Talk:Piggly Wiggly

In popular culture?

Why was the paragraph "Piggly Wiggly in Popular Culture" removed? I think that is a significent change for the worse. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tbonge (talk • contribs) 16:57, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

It's because these paragraphs are a magnet for marginally relevant or irrelevant junk in Wikipedia articles, such as character so-and-so in such-and-such movie said "Piggly Wiggly" at time index 1:43:02. Who cares?—Quicksilver^{T @} 19:38, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

You, sir, are a scholar; but a scholar without soul. You "improve" the writing to a point where the facts are presented but the character is gone. I am sure that you will take this as a compliment.Tbonge (talk) 04:57, 15 June 2013 (UTC)

My wife just asked me what movie/show she knew Piggly Wiggly from. That's why people care. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:1004:B06E:5D28:0:8:AE25:C501 (talk) 00:26, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

PW Markets

a few years ago a new supermarket called "PW Market" came up in my neighborhood (in California). A friend of mine from the east coast told me about Piggly Wiggly and said that PW was the same store. We went in to ask the employees what PW stands for, one immediately said "Piggly Wiggly", and another then immediately said it wasn't. My friend and I left before they could agree. Does anyone know if they are in fact the same store, and then should the article be changed to include at least california, and wherever else where there is a PW but not Piggly Wiggly? Or is this just so obviously the same store that I'm making a fool of myself?--CallmeNiel 03:01, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

• I would guess that was Joey Franco's PW Markets "With 9 Locations in the Bay Area" at www.pwmarkets.com. — Reinyday, 21:54, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Not any more. The entire chain closed in late August and early September 2010. PW Markets' founders Joey Franco and his wife Florence Franco died in 2003 and 2002, respectively, and the business was unable to compete with non-union retail markets. At the moment, the Web URL still exists, but it just shows a black screen and the page title is "Closed". To see the store's logo, you'll need to cruise over to the Internet Archive, where the site was last collected in August 2008. The PW Markets logo is clearly quite different from Piggly Wiggly's and doesn't suggest that there was ever a connection. Since PW Markets was founded in 1942, it is possible that they were franchisees of Piggly Wiggly Corporation, which allowed them to run the Joey Franco's PW Markets in a self-service format under the patents held by Piggly Wiggly. —Quicksilver^{T @} 20:01, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

The PW in PW Supermarket stands for "Penny Wise" not Piggly Wiggly. My family used to own a business in the same plaza as one of the PW markets. JM Niner Fan (talk) 22:38, 28 June 2020 (UTC)

The colored U.S. map of store density (I surmise) might be a tad more useful with a chart labeling. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2602:306:CF99:2080:AC2C:5663:1792:676D (talk) 16:15, 21 August 2018 (UTC)

Pig logo

• Anyone have an idea of the history of the pig logo design? --Dystopos 22:09, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

My great uncle, William Joe Martin, who lived in Neches, TX was a sign painter by trade. His wife who is still living tells me that he designed the pig logo but never received proper credit for it. I have a few photos of him standing next to Piggly Wiggly signs with the pig logo. One sign is on the side of a truck. The pig logo is in the center and "Childs' Piggly Wiggly" is written across the truck. There are also words like "Greater Variety", "Free Parking", "Spotlessly Clean", etc. The date on the back of this photograph is Aug. 1948. Dordello 15:43, 6 January 2007 (UTC)dordello

The above is false information, the Florida artist William Hoffman created the logo. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 155.220.248.90 (talk) 18:43, 29 June 2018 (UTC)

Needs sources

Much of this seems to be taken from the Piggly Wiggly web site, but are there other sources? Can someone give them to help make the entry a bit more robust for the casual reader? Oswald Glinkmeyer 18:49, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

You are right that much of the text appears to be a copy/paste from the Piggly Wiggly website. The issue then is more one of copyright: is the article sufficiently different from the Piggly Wiggly website to not be a copyright violation? I think that at the moment the answer to that question is no, and so the article needs rewriting. However, as for needing more sources, it seems to me that there is little that could be considered controversial in the article and therefore Piggly Wiggly themselves are an ideal source for information. Obviously more sources would improve verifiability, but I think that the more pressing issue is the one of copyright. JeremyA 19:17, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

When I said "taken" I meant sourced from. I didn't mean actually lifted from the Piggly Wiggly site. I'll have to go look to see how closely it is copied. If it really is a cut and paste, then I would agree we do have a problem. Oswald Glinkmeyer 12:00, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

History

I think that the history section of this article should be listed for having too many "Peacock Terms." Reading this sounds like an advertisement for the company rather than a non-stilted informative article. There are too may declarative proclamations rather than mere factual reporting of the company. Instead of "Piggly Wiggly was the first to price mark every item in the store." Perhaps the section should read: "According to the filed patent.. or Piggly Wiggly claims to have been the first to price mark items...." —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jrucker (talk • contribs) 04:20, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

I took out the unsubstantiated reference to brands not exsisting before Piggly Wiggly. PW and self-service may have made brands and packaging more important, but branded goods existed for many years before PW. Jules (talk) 11:05, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

Jingle from the 1980s

Jingle from the 1980s: "What's the store that gives you more, more of what you're lookin' for? Piggly Wiggly, you all."

-- Fingers-of-Pyrex 13:04, 2005 Apr 20 (UTC)

"You all"? Seriously? Not "y'all"? B7T 12:50, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Your Piggly Wiggly Stores article

My father and his brothers founded a chain in Omaha, Nebraska named "Hinky Dinky" in about 1929. Shortly thereafter Piggly Wiggly filed a patent infrinement suit, obviously claiming infringement of the patent cited in your "Piggly Wiggly" article. My father told me that the suit was dismissed after the "Hinky Dinky" stores agreed to separate its alternate aisles from the rear wall of the store, thus freeing up the customers to go directly to any spot in the store. If you read the claims in Piggly Wiggly article, you will see that the "Hinky Dinky" alteration wold not infringe the "Piggly Wiggly" patent.

As far as I know the "Hinky Dinky" chain was the first to open up to shoppers a self-service grocery store in this fashion, thus creating gondolas and no longer forcing customers to walk sinuously throught the store. As we all know, the "Hinky Dinky" format is now universal in self-service stores of all sorts.

I would guess that the "Hinky Dinky" format was not patentable as no doubt there were many stores for many years prior laid out in that fashion. I do not know if "Piggly Wiggly filed infringement suits against other retailers, but, as a retired Patent attorney, I do know that its patent was probably valid, but obviously of little value. By the way this is true of many novel ideas which have been patented. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.227.91.29 (talk • contribs)

Today

Today is Piggly Wiggly's 90th birthday! -- Toytoy 03:10, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Copyright problems

As Wahkeenah (talk · contribs) has pointed out, it seems like over time various parts of the Piggly Wiggly website have been copy/pasted here. The copyrighted text should be found and either substantially rewritten or removed completely. —JeremyA (talk) 22:59, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

I think that I have now removed all text that was duplicated from pigglywiggly.com —JeremyA (talk) 00:43, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Swell article

Thanks to all contributors. Maikel (talk) 18:36, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

Name

I came here to learn where this really bizarre company name came from. Wikipedia for the first time in six years has failed me. Shame on you. Huw Powell (talk) 05:31, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

I too, came to this page for the same reason, and left disappointed. Does anyone know why Saunders decided the best name for his new grocery store would be "Piggly Wiggly"? 172.129.244.96 (talk) 16:19, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Piggly Wiggly's website has this to say about the name:

Saunders' reason for choosing the intriguing name Piggly Wiggly remains a mystery; he was curiously reluctant to explain its origin. One story is that he saw from a train window several little pigs struggling to get under a fence, and the rhyming name occurred to him then. Someone once asked him why he had chosen such an unusual name for his organization, and Saunders' reply was, "So people will ask that very question." He wanted and found a name that would be talked about and remembered.

Gobonobo ^{T C} 19:55, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

My guess would be that "Wiggly" comes from the snake-like layout of the original store, and "Piggly" just rhymes (and has something to do with food). Xcrivener (talk) 20:58, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

My mom, who grew up in the south, told me it was common knowledge that it was called "Piggly Wiggly" because the frantically shopping customers acted like pigs wiggling around all over the store. If that's the real reason, that they named their chain after how their customers behaved, then maybe Clarence Saunders and the Piggly Wiggly Office of Public Relations were so coy and mysterious because they didn't want people to know they thought of their customers as wiggly piggies. Xardox (talk) 22:13, 27 July 2019 (UTC)

Patent?

Anyone have any more info about the patenting of the self-service concept? How long did this last and how successful was it? Clearly it is widespread now and the article says straight away that other shops copied the idea. Jules (talk) 11:10, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

Piggly Wiggly in Africa

I grew up in South Texas and my parents regularly shopped at Piggly Wiggly groceries when I was small in the early 1950s. They were pretty much gone by the time I left high school in the mid-1960s, though. By chance I emigrated to South Africa in 1981 and lived there for many years. I was astonished to find Piggly Wiggly grocery stores in Pretoria where I was living. In traveling through the country, I would occasionally run across other Piggly Wiggly grocery stores. They reminded me very much of the early 1950s stores from my childhood.

I see now that the grocery stores chain seems to have morphed into a general food service enterprise with emphasis on restaurants and coffee shops since I left in the mid-1990s, though.

http://www.pigglywiggly.co.za/

Plaasjaapie (talk) 00:29, 6 August 2011 (UTC)

Piggly Wiggly in WI, IL

The picture of the location of the Piggly Wigglys is wrong; there are Pigs in Illinois and Wisconsin. http://www.shopthepig.com/ 206.225.133.128 (talk) 03:13, 31 March 2014 (UTC)

Why New Hampshire?

With the closest retail location four states away, New Hampshire would seem a very unlikely choice for the location of the company headquarters. 184.0.226.135 (talk) 03:19, 13 October 2016 (UTC)

Toyota production system and Piggly Wiggly

The whole, just in time and toyota production system that has revolutionized manufacturing was inspired a piggly wiggly — Preceding unsigned comment added by 103.66.79.142 (talk) 10:22, 21 November 2018 (UTC)

Web site url has been changed.

The new url is www.pigglywigglystores.com/ 2601:CA:8500:29:5500:4279:9A1F:2CD9 (talk) 11:14, 31 December 2022 (UTC)

Controversy

On 24 October 2022, a Piggy Wiggly store in Greenvile, North Carolina had to temporarily shut down after a rumour had spread that a YouTuber Mr Beast was going to buy out the whole store, it left the store in mayhem after he did not show up.

Mr Beast had allegedly replied to Keemstar, another YouTuber that he intended to go to a Piggy Wiggly store and discreetly pay for some customers' groceries, he also asked for the store manager's permission the day before. However, the store manager allegedly leaked the information to the employees and announced to people that Mr Beast will pay for everyone's groceries, citing that the manager was taking advantage of the kindness.

Customers littered the store, throwing anything they want into their shopping carts, causing mayhem in the store. After learning that Mr Beast was unable to come due to some security issues, the customers left items messed up in the store, they too were taking advantage of Mr Beast's generosity. KieronKN (talk) 18:16, 28 January 2023 (UTC)

US Locations Map

Would someone be willing to edit the map? According to the map on their own website, they no longer have stores in Minnesota or Missouri, and they now have a store in New York and a couple in Texas. I don't understand how to edit SVG images; therefore, I'm wondering if someone else would be willing to do it. https://www.pigglywiggly.com/store-locations/ Thanks. Pillowcrow (talk) 16:14, 26 July 2023 (UTC)

Im also noticing this issue but similarly don't have the capability to edit SVGs. I'm sure someone from commons could do it, though. BhamBoi (talk) 06:11, 7 January 2024 (UTC)