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Clarence Saunders soon started another supermarket chain called Sole Owners Stores, which made him even more money, but this store failed because of the Great Depression. Sadly, Saunders lost most of his money in the stock market and had to resign from his job at Piggly Wiggly. By 1923, Piggly Wiggly was the third largest grocery business in the country. It was so much money that he started to build a large house in Memphis made of pink marble from Georgia. Within the first year of creating Piggly Wiggly, Saunders was already making a lot of money. Today, many restaurants like McDonalds and Chick-fil-A use franchising.Ĭlarence Saunders, from Tennessee Encyclopedia. This is called franchising, which meant that if someone wanted to open a Piggly Wiggly in their town, they would pay Clarence Saunders a fee and could use the name and ideas. Saunders allowed people to use his supermarket idea for themselves. Piggly Wiggly did not just have food, but also items like clothes and tools, much like those old general stores. So instead of having just one candy bar, the store would have other kinds of candy too. Prices were cheaper because customers could choose from more items. Allowing customers to select their own items meant that prices were cheaper, so more people started shopping there. Like today, a customer would get a basket and pick from different items they wanted. In his new supermarket, the customer no longer had to give a list to a clerk but would pick their own items. Then, on September 11, 1916, in Memphis, he opened the first supermarket in the world, Piggly Wiggly. He moved to Memphis from Montgomery County and worked in a grocery warehouse. When a young man named Clarence Saunders, saw the extra work that went into filling orders for customers, he thought of a new idea, the supermarket. Inside the first Piggly Wiggly, Wikipedia Commons. If you lived in a farming town, you may find more goods meant to help you farm, like farming tools or seeds to grow crops. These stores also carried goods to help your community, like clothes or tools. If your parents wanted flour, sugar, baking powder, or even soda, they had to accept what the general store carried. Rather a clerk would have given you the only candy bar they stocked. There would be no aisles to walk around and no selection you get to make. Let’s say you visited the general store, which would be the only store in your town (if you had one) and you wanted a candy bar. Piggly Wiggly sign today, from .īefore we learn about Piggly Wiggly, let us first read about what a grocery store looked like before 1916. Isn’t that wonderful? Let us take a step back in time and learn how a Tennessean named Clarence Saunders created the first supermarket, Piggly Wiggly. Have you ever entered a supermarket or a grocery store and been overwhelmed at the selection you can make? The candy aisle alone has hundreds of selections that YOU can pick from. Capital Maintenance and Improvements Grants.The Modern Movement for Civil Rights in Tennessee.Transforming America: Tennessee on the World War II Homefront.Understanding Women's Suffrage: Tennessee's Perfect 36.The Three Rs of Reconstruction: Rights, Restrictions and Resistance.The Lives of Three Tennessee Slaves and Their Journey Towards Freedom.The Age of Jackson and Tennessee’s Legendary Leaders.Cherokee in Tennessee: Their Life, Culture, and Removal.The Life and Times of the First Tennesseans.From Barter to Budget, Financial Literacy in Tennessee.Between The Layers: Art and Story in Tennessee Quilts.The State of Sound: Tennessee’s Musical Heritage.Lets Eat! Origins and Evolutions of Tennessee Food.Cordell Hull: Tennessee's Father of the United Nations.Tennessee and the Great War: A Centennial Exhibition.Ratified! Tennessee Women and the Right to Vote.STARS: Elementary Visual Art Exhibition 2023.Canvassing Tennessee: Artists and Their Environments.In Search of the New: Art in Tennessee Since 1900.Early Expressions: Art in Tennessee Before 1900.
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Remembrance: Military Representation Through Public Art at the State Capitol.
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