Piggly Wiggly was the first true self-service grocery store. It was founded on September 6, 1916, at 79 Jefferson Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee, by Clarence Saunders.

The original Piggy Wiggly Store in Memphis, Tn.

 A replica of the original store has been constructed in the Memphis Pink Palace Museum and Planetarium, a mansion that Saunders initially built as his private residence but was later sold to the city.

Piggly Wiggly Corporation secured the self-service format and issued franchises to hundreds of grocery retailers for the operation of its stores. The concept of the "self-servrng store" was patented by Saunders in 1917. Customers at Piggly Wiggly entered the store through a turnstile and walked through four aisles to view the store’s 605 items sold in packages and organized into departments. The customers selected merchandise as they continued through the maze to the cashier. Instantly, packaging and brand recognition became important to companies and consusers. Without self-service, modern branded packaged goods, as we know them, would not exist.

Piggly Wiggly was the first to:

• provide checkout stands.
• price mark every item in the store.
• feature a full line of nationally advertised brands.
• use refrigerated cases to keep produce fresher longer.
• put employees in uniforms for cleaner, more sanitary food handling.
• standardize product location, so a customer who know the location of their favorite products in their local store knew where they were in every store
• design and use patented fixtures and equipment throughout the store. franchise independent grocers to operate under the self-service method of food merchandising.
• The success of Piggly Wiggly was phenomenal, so much so that other independent and chain grocery stores changed to self-service in the 1920s and 1930s. At its peak in 1932 the company operated 2,660 stores and posted annual sales in excess of $180 million.
•  In November 1922, Saunders attempted a squeeze on the substantial short interest in the stock, running the  price up from 40 to 120 and profiting by millions on paper. The Stock Exchange Governors responded by deciding that a corner had been established in Piggly Wiggly and removed the stock from the Board eventually forcing Saunders to turn over his assets to the banks that had financed his leveraged position. Saunders reputedly lost nine million dollars in the attempted corner.

Following these events, the company was divided into strategic units and sold to regional grocery chains, including Kroger, Safeway, National Tea, and Colonial.