Self-service came with a compulsory tour

On September 6, 1916, Clarence Saunders opened the first Piggly Wiggly store in Memphis. Customers took baskets, removed goods from open shelves and brought their selections to a cashier. The company history calls it America’s first true self-service grocery store.

Six weeks later, Saunders applied for a patent. The interesting invention in it is not the basket or even the reachable shelf. It is the route.

Rows of cabinets were arranged with openings at alternating ends, making a continuous serpentine passage from entrance to checkout. One-way gates controlled both ends. The patent repeatedly says that the customer “must traverse” this circuitous path.

Self-service therefore offered a precise kind of freedom. Shoppers could choose and handle goods without asking a clerk, but they could not choose which part of the store to see. The stated purpose was partly efficiency: more customers, fewer employees and less confusion. It was also compulsory exposure. Saunders wanted every shopper to review the entire assortment and become acquainted with the store’s various lines.

The old grocer controlled access to merchandise from behind a counter. Saunders removed that clerk and gave some of the clerk’s work to the customer. The shelving then assumed another part of the job. It presented goods in sequence, kept traffic moving and delivered every basket to the payment station.

What looked like the liberation of the shopper was also the invention of a more disciplined walk. You could pick anything yourself. First you had to pass everything else.