Anyone who has known me for a while knows that I talk about how Banks used to be like the Grocery Story (having to go there every week or so), and now they are like Doctors’ offices (only going when someone has to).
So, it was with much interest yesterday evening that I watched a show on the History Channel about the development of Grocery stores. Grocery stores as we know them did not exist at the turn of the last century (1900). In fact, what became grocery stores were smaller than convenience stores.
If you wanted vegetables, you went to the market. Meat? Go to the butcher. Bread? Go to the baker. Medicines? Go to the pharmacy. Shopping was a laborious and time-consuming process with many trips back and forth from home to the appropriate place to pick up what you needed.
When you were at the Grocery store, you handed your list to a clerk who got your items off the shelf. Want the other cornflakes? Too bad; that is what the clerk brought you and it would have to suffice.
In 1916, Clarence Saunders founded the first Piggly Wiggly in Memphis. He allowed his customers to pick what they wanted and had his staff check them out at the counter. The customers loved picking out the items they wanted. Imagine that – customers feeling empowered and liking it!
1918 photo of the interior of the original Piggly Wiggly store, Memphis, Tennessee. The first self service grocery store, opened 1916. Photo by: Clarence Saunders
In 1937 at another Piggly Wiggly store in Oklahoma City, Sylvan Goodman noticed that his customers were struggling with hand baskets. They were too full and designed for strong men. Most shoppers were women, so he invented the shopping cart. At first, folks were hesitant to use them. Men, because it made them look weak, and ladies, because it reminded them of pushing a baby stroller. How did Goodman overcome these hesitancies? He hired attractive young women to shop with the new carts and then other folks emulated them.
In the 1960s and 1970s, we had grown to have large supermarkets – with Kroger’s leading the way. Bernard Kroger, Kroger’s founder, was the first to combine a bakery, a butcher, and vegetables under one roof in the 1910s and 1920s.
Mr. Kroger actually received a death threat, assumed from a baker, for including baked goods in his store that he sold for less price. Rather than find a way to grow their business, the baker apparently wanted to hang onto old ways and turned to frustration and threats!
In the 1970s, supermarkets along with the carts had grown. But we still rang up groceries by hand causing long lines and delays frustrating customers. Groceries and manufacturers got together and ( based on an old plan from the 1940s using Morse code) created the bar code. They were able to use a plan from the 1940s because technology improved (the scanner).
Why all these ramblings on a Monday about Grocery Stores? If stores stayed the same and did not evolve, they would not be here today and most stores in that line of work did go out of business. Grocery stores taught us that we like convenience in our shopping and that you should empower the customer by allowing them to pick what they want.
This is also true for banking. People like the convenience of knowing what is in their bank account 24-7 and being able to move money when they want to.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
- In 1915 the Grocery Clerk went to the shelf and shopped for the customer.
- In 2025 we go online, place our order and the Grocery Clerk goes to the shelf and shops for you.
If we do not resist change and let the marketplace work it out, there is still the need and desire for a local person… a local banker.
PS – What’s up with the title “The Burnt Pig”? In 1969, the Piggly Wiggly in Wise across from the Post Office burned down. A temporary store was then opened – The Burnt Pig!
Have a great week. – Leton
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“Letters From Leton” is a blog series comprised of the weekly updates that Leton Harding – President, Chairman, and CEO of Powell Valley National Bank, shares with the Bank’s team members. These newsletters are full of uplifting anecdotes and intriguing insights that are applicable beyond the Bank, so we want to share them with you.
