Clarence Saunders and the Founding of Piggly Wiggly: The Rise & Fall of a Memphis Maverick

by Mike Freeman

Clarence Saunders' vision for a better shopping experience for day-to-day needs has made Piggly Wiggly a staple of southern living for over 100 years. The grocery business began as a complicated service industry. Random pricing, inconsistent quantities and prescriptive salesmen made grocery shopping burdensome. It took one brash Memphian with uncommon vision and unbridled ambition to change everything. Clarence Saunders worked his way out of poverty and obscurity to found Piggly Wiggly in 1916. With an unprecedented approach, he virtually invented the concept of the modern self-service grocery store. Stores flourished, franchises spread and Saunders made millions. Yet just as the final bricks of Pink Palace--his garish marble mansion--were being laid, Saunders went bankrupt, and he was forced to sell Piggly Wiggly. A variety of new ventures helped Saunders out of bankruptcy, but he never duplicated his prior success. Memphis historian Mike Freeman tracks the remarkable life of this retail visionary.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published June 17, 2011

About the author

For over thirty years, Mike Freeman has made a career out of his love for Memphis and regional history. He co-wrote, with Cindy Hazen, two books about Elvis Presley--The Best of Elvis in 1992 and Memphis Elvis Style in 1997--and a book based upon Patsy Cline's letters, Love
Always Patsy, Patsy Cline's Letters to a Friend, in 1999. For eight years he owned and lived in the first home Elvis purchased at 1034 Audubon Drive in Memphis. Mike has also written or co-written magazine articles about the area's fascinating personalities. In 2007, Mike helped create three DVDs: Elvis' Memphis and Beyond Elvis' Memphis with Artsmagic, Inc. (UK) and Elvis: Return to Tupelo with Michael Rose Productions. With his partner, Sue Mack, Mike continues to do research today and offers guided tours of the region. This biography of Clarence Saunders was actually his first project and his MA thesis. Until now, only excerpts of this work were published in the Tennessee Historical Quarterly (1992) and Tennessee Encyclopedia (1997).

Reviews

[Billy Claunch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating stories of a real life superhero, someone never afraid of failure or the public’s opinion, even though he worked tirelessly to serve the public. Ahead of his time, Clarence Saunders pioneered the original self-service retail store, the original DoorDash, the original Wholesale delivery model perfect by Wal-Mart and Amazon, all without the aid of technology, the microchip, or any other support. He was ahead of his time, and died with nearly nothing after having made and lost 2 massive fortunes. Inspiring read of someone who was just set on finding a better way to do something.

[Paula Corregan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting book!

This book details the life of Clarence Saunders, the founder of the Piggly Wiggly supermarket chain. Mr. Freeman has done extensive and exhaustive research on his subject. I highly recommend this book to other biography readers as well as those interested in history.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting book. Clarence Saunders not only founded the Piggly Wiggly grocery chain, but also several other stores, using the self-serve concept. One of these even used automation by stocking groceries in chutes like vending machines. Definitely recommend.

[Phil Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but way to much info and detail about stock transactions.