Clarence Saunders and the Founding of Piggly Wiggly

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. 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. Memphis historian Mike Freeman tracks the remarkable life of this retail visionary.