Clarence Saunders and the Piggly Wiggly have ended up being oddly important to my professional career. I work at the museum housed in Saunders’ never-lived-in mansion that was funded by his creation of the self-service grocery chain. I wrote a graduate seminar paper on the city’s transformation of the mansion into a museum. Currently, I am doing research for the redesign of the mansion exhibits. Saunders was an odd man, but it did have a keen sense of the importance of advertising and a genuine interest in the city of Memphis.
I read Freeman’s master’s thesis a couple of years ago while I was working on a different exhibit, and I enjoyed this reworked version that focuses attention on the mechanics of how Saunders lost his two fortunes. Now onto another research tangent.
[NB–I always mean “Read” in the title to read sounding like “red” not “feed.” Mostly because I am not deluded enough to think that anyone else shares my exact taste in books.]
Caroline Mitchell Carrico 