08/09/2025
🎉 On This Day in Memphis History — August 9, 1881
Clarence Saunders was born — the bold, brilliant Memphian who changed the way the world shops.
In 1916, he opened the first-ever self-service grocery store, right here in Memphis. Called Piggly Wiggly, it let customers do something totally new at the time: walk the aisles, grab their own goods, and check out at the register. It was a revolution. Within six years, over 1,200 Piggly Wiggly stores opened across the country.
Saunders became a millionaire, built a pink marble mansion in East Memphis (now the Pink Palace Museum), and turned grocery shopping into a national industry. But after a failed attempt to outsmart Wall Street and regain control of his company’s stock, he lost it all — including Piggly Wiggly.
Still, his legacy lives on in every supermarket today. A Memphis original, whose wild idea reshaped modern retail.
Have you been to the Pink Palace?
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