Move Three Forward

Your interesting article about the history of supermarkets (October/November 1985) doesn’t mention that customers were already familiar with the name Piggly Wiggly when Clarence Saunders selected it for his chain of self-service stores. Piggly Wiggly was a popular children’s board game of that era. Chips were advanced along a winding pathway by a throw of the dice. There was an entrance and an exit where the player was safe home.

Thus the customers immediately recognized the layout of the stores as described in the article: turnstiles at the entrance, a check-out counter at the exit, and in between a single serpentine aisle lined with “easy-to-reach goods.”

I played many a game of Piggly Wiggly with my children. It was boring to adults but exciting to the young. It was only fair, as my parents had played it with me.