![]() Saving costs on film and labels, and considerations about sustainability were all important factors when finding the best solution, but Danny’s main concern he was looking to fix was in his labor department.ĭIGI’s Automatic Wrapper caught Danny’s interest at the annual Piggly Wiggly Grocery Show. Their relationship was key to this installation as they have known and worked with each other for over 40 years. Over the course of time Danny has discussed issues he was facing at his store with Steve Kanute, Vice President of the Retail Division at Birmingham Toledo, which is a dealer of DIGI America. Their introduction of self-service grocery shopping revolutionized the grocery industry.ĭanny White and his family have been a part of Piggly Wiggly in Heflin, Alabama for 100 years this coming 2023. Many services that shoppers enjoy today were first introduced by Piggly Wiggly. Piggly Wiggly is an American supermarket chain with over 530 stores located in the American Southern and Midwestern regions. – Danny White, Owner, Piggly Wiggly Heflin, Alabama store If you try and take it out of the store, there will be a fight. But more than a decade after vanishing from Texas, the chain’s slogan, “Down Home, Down the Street,” once again holds true for a small and growing number of people in the state.“It is the most reliable machine we have in the store besides the cash register. Don’t expect one in Houston or Dallas soon. But in an age of big-box stores, hypermarkets, and e-commerce, this offers something increasingly scarce-grocery shopping on a human scale.Īs a chain Piggly Wiggly also seems to be staying true to its, er, hooves by sticking to smaller cities and towns. You won’t overload your digital step counter going from parking lot to produce to frozen foods. It’s an important service because, like supermarkets you might remember from childhood, Rogers’ store has a modest footprint by today’s standards. “If I can find it in the order book,” she says, “I’ll get it.” Though it wasn’t in stock, Rogers special ordered it for her. One customer has already asked for canned whole chicken. And the variety extends beyond the items on the shelves. She tells me it will be offering greater variety than the Save A Lot store that previously occupied the space, which she also managed. Today, Stacey Rogers manages the new Athens location. Locations spread so fast that by 1920 there were five in San Antonio alone. That first location, in Memphis, Tennessee, disrupted the industry and arguably created the modern American supermarket. It began in 1916 with entrepreneur Clarence Saunders’ hog-wild idea for a grocery store where customers walked around picking items right off the shelves rather than telling a counter-clerk what they wanted. Over a century ago, Piggly Wiggly was the opposite of nostalgia. To paraphrase one of the chain’s slogans, they dig the pig. Pig, the friendly looking porker in the white hat and apron, emblazoned on the store’s banners, displays, and even merchandise such as hoodies and golf balls-that seems to make people happy. But even with only two currently up and running in Texas, folks are excited.įor people of a certain generation, the Piggly Wiggly brand offers plenty of nostalgia along with stocked shelves. So we don’t know if more stores may be in the works. The parent company of the chain since 2003-C&S Wholesale Grocers of New Hampshire-declined comment, noting the new locations are independently owned franchises. The Athens store is the second to open, and there are plans for new locations in Texarkana and Sherman. The iconic small-town supermarket chain made its first reappearance in Texas this spring in Paris. “Piggly Wiggly was our store,” Sherry says. Years ago they shopped at a Piggly Wiggly in Denton, which was reportedly among the last in the state to close in 2009. Shopping carts advance slowly, bumper-to-bumper, into the produce department, where the specials include fresh jalapeños and leaves from prickly pear cactus (good for grilling and salads). Two of the shoppers, Jimmy and Sherry Mitchell of Athens, arrived at 7 a.m. opening, a bottleneck forms near the entrance. When the main doors slide apart, a little before the advertised 8 a.m. Workers stock a nearby concession trailer with wieners and buns. Under a canopy near the entrance, children try out a side-by-side basketball shooting game. A Blue Bell ice cream truck sits in the parking lot as a man wheels cases filled with half-gallon containers into the store. ![]() Though it’s been doing business for a few weeks, the local Piggly Wiggly is having its official grand opening. The excitement rises with the temperature on a sunny June morning in the East Texas town of Athens. Shopping at the original Piggly Wiggly in Memphis, Tennessee, which opened in 1916.
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