Piggly wiggly1/3/2024 ![]() Saunders immediately franchised Piggly Wiggly stores nationwide. Saunder's 1917 patent for a self serving store Also gone were the troublesome credit accounts. Turnstiles and fencing ensured the customer couldn't escape without paying. Customers moved through the aisles and the clerk remained at the cash register. ![]() However shopping changed forever when Memphis grocer Clarence Saunders patented the “self-serving store” in 1917. Today you can still get groceries delivered and small food stores are an important part of Chicago. The delivery cost about three percent and the credit two percent of the bill. The milkman and vegetable seller likely came directly to your house. Perhaps the groceries were delivered, but you would certainly stop off at the butcher shop and the bakery on the way home. Signage, also considered "modern," is lacking. Cash registers, scales and refrigerated cases were all considered modern. Months later, after a series of escalating demands and threats to cut off credit, the man of the house stopped by to put a few dollars towards the account. The clerk totaled up the goods and charged them to the family’s account. While the clerk was scooping navy beans out of a barrel and grabbing packages of crackers, the lady chatted with her neighbors. In those sexist times, the lady of the house, or perhaps a maid, would give the clerk a list. Merchandise was safely behind the counter. Stores carried no more than a few hundred boring items. Frank Baum's Princess Ozma of Oz was the only person with a video phone. Grocery shopping 100 years ago was very different. You pull out your video phone, point it at the soft drink display, call home, and demand to know “EXACTLY what kind of grape soda do you want?” Finally, you push your shopping cart full of needed and unneeded items to the front of the store, pay and carry everything home. People less honest than you or me may taste a grape or even slip something into a pocket. Childlike, you not only test the 43,844 items with your eyes, but you pick them up, shake them, compare weights and set them back down. You let your eyes roam from brightly colored box to brightly colored box. Perhaps when you go to the supermarket, you run from aisle to aisle with preplanned precision, picking up only those items you need and finish shopping in the 10 minutes you have allocated. Wooden Barrels, Continued: Technology That Changed Chicago.Air Rights: Technology That Changed Chicago.Artesian Wells: Technology That Changed Chicago.Standard Time: Technology That Changed Chicago.Gaslight: Technology That Changed Chicago.CTA Subways, Freight Tunnels, Street Car Tunnels: Underground Chicago.Gas and Other Utilities: Underground Chicago.1928 Polk’s Oakland, California City Directory.OMCA Collections: 40th Street at Piedmont Avenue Oakland Museum of California.Oakland History Center, Oakland Public Library College Avenue, looking north toward Shafter Ave.1 1928 directory listi30th and Grove (MLK) 6Ĭirca 1927, Piggly Wiggly sponsored an amateur baseball team in Oakland. This is taken from the east side of the street at Lawton. The store with the "CIGARS" sign is now the bar Ye Old Hut. Also visible is the Uptown Theater, Campbell’s Shoes, and Tower’s Gift Shop with “Merry Christmas” banner over the street. Piggly Wiggly Store, College Avenue looking north toward Shafter Avenue in the Rockridge District, Oakland, California - 1930. “was one of the earliest grocery chains, established by Andrew Williams about 1921.” 2 Piggly Wiggly Pacific was purchased by Safeway Stores in 1928, and all existing Piggly Wigglies in Oakland were converted to Safeways by the mid-1930s - which helps explain why over 80 Safeway stores are listed in the 1941 Polk’s City Directory for Oakland. ![]() 3Īccording to OMCA Collections, Piggly Wiggly Pacific Co., Inc. One was on College Avenue in Rockridge another was at 3966 Piedmont Avenue. ![]() The 1928 Polk’s City Directory for Oakland lists fully 39 stores citywide (plus another 11 in Berkeley and 4 in Alameda). The Piggly Wiggly grocery-store chain was heavily represented in 1920s and 1930s Oakland. Note the "All Over the World" slogan on the sign, and the "We Double dog dare anyone to undersell this store" painted on the window. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |