When and where did the first self-service stores appear?

Self-service stores are gaining more and more popularity in different countries of the world. On the one hand, they are convenient for the buyer, since they allow you to choose the right products without resorting to the seller for help. On the other hand, they provide a relatively high income while lowering the costs of maintaining employees. The first self-service stores appeared in the last century in America and gradually began to be used in many countries.

The very idea of ​​a self-service store arose in the early twentieth century. In California, in 1912, the owners of the Wards Grosetaria and Alpha Beta Food Market decided to change their establishments a bit to minimize staff costs. At the same time, Humpty Dumpty stores are appearing in the USA, which translates into Russian as “Humpty Dumpty”. However, in all these establishments, the idea of ​​self-service was only partially used, and some goods were still impossible to purchase without the help of a seller.

In 1916, Clarence Saunders was finally able to refine the idea of ​​self-service and patented it as his own invention. His idea of ​​a self-service store is largely implemented in modern supermarkets. Saunders described in detail the appearance of such an institution and indicated that it should have an entrance equipped with a turnstile, a lot of counters with goods and a cash register. Of particular importance was not only the reduction in employee costs, but also the opportunity to offer the buyer a wide range of products, so that he could at the same time acquire many things besides those that he came to the store.

September 6, 1916 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA, opened the first self-service store. It belonged to Clarence Saunders, the owner of the patent, and was called Piggly Wiggly. At first, the store brought a very high income, incomparable with sales revenue from the counter, but soon the Americans realized that the lack of control from the sellers gives them a unique opportunity to carry goods in their pockets without paying. The number of thefts was huge, and then Saunders changed the location of cash desks and trading floors. Keeping track of buyers has become easier, and losses due to theft have been reduced.

And, finally, a full-fledged large self-service store with a trolley in which it was convenient to store goods appeared only in 1937. It was an advanced Humpty Dumpty in America. In the USSR, the first self-service store opened only in 1954 in Leningrad.