History of Self-Service Stores
Background
Up until the introduction of self-service stores, customers would simply ask the shopkeeper for their goods. The shopkeeper would price them (weighing them if necessary), pack them in a bag or other container (often supplied by the customer), tot up the bill and receive payment. There was a personal one-to-one relationship between customer and shopkeeper.
The First Self-Service Store
This all changed in 1915 when Albert Gerrard opened the Groceteria in Los Angeles, the first documented self-service store. This was soon followed a year later by the Piggly Wiggly® self-service store, founded by Clarence Saunders in Tennessee in the U.S.
Efficiency
These entrepreneurs noticed that their staff had to spend a great deal of time taking grocery orders from
customers. The groceries were stacked on shelves allowing
customers to walk around and browse, collecting their shopping in a basket that was supplied. The shopkeeper would only need to tot up the final bill at the end of the process and transfer the goods from the basket to the
customer and receive payment.
Growth
This new type of shopping was more efficient and many customers preferred it. Although personal service stores remain to this day, this new concept started a rapid growth of self-service stores in the United States. Other countries were slow to take up the idea, but there has been a steady rise in the global amount of self-service stores ever since.
Beginnings of Retail Trade | Chains | How Retail Developed | Self-Service Stores | Birth of Distance Retailing
History | Marketing | The Supply Chain | Types of Retail Outlet
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