Clarence Saunders
Clarence Saunders was an American grocer who opened the first Piggly Wiggly in Memphis in 1916, the first self-service grocery store, where shoppers picked items from shelves themselves.
What they did and why it matters
Saunders shifted picking work from store clerks to customers, an early example of redesigning who does the labor in order fulfillment. Before Piggly Wiggly, clerks gathered each customer's items from behind a counter. His stores laid out shelves along a set path with prices marked on every item, ending at a checkout. He patented the format and franchised it widely. Today grocery e-commerce has partly reversed his model, with store staff or fulfillment centers picking orders again, and buy online, pick up in store programs balance the same labor trade-off.
Events
Sources
- Clarence Saunders (Wikipedia) en.wikipedia.org
- Clarence Saunders (Tennessee Encyclopedia) tennesseeencyclopedia.net