Clarence Saunders

Clarence Saunders (August 9, 1881 - October 14, 1953) was a grocer who first developed the modern retail sales model of self service. His ideas have had a massive influence on the development of the modern supermarket. Clarence Saunders worked for most of his life trying to develop a truly automated store, developing Piggly Wiggly, Keedoozle, and Foodelectric store concepts.

Born in Virginia,Saunders left school at 14 to clerk in a general store. He then became a traveling ‘drummer’ for a wholesale grocer in 1900 and in 1904 a city salesman for a wholesaler. Through his experiences he became convinced that many small grocers failed because of heavy credit losses and high overhead. Consequently in 1915 he organized the Saunders-Blackburn Co., which sold for cash only and encouraged its retail customers to do the same. By Clarence Ng