Gazette readers have been wondering about stories passed down by family members about shopping at their neighborhood Piggly Wiggly stores “way back when” in Colorado Springs. True or not?
Piggly Wiggly was, and still is, a familiar grocery name in the South, with a history dating 100-plus years. And, indeed, the local connection goes back almost that far as well.
Piggly Wiggly opened in 1916 in Memphis, Tenn., at a time when shoppers went to small stores and gave their grocery lists to clerks, who then walked through narrow aisles collecting the goods. A businessman named Clarence Saunders changed it all, starting what’s considered the first self-service grocery/convenience store as shoppers walked the wide aisles themselves, carrying wooden baskets…