Shopping Inside a Piggly Wiggly Grocery Store
Piggly Wiggly is an American supermarket chain operating in the American Southern and Midwestern regions run by Piggly Wiggly, LLC, an affiliate of C&S Wholesale Grocers. Its first outlet opened in 1916 in Memphis, Tennessee, and is notable for having been the first true self-service grocery store, and the originator of various familiar supermarket features such as checkout stands, individual item price marking and shopping carts. The current company headquarters is in Keene, New Hampshire. There are a total of 499 independently owned Piggly Wiggly stores that operate across 18 states, primarily in smaller cities and towns.
Piggly Wiggly was acquired by the wholesale grocer Malone & Hyde in 1982. Malone & Hyde was acquired by Fleming Companies in 1988. Fleming filed for bankruptcy in 2003, and C&S Wholesale Grocers acquired most of the business, including Piggly Wiggly. C&S acquired regional warehouses Piggly Wiggly Carolina in 2013 and Piggly Wiggly Midwest in 2021.
A Piggly Wiggly store in Springhill, Louisiana, in August 2011
There are presently more than 600 independently owned and operated stores in 17 states. The company headquarters is located in Keene, New Hampshire. Some of the stores in Alabama have formed Piggly Wiggly Alabama Distributing Company, a retailers' cooperative to manage distribution, while using the Piggly Wiggly name. Piggly Wiggly stores are found predominantly in medium to smaller size cities, and remain a fixture in many rural communities. In many of the larger cities and more metropolitan areas within the company's territory (especially in the faster-growing regions), competitive national grocery chains have built larger supermarkets with greater variety and selection than Piggly Wiggly, targeting a more upscale clientele. In response, Piggly Wiggly was one of the first to develop a loyalty card discount membership program similar to many other national merchants.