Clarence Saunders Inc. - Piggly Wiggly Founder

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Clarence Saunders Inc. - Piggly Wiggly Founder - Signed by C. Saunders

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Vintage Stock Certificate

Product Code: SC2375

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This rare Clarence Saunders Inc stock certificate was issued in 1932 and is hand-signed by president Clarence Saunders. Clarence Saunders revolutionized grocery stores with founding of Piggly Wiggly in 1916. At the time, shoppers would submit their order to grocery store clerks who would then gather the groceries for the shopper from the store shelves. He was the first to allow shopper to shop for themselves and opened the first Piggly Wiggly in Memphis. There were open shelves, shopping baskets and no clerks. Unheard of for the time. His loss of his company would become legendary.

Piggly Wiggly began trading on the NYSE and in the early 1920s. After a few franchises failed, Merrill Lynch and other speculators drove the stock price down in a bear raid. Saunders took out a loan and began buying large amounts of stock in an attempt to drive up the price. He ended up buy almost all the outstanding shares and the NYSE declared a "Corner" existed and gave short sellers an additional 5 days to deliver shares allowing them to dump shares on the open market. The stock price tanked and Saunders had to turnover all his shares and even his house to creditors. He resigned as president of Piggly Wiggly. He lost the naming rights to Piggly Wiggly as well as his own name Clarence Saunders as it was often used in advertisements and inevitably linked in the public mind to Piggly Wiggly.

After his failure at Piggly Wiggly he created another grocery store chain called Clarence Saunders, Sole Owner of My Name Stores Inc. Most of his stores would be located right next to a Piggly Wiggly and soon had 220 stores in 15 states.

While initially successful, it failed during the great depression. He even founded a professional football team called the "Clarence Saunders Sole Owner of My Name Tigers". The Tigers played the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers. His team was invited to join the NFL but he declined their offer and disbanded the team. Many believe he did so because he disliked to travel.

Clarence Saunders Incorporated, it seems, was another attempt at a grocery store chain in Memphis in which he was trying to use the Piggly Wiggly name again. It was bankrupt by 1933.