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An American entrepreneur, Clarence Saunders, pioneered
the idea of the self-service grocery store that would evolve
into the modern supermarket. Saunders’ first store, the
Piggly Wiggly, opened in 1916 in Memphis, Tennessee.
The King Cullen Grocery Company of Long Island
founded in 1930 built on the Piggly Wiggly format with
separate food departments and a parking lot and is
recognized by the Smithsonian Institute as the first
supermarket proper. Back home we were quite slow in
taking up the idea. The Romford Co-Op had introduced
a very limited self service area in 1942 but with the war
still on the biggest drawback was a lack of things to sell.
The title of the UK’s first supermarket goes to the
Premier
Supermarket (pictured below) opened on the Streatham
High Road in South London by the Express Dairy
Company in 1951.
The Grocer reported:
"
Fifteen hundred South London housewives performed
their own opening ceremony of the new self-service shop.
At no time did they incur any discomfort or cause
congestion, and the management expected to clear 3,000
customers with equal ease through the three check-out
lanes."
It was the brainchild of the Express Dairy Company
managing director’s son in law, a dapper young American
businessman called Patrick Galvani. Patrick resigned from
Premier in 1963 when the firm, having turned down the
opportunity to buy a chain of northern supermarkets
(which was snapped up by another small chain called
Tesco), refused an offer to be the first UK supermarket
to use the Green Shield Stamps loyalty scheme. Express
Dairies went on to sell the Premier chain and used the
money to promote long-life milk while Mr Galvani went
on to run an hotel in Bedfordshire before retiring to
Eastbourne. Britain’s first supermarket in Streatham is
still a little supermarket which today specializes in halal
meat and exotic fruit and veg from around the world.
Researching this part of the story I came across a
fascinating and macabre video clip of Kim Jong-un, the
new Dear Leader of North Korea, cutting a big red ribbon
to open the Mansugyo Meat and Fish Shop in Pyongpang
in April of this year. The commentary says his visit
brings satisfaction to the soldiers who built the store and
that they should be loved by the people. Nothing about
widespread starvation brought on by the national food
shortage as, accompanied by dramatic music, the Dear
Leader wanders along the aisles surrounded by his military
commanders. It is like a National Theatre adaptation
of Hamlet set in a dystopian future, only at one stage the
Dear Leader seems to be completely fascinated by a
bottle of orange squash instead of Yorick’s skull.
Department Stores
I think my favourite story from the 100,000 visitors that
our tour guides have taken to see the Olympic venues is
the lady from Surrey, up on the Greenway viewing point
with our guide Martin. Pointing to the Westfield Stratford
City development Martin said “ If you look to the horizon
you can seeing rising above the new shopping centre those
welcome initials - M&S” at which point the lady piped up
“oh good are they having a Marshall & Snelgrove?” Sadly
not. Nor Gamages, nor Derry & Toms, nor Swan & Edgar.
All gone, but clearly not forgotten.
Most department stores evolved from humble beginnings
as small shops, gradually buying up neighbouring shops
in the block and knocking the walls through which is why
places like Gamages were such an unruly warren.
Not so Selfridges, which arrived on Oxford Street as a
fully-fledged department store complete with a Grand
Opening in March 1909. Henry Gordon Selfridge, known
as Harry, was the son of a small shopkeeper who didn’t
return from the American Civil War - he didn't die, he just
didn’t come home. He worked his way up the ladder at a
Chicago department store where his innovations included
illuminated and theatrically dressed window displays as
well as the now familiar phrases;
Only -- Shopping Days Until Christmas
&
The Customer is Always Right.
earned him the nickname “Mile-a-Minute Harry”. Over 25
years he helped turn the Chicago store into the largest in
the world before setting up on his own. Harry Selfridge
married a wealthy heiress and by the age of 49 he had sold
his store and was now a rich man. But it was too soon for