What was the name of the first self-service grocery store, opened in 1916?

Piggly Wiggly was the first self-service grocery store, opening in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1916.

Entrepreneur Clarence Saunders introduced the store at 79 Jefferson Street, replacing the older counter-service system in which customers handed a shopping list to a clerk, who collected the goods. Piggly Wiggly let shoppers walk through aisles, choose products themselves, place them in baskets, and pay at a checkout counter.

The format also popularized practices that became normal in supermarkets, including individual price marking, organized aisles, shopping baskets, and checkout stands. Saunders patented parts of the system and franchised the concept, helping self-service spread beyond Memphis.

The phrase “first self-service grocery store” is generally used for Piggly Wiggly, although historians distinguish it from the later “first true supermarket.” King Kullen, opened in Queens in 1930, is often credited with combining self-service with large-scale discounting, multiple departments, and customer parking—the fuller supermarket model familiar today.