Merchandise on the old grocery store shelvesĪmong other things, you can see sacks of granulated, Hershey’s cocoa and chocolate bars.Ī double-sided refrigerator is in the center of the store out of which a customer with her own hands selects butter, cheese, oleo, breakfast bacon, lard and other food items that are required to be kept under refrigeration.Īt any place in a Piggly Wiggly store that you see anything you want, you have a perfect right to take with your own hands the very thing that appeals to you and which you desire to purchase. The fruit and vegetable stand of a Piggly Wiggly store gives you an assortment of fruits and vegetables that only the very largest market can afford to keep on display.ĪLSO SEE: 100 vintage 1960s supermarkets & old-fashioned grocery stores ![]() The produce aisle with bins of fruits & vegetables Grocery store with two turnstiles in foreground ![]() Interior of the first Piggly Wiggly self-service grocery store ![]() MORE: Ka-ching! Cash register history, plus see 20 antique machines You can look and look and examine and compare prices and after looking and looking you can look again and take all of the time that you want to take.Īfter you have done all of this, you can simply keep on walking throughout the four separate aisles of a Piggly Wiggly store, which leads to one exit termination by the checking desk, and there you can pass without even saying “thank you.” You can just simply pass and nobody will say anything to you. You can look and select one or more or any or all articles of merchandise so displayed if that is your desire. Vintage grocery store’s check out counter with cash register Showing entrance turnstile with small wicker shopping baskets, and check-out counter. All you have to decide is whether or not you are in a hurry. You can look at any or all of these articles displayed and you will find by looking that they are of standard and the most widely-known advertised brands of each particular kind or variety.Īnd so simple it is that you can just look and look and spend as much time looking as you please and you will not have to worry whether or not somebody else is in a hurry. These figures represent the exact price of the articles that are immediately behind and about the swinging price tag. Looking either at the right or the left hanging opposite each particular kind, size or assortment of any class of merchandise you will find a swinging price tag on which are some plain figures. Piggly Wiggly says to each and all, “Come to this wonderful store where you enter through a turnstile, where you are loaned a basket for your use while in the store, where you can see to the right side as you walk along the first aisle, hundreds of food products displayed, and on the left-hand side, hundreds of other kinds displayed.” Welcome to the first Piggly Wiggly – Memphis, Tennessee (1918) ![]() Here are some pictures of this first store two years into the business, along with some text from a Piggly Wiggly newspaper advertisement that same year. What did that mean? Well, up until that, there was far more interaction with shopkeepers than there is today.Īs they wrote in an ad touting the benefits of their new shop, “At any place in a Piggly Wiggly store that you see anything you want, you have a perfect right to take with your own hands the very thing that appeals to you and which you desire to purchase.” Not only was it the first PW shop, it was also the first self-service grocery store in the United States. This little Piggly Wiggly went to Memphis, Tennessee… and opened to customers in 1916.
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