The groceteria

Remember Piggly Wiggly? We do. What self-respecting 8-yearold could ever forget that name, and the mascot’s face, even a half-century later?

Even though there aren’t as many around in 2023, some Arkansans still have the opportunity to shop at Piggly Wiggly, from DeWitt to Camden.

Clarence Saunders opened his first Piggly Wiggly in 1916. Reportedly, he never answered the question of where the store got its name, other than to say, “So people will ask that very question.”

(One can imagine what those outside our region thought about Arkansas when the store was featured in the movie “Mud,” starring Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon that’s written and directed by Little Rock native Jeff Nichols.)

Unbeknownst to many, the store changed the way people shop for groceries for what appears to be forever. Before the first Piggly Wiggly opened, grocery shoppers handed their lists of items to clerks to retrieve. That was expensive for the store owner. Self-service aisles and shopping baskets were unheard of then. When Piggly Wiggly started it, even the rise in shoplifting by allowing self-service was more than mitigated by what the stores saved in wages paid.

The new way of doing things had a name: the groceteria.

The store peaked in 1932 with 2,660 locations across the country; now it has just a tick less than 500. According to the Google monster, there are six Piggly Wiggly stores in Arkansas; one is the previously mentioned location in DeWitt featured in “Mud.”

Now, in the Sam’s Club and Costco era, shoppers drive to stores and park their cars in mega-parking lots to go inside to buy mega-sized items in bulk, which to be sure is a cost-saver.

But according to The Dallas Morning News, it appears the Piggly Wigglys (Wigglies?), or at least the brand, may be set for a comeback of sorts.

Piggly Wiggly is nosing its snout back into the Lone Star state thanks to one grocer and possibly a few more next year as a consequence of the pending Kroger acquisition of Albertsons, combining the two largest supermarket chains.

Fernando Soto, owner of the SaveA-Lot stores in Paris and Athens (the ones in Texas), has converted them to the Piggly Wiggly brand and is looking to do the same in Sherman, Texas. Sales are up 30 to 35 percent, and the customer count is up as well.

Some wonder how the stores, with roughly 15,000-20,000 square feet of shopping space. will compete with stores like H-E-B and Kroger, with up to 100,000 square feet of the same.

The answer is simple: a catchy brand name and a different experience. Which is where all this started.