Piggly Wiggly Cost Comparisons

Piggly Wiggly®, America's first true self-service grocery store, was founded in Memphis, Tennessee in 1916 by Clarence Saunders. In grocery stores of that time, shoppers presented their orders to clerks who then gathered the goods from the store shelves.

Piggly Wiggly Corporation, which Saunders established when he opened his first store in Memphis, secured the self-service format and issued franchises to hundreds of grocery retailers to operate their own Piggly Wiggly® stores.

Piggly Wiggly® was the FIRST to…

• - Provide checkout stands.
• - Price mark every item in the store.
• - Give shoppers more for their food dollar through high volume/low profit margin retailing.
• - Feature a full line of nationally advertised brands.
• - Use refrigerated cases to keep produce fresher longer.
• - Put employees in uniforms for cleaner, more sanitary food handling.
• - Design and use patented fixtures and equipment throughout the store.
• - Franchise independent grocers to operate under the self-service method of food merchandising.

Today there are more than 530 Piggly Wiggly stores serving communities in 17 states. All Piggly Wiggly® stores are independently owned and operated, and though they are located primarily in the Southeast, there are Piggly Wiggly® stores as far north as Wisconsin.

The total investment necessary to begin operation of a Store franchise is estimated to range between approximately $1,335,080 and $4,408,800, this includes an estimated total amount of between $1,255,080 and $4,008,800 for the purchase of much of your opening inventory, equipment and leasehold improvements that typically must be paid to the franchisor. No initial franchise fee exists, but franchisees pay continuing license fees based on gross sales.