When the latter store “was on its last legs, Mother and the neighbors called it the ‘cornmeal store,' reminiscent of old stores west of the Mississippi that carried only cornmeal and molasses.” Another one was at the corner of Zarzamora and Fredericksburg, says Richard R. Piggly Wiggly had at least three corner stores on Zarzamora Street, two at the intersections of Woodlawn and Cincinnati avenues, remembers Mignon Nicholson. “We recently traveled to South Carolina where (the chain) is still operating,” she adds, “and they even sell souvenir T-shirts and sweatshirts with their logo.” Though the checkered ceramic tile on a vacant former Asian food store at West Commerce and 20th streets is more extensive than the ex-Pig on Olmos Drive, pictured in last week's column, Linda Jordan wonders if it, too, could have been a Piggly Wiggly. She also remembers a Pig on Austin Highway and Lanark Drive, as does Martha Jo Whitt of Gonzales, who recalls it in a “lively strip center” between Harry Wurzbach Highway and Perrin-Beitel Road.Įster Soto, who grew up near Jefferson High School, remembers a Piggly Wiggly in the Jefferson Village center on Donaldson at Manor: “The building is there but vacant and for sale or lease.” Older family members recall “walking from Joske's department store (at the corner of Alamo Plaza and Commerce Street) to buy groceries at the Piggly Wiggly on East Commerce across from Schilo's restaurant.” Joyce Wolfe “can still remember my father in his apron, stocking shelves at the Piggly Wiggly he managed on East Houston Street and Gevers” during the early 1950s in a small strip center where Doc's Drug Store anchored the other end. “As a kid growing up in the 1950s in the Kelly Homes off Frio City Road, I recall a Piggly Wiggly near the intersection of Frio, South Zarzamora and what is now Highway 90,” says Richard Masling.

After analyzing the photo to determine its location, Mitchell “drove to that spot and lo and behold, the building is still there.” Mitchell Construction, that built it in the 1920s. Just a few years after the downtown stores opened, one was added on Fredericksburg Road and West French Place, says Andy Mitchell, who works for the family firm, G.W. Groceries were carted home in brown bags: You never bought more than you could carry, necessitating lots of trips to the store.”

It became too heavy after canned goods were placed in it, so you put it on the oiled wooden floor to push it along with your foot, lifting it when you changed aisles. Betty Ludwig's grandmother and aunts lived on the 800 block of Nolan Street and shopped at a nearby Piggly Wiggly, which had “turnstyles on entering and woven baskets with a wide handle that you placed on your arm as you selected your items.

The chain grew with the city, spreading to near-downtown and suburban neighborhoods. Patronizing the Pig could save time for shoppers, since the stores carried not only dry goods - the pantry staples of the traditional grocery trade - but fresh produce and meat, eliminating the need for separate trips to the greengrocer's or butcher's shops. Within a decade, there were nearly 40 Piggly Wigglies in San Antonio, coexisting with Red & White, Home-Ond and other similar chains. The locations were all what we would now think of as downtown: 122 W. Piggly Wiggly opened five stores during the chain's first year in San Antonio, says an advertisement in the San Antonio Express, June 8, 1920. By eliminating delivery and telephone charges (for deliveries), bad accounts and sky-blue salesmanship, it is possible to reduce prices, and the customer is given this benefit.”Īsked why he gave the chain its unusual name, says the history, Saunders replied, “So people will ask that very question.” In a self-service store, says a 1920s advertisement, “One hundred people can get what they want in the same time that it would take to wait on 10 people in any other store. Price tags, checkout stands, employee uniforms and refrigerated cases for produce were among Saunders' other revolutionary ideas for making shopping more efficient and cost-effective for customers as well as storekeepers. Its founder was Clarence Saunders, who developed the concept of the cash-and-carry, self-service store with innovations such as baskets in which shoppers could gather their own selections from open shelves, as opposed to asking a clerk for help. , the first store opened in 1916 in Memphis, Tenn. According to a corporate history at www.piggly 30, Piggly Wiggly was an early chain store franchised to independent owners.

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