Not only does it have the cutest name of any grocery store, but Piggly Wiggly also has a claim to fame in that it ushered in a new way to shop for groceries. When it started as a single store in Memphis, Tennessee in 1916, Piggly Wiggly was the first self-service grocery store, meaning that shoppers would pick items off the shelf instead of handing a list to the grocery clerk who would gather the items. It seems hard to believe that such stores even existed, but for a long time that is the way that most merchants operated. You would interact with a clerk or salesperson who would get the items that you desired.

Piggly Wiggly is also different from most chain grocers in that the stores are franchised instead of company-owned. This means each store can cater to its local market, pulling in small producers to set up a counter in the store where they can sell directly to customers. For Kamal Constantine, who owns 10 Piggly Wiggly stores in Alabama, that means for his Fairhope store, he can offer a selection of freshly-prepared Thai dishes from a local restaurant to his customers. “It makes it interesting to come to my stores,” Constantine says. “In one store, I have a pharmacy and I have a seafood shop… and then somebody else cooks Mediterranean food.”

One thing I found interesting when reading about these stores is how we have come full-circle, in a way, to the old-fashioned stores that predated the self-service supermarkets of today. Now shoppers hand a list—albeit electronically—to the store, which has clerks fetch the items for the online orders. Shoppers can tell the store what to substitute if they are out of a certain item, and can either pick up the groceries or have them delivered. We can even hire our own 'personal' shopper via DoorDash or a similar service, track where our items are, and pinpoint the delivery time. I guess it comes down to the old saying that the more things change, the more they stay the same.