Just Add Water

If you spot this brand in your neighborhood supermarket it is not from Scandinavia. The unique spelling originated in Seattle, Washington in 1932. Rose Charters and her husband decided to tackle the challenge of making the perfect, easy-to-prepare pie crust. She called her product Krusteaz by cleverly combining “crust” and “ease.” The spirit of innovation continued with their introduction of “just add water” Pancake Mix and Belgian Waffle Mix. The Krusteaz fan base expanded eastward to become a national favorite by offering a variety of products. 

Pictured is a current box of Krusteaz Waffle Mix.

Your Neighborhood A&P

The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A&P) was the largest grocery retailer in the USA for the first half of the 20th Century. The management had the resources to be able to lower consumer prices and at the same time keep their profits just above the break-even point. Most small retailers, many not able to stay afloat for more than a year anyway, hated chain stores because they were unable to compete with this strategy. Congressional lobbyists set out to destroy A&P with ridiculously high taxes in the mid-1930s then suggested splitting the dominating store into several companies in the 1940s. The attacks were against any large chain store, but being by far the largest of them all, A&P was especially hit hard with unproven accusations and a lack of understanding of how their business model worked, even into the 1950s. The eventual death of both controlling brothers left its successor unequipped to modernize A&P's conservative management. During the 1960s few were shopping at their outdated supermarkets with higher prices. A&P's constant battles were something to behold. 

An excellent consensus of what happened to A&P.

Read about A&P's famous Eight O'Clock Coffee.

Inventing Self-Service Shopping

The Piggly Wiggly franchise was founded in Memphis, Tennessee in 1916 by Clarence Saunders. His store concept was the original self-service "super" market. Although the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (later simply A&P) preceded Piggly Wiggly by some 46 years, customers needing groceries at A&P would hand their shopping list over to a clerk who would fill the order from the shelves and hand shoppers a bag full of their items. Piggly Wiggly turned that routine on its head by establishing the model for the modern market. 

Customers entered the store through a turnstile, handed a shopping basket, and were left to wander the aisles to fill their carts with whatever products caught their eye. The employees wore uniforms and the store price-marked items from merchandise that was organized into departments. Instantly, packaging and brand recognition became important to companies and consumers alike. By 1930, markets across the country adopted Saunder's concept. In 1937, Piggly Wiggly's Oklahoma branch became the first company to provide shopping carts for customers. Certain franchises had a pig mascot that would attract attention by welcoming customers approaching the store. Piggly Wiggly was among the first to develop a loyalty card discount membership program similar to many other national merchants. 

Through a series of questionable stock transactions, Saunders lost control of the company in 1922. By 1928, the Kroger chain purchased a controlling interest in Piggly Wiggly Corporation, buying approximately 400 franchised Piggly Wiggly stores, mostly in the Midwest. Near this time, Safeway acquired most of the West Coast Piggly Wiggly stores. After additional buyouts and selloffs, those Piggly Wigglys were absorbed into the chain's operation. Today, the Piggly Wiggly headquarters is in Keene, New Hampshire, operating over 500 stores in 18 states, mostly in smaller communities in the southeast. 

Note: Clarence Saunders was reluctant to explain the origin of the company's name, leaving it to consumers and the business world to conjure up their own legends. The original Memphis store is pictured above in 1916.