Saunders visualized a system that would dispense groceries quickly, with fewer errors, and simultaneously track inventory. The merchandise tumbled to conveyor belts and was carried to the shoppers at the cashier’s desk. The key activated circuits that released merchandise from the storage room chutes. The customer slipped a key into a coin slot next to a window display. It operated on the principles of the vending machine. A successful endeavor until the Great Depression, Saunders once again lost his business in the 1930s.įor the rest of his life, Saunders experimented with an automated grocery store, which he named Keedoozle. Immediately, he opened a competing grocery, called the Clarence Saunders Sole Owner of My Name Stores, or the Sole Owner Stores. He resigned from Piggly Wiggly and filed for bankruptcy. An attempt to corner the Piggly Wiggly stock failed, costing Saunders millions of dollars. Piggly Wiggly stock was traded on the New York Exchange. By 1923 the Piggly Wiggly chain included 1,268 stores selling $100 million in groceries and was the third largest retail grocery business in the nation. Within a year he was selling Piggly Wiggly franchises across the nation. Shoppers liked the store where prices were cheaper than competing markets. On September 11, 1916, Saunders opened his Piggly Wiggly store for business. Displeased by the lack of efficiency, he developed the idea of self-service. A bold and observant salesman, Saunders paid close attention to the business methods of his retail clients. While still in his twenties, Saunders left Clarksville for a sales position in a Memphis grocery company.
Young Saunders found his calling in a Clarksville wholesale grocery house. Saunders was born in 1881 to an impoverished Virginia family, who moved to Palmyra, Montgomery County, Tennessee. While Saunders did not open the first self-service store, he is credited with selling this idea to a public still accustomed to being waited upon in stores. Instead shoppers selected from items placed on shelves within easy reach. In his innovative Piggly Wiggly self-service stores no clerks fetched groceries for customers. Clarence Saunders changed the way people buy their groceries.
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