481 KB) Summary Licensing File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Piggly Wiggly Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner... For other uses, see Memphis (disambiguation). ... Official language(s) English Capital Nashville Largest city Memphis Largest metro area Nashville Metropolitan Area Area  Ranked 36th  - Total 42,169 sq mi (109,247 km²)  - Width 120 miles (195 km)  - Length 440 miles (710 km)  - % water 2. ... is the 249th day of the year (250th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1916 (MCMXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ... For other uses, see Memphis (disambiguation). ... Official language(s) English Capital Nashville Largest city Memphis Largest metro area Nashville Metropolitan Area Area  Ranked 36th  - Total 42,169 sq mi (109,247 km²)  - Width 120 miles (195 km)  - Length 440 miles (710 km)  - % water 2. ... Clarence Saunders Clarence Saunders (August 9, 1881 - October 14, 1953) was a grocer who first developed the modern retail sales model of self-service. ...

Piggly Wiggly Corporation, secured the self-service format and issued franchises to hundreds of grocery retailers for the operation of Piggly Wiggly stores. The concept of the "self-serving store" was patented by Saunders in 1917. Customers at Piggly Wiggly entered the store through turnstiles and walked through four aisles to view the store’s 605 items sold in packages and organized into departments. They selected their goods as they continued through the maze to a cashier. Instantly, packaging and brand recognition became important to companies and consumers. Without self-service, modern branded packaged goods would not exist. 1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar (see: 1917 Julian calendar). ... This article is about the pedestrian gate. ... Packaging is the enclosing of a physical object, typically a product that will be offered for sale. ... For other uses, see Brand (disambiguation). ...

The success of Piggly Wiggly was phenomenal. At its peak, the company was operating 2,660 stores and posting sales of $180 million a year. So much so that other independent and chain grocery stores changed to self-service in the 1920-1930s. In the 1920s, however Saunders lost control of the company in a famous Wall Street bear raid, and his company was soon carved up by Merrill Lynch and sold off to regional grocery chains, including Safeway, Kroger, National Tea, and Colonial.^[2] Elaborate marble facade of NYSE as seen from the intersection of Broad and Wall Streets For other uses, see Wall Street (disambiguation). ... A corporate raid is a business term, sometimes also referred to as breaking a company. ... Merrill Lynch & Co. ... Safeway is a brand name used by several fraudulent supermarket chains around the world: Safeway Inc. ... Kroger headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio. ... In general, the word colonial means of or relating to a colony. In United States history, the term Colonial is used to refer to the period before US independence. ...

After losing control of Piggly Wiggly, Saunders had no further association with the company although he remained interested in the concept of automated shopping until his death in 1953.^[3]

The smaller Piggly Wiggly Corporation continued to prosper as franchiser for the hundreds of independently owned grocery stores franchised to operate under the Piggly Wiggly name and over the next several decades, functioned successfully under various owners.

Present company

A Piggly Wiggly store in Owasso, Oklahoma in 2006

There are presently over 600 independently owned and operated stores in 17 states. The company headquarters is in Keene, New Hampshire^[4]. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2560x1403, 895 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Piggly Wiggly Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2560x1403, 895 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Piggly Wiggly Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to... Owasso is a city located in Oklahoma. ... Nickname: Location in Cheshire County, New Hampshire Coordinates: , Country State County Cheshire Settled 1736 Incorporated 1753 (town) Incorporated 1874 (city) Government  - Mayor Michael E.J. Blastos  - City Council Charles H. Redfern Angelo D. DiBernardo, Jr. ...

Some of the stores have formed a retailers' cooperative to manage distribution, while using the Piggly Wiggly name. See e.g. the Piggly Wiggly Alabama Distributing Company. Piggly Wiggly stores are found predominately in medium- to smaller-sized towns and can still be found in prevalence in many rural communities. In many areas (especially faster growing areas), competitive grocers have built bigger stores with larger selections and have tried targeting a more upscale clientele. This has forced the closure of many Piggly Wiggly stores and has given the chain a reputation in many areas as having lower quality products, limited selection, older run-down stores, and in some cases higher prices than the competition. In response, Piggly Wiggly has developed a discount card/member program similar to many other grocers. A retailers cooperative or consumer cooperative is a business entity which employs economies of scale on behalf of its members to get discounts from manufacturers and to pool marketing. ...

Competitors

Piggly Wiggly was a pioneer in the modern self-serve shopping concept and its model is used not only by virtually all other grocery supermarkets, but retail chains as well.

Piggly Wiggly in Popular Culture

• As early as 1922, the store is mentioned in Sinclair Lewis' novel Babbitt, when George's wife complains she's tired of "... going down to the Piggly Wiggly to market, and bringing my basket home to save money on the cash-and-carry and -- everything!"
• The Piggly Wiggly store appears in the movies Driving Miss Daisy, Space Jam, Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!, Steel Magnolias, King Kong Lives, Elvis is Alive! I Swear I Just Saw Him Eating a Ding Dong, and Mississippi Masala.
• Decoy Piggly Wiggly trucks appear in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
• In O Brother, Where Art Thou?, one of the characters admits to robbing a Piggly Wiggly.
• It is mentioned in the movies Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and Sweet Home Alabamain several episodes of the TV series That 70's Show also mentioned in TV Show Clarissa Explains it All.
• In the film Bonnie and Clyde, Buck Barrow reads a newspaper article that links the Barrow Gang with the robbery of a Piggly Wiggly.
• In the film Run Ronnie Run, protagonist Ronnie Dobbs is arrested for (among other things) vandalizing a Piggly Wiggly sign.
• In the film Pootie Tang, the main character's magic belt was bought at the Piggly Wiggly.
• In an episode of the television series Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Sabrina needs to buy magical jumping beans from the Other Realm, but she does not want to shop at the Piggly Wiggly because "Pigs aren't very good at making change."
• In an episode of Pinky and the Brain, a chain letter implies that "someone didn't send this and got his head cut off, but someone did and got a 5-hour shopping spree at the Piggly Wiggly!"
• In Fried Green Tomatoes, Kathy Bates' character enters a parking lot altercation in a Piggly Wiggly parking lot.
• In Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World, there's a sailor's tavern called "Pig Wiggle Pub", possibly after Piggly Wiggly with diminutives removed

Sinclair Lewis Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 — January 10, 1951) was an American novelist and playwright. ... Babbitt is a classic novel by the American novelist and playwright Sinclair Lewis, first published in 1922. ... Driving Miss Daisy is a 1987 play by Alfred Uhry adapted into a 1989 Warner Bros. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Promotional poster for Win A Date With Tad Hamilton! Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! is a 2004 romantic comedy film, directed by Robert Luketic and starring Kate Bosworth, Topher Grace and more. ... Steel Magnolias, by Robert Harling, is a 1987 off-Broadway play, made into a successful movie in 1989. ... King Kong Lives is sequel to 1976 version of King Kong. ... Mississippi Masala (1991) is a film directed by Mira Nair, based upon a screenplay by Sooni Taraporevala. ... This article is about the film; for the a definition of the UFO related phenomenon, see Close encounter. ... O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a dark comedy film written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, set in Mississippi during the Great Depression (specifically, 1937). ... Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (released in some countries as Harold and Kumar get the Munchies or American High, due to few international White Castle locations) is a comedy movie released in 2004. ... This article contains a trivia section. ... That 70s Show logo That 70s Show is a Fox Network television sitcom centered around the lives of a group of teenagers living in the fictional suburb of Point Place, near Green Bay, during the late 1970s. ... Clarissa Explains It All was an American situation comedy television series from Nickelodeon starring a then unknown Melissa Joan Hart. ... Bonnie and Clyde (1967) is a film about Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, bank robbers who roamed the central United States during the Great Depression. ... This article is about the outlaws. ... Run Ronnie Run is a movie spin-off from the popular HBO sketch comedy show Mr. ... Pootie Tang is a 2001 cult comedy film, directed by Louis C.K.. The film was adapted from a comedy sketch which first appeared on The Chris Rock Show. ... Sabrina, the Teenage Witch is an American sitcom based on the Archie comic book series Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. ... Mexican jumping beans are a phonemenon native to Mexico where they are known as brincadores. ... This article describes both the animated television series, and the characters from that series. ... Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is the name of a novel by Fannie Flagg. ... A diminutive is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object or quality named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment. ...

Songs

• A song about the grocery store chain includes the lyrics:

Piggly Wiggly, what does it mean?

Piggly Wiggly I've never seen!

Is it a piggy or is it a worm?

I'd never touch it might make me squirm!

If I shall see one I'll tell you more.

Grandmother says it's a grocery store!

• A song concerning Piggly Wiggly was originally recorded by Charlie McFadden in the early 1930s, to be reperformed by various musicians throughout the years.

• Family Force 5's single "Kountry Gentleman" mentions Piggly Wiggly in the line "tailgate party at the PigWig".

• Piggly Wiggly has used an advertising jingle: "Piggly Wiggly, Shop the Pig!"

• Martin Sexton mentions the Piggly Wiggly in his song "Diner".

• In her song "Groceries on the shelf", blues singer Lucille Bogan makes an analogy between sexual availability and the self-service concept of Piggly Wiggly stores.

Charlie McFadden is a fictional character featured in the Critters series of science fiction films, created by the Chiodo Brothers and distributed by New Line Cinema. ... Family Force 5 (often abbreviated as FF5, formerly known as The Phamily and The Brothers) is a Christian band hailing from Atlanta, Georgia. ... A jingle is a memorable slogan, set to an engaging melody, mainly broadcast on radio and sometimes on television commercials. ... Martin Sexton is a musician originally from the Syracuse, New York area. ... Lucille Bogan Lucille Bogan (April 1, 1897 - August 10, 1948) was an early Blues singer (among the first to be recorded) who used the pseudonym Bessie Jackson. ...

Patent

• U.S. Patent 1,242,872  - Self-serving store -- C. Saunders

References

Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 295th day of the year (296th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 295th day of the year (296th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 181st day of the year (182nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

See also

• Food Giant: a supermarket chain that has franchises of Piggly Wiggly
• Toyota Production System: partly inspired by processes in Piggly Wiggly

Houchens Industries, is an employee-owned company in business since 1918, that owns and operates convenience (Jr. ... The Toyota Production System (TPS) (トヨタ生産方式) is the philosophy which organizes manufacturing and logistics at Toyota, including the interaction with suppliers and customers. ...

External links

• Official website
• Pink Palace Museum exhibit
• Fresh Brands, Inc. home page (Piggly Wiggly franchisee in Wisconsin and Illinois; based in Sheboygan, Wisconsin)