Clarence Saunders opened the first Piggly Wiggly self-service supermarket in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1916.
Before this innovation, shoppers commonly handed a list to a clerk, who collected goods from behind a counter. Saunders’s store let customers enter through a turnstile, take a wire basket and select products themselves before paying at a checkout. The layout also encouraged customers to notice more merchandise while walking through the store.
Piggly Wiggly did not invent every feature associated with modern supermarkets, but it systematized self-service grocery shopping. The chain also became known for innovations such as individually marked prices and checkout counters. Its early Memphis store is therefore a landmark in retail history.
A&P and Kroger were important grocery chains, but their histories do not identify Saunders’s 1916 self-service store.