Virginia born Clarence Saunders (born 9 August, 1881 – d. 14 October, 1953), entered the grocery business directly from the farm. Not being trained in the way stores had to be operated, he chafed at the initial he sensed in the field.

In 6th September, 1916, he launched a small chain of groceries designed to be operated with a minimum amount of labour. Most goods were placed on shelves where customers could choose what they wanted and take their selections to a cashier.




Saunders called this self-service groceries Piggly – Wiggly stores. It was located in Memphis, Tenessee. He kept prices low and used flamboyant advertising programmes. On the opening day of a new store, each red-headed woman who made a purchase was handed a bouquet of roses; a brass band played at the entrance all day; and coloured balloons floated above the crowds.

Four years after he began using these tactics, keyed to a radical new system of merchandising. Saunders had 2660 stores in operation. Competing chains sprang up; some of them branched out into merchandise other than groceries. By 1930 just 14 years after the Piggly Wiggly innovations began, self-service groceries had blossomed into supermarkets with thousands of items on their shelves and only a handful of persons working in them. “Kingsway”, was the first standard supermarket in Nigeria. It was launched in Lagos in 1948.

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BY: EFREMFON ENANG (Nigeria)