Clarence Saunders — Advertising Genius

He gets credit for "inventing" the supermarket with his national chain of Piggly Wiggly stores — but he had an unmatched flair for advertising groceries.

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Now look: I'm not going to tell you about the life and legacy of Clarence Saunders. Well, not much, anyway. If, after all we have written about him over the years in Memphis magazine — that he gets credit for inventing the modern supermarket with his self-service Piggly Wiggly stores, that he made so much money he built the Pink Palace mansion on Central that's now our city's museum (though he never got to live in it); that he then embarked on a new grocery venture called Clarence Saunders: Sole Owner of My Name stores; that he lost his shirt with those, too; and that he invented the completely remote-controlled grocery with his automated Keedoozle stores, where the shopper carried a key around, instead of pushing a basket up and down aisles ...

Uh, where was I? — Look, if I have to remind you of all THAT, then you haven't been paying attention, and you probably won't read this either.

But I hope you do, because an important component of the genius of this world-famous entrepreneur was his flair for self-promotion and advertising.

And for proof of that, just consider the headline for the full-page newspaper ad (above) that ran in the January 1928 edition of the Memphis Evening Appeal. The headline blares out: WEEP MY LADY, WEEP.

What in the world? Then he continues, "Let thy tears drench thy heaving bosum."

And after THAT, he goes on: "Do not the clouds overhead pour out the water upon the dry and parched earth in season? Is not this act of the elements a freshening to the drooping spirit of the hungry plant life that thirsts for the April shower? Be not ashamed, woman, that nature has put within you the tear ducts that open when a shower is needed to wash away the trouble of your heart. It's perfectly natural, and what's natural is bound to happen. This means only that when God made you He put in the extra water that must come out when it's ready — so weep, my lady, weep.

And then the crammed the rest of that entire page with the "Bargains for Friday" — listing some 90 products that shoppers could find at his Sole Owner stores. Among them were such tasty items as pig tails, pit ears, pig feet, and pit snouts. Mmmmm.

This was pretty much how he attracted attention, day after day, with his newspaper advertising.

Another ad started this way: "MY HEAD FELL OFF. It just got so big it fell off."

And when THAT caught your eye, he explained, "And when it fell it hit with a hollow bump, for it was empty as a tin can, but sounded like a dry gourd. A few 'nuts' standing around thought it was funny. 'Bout that time I picked up my hollow head — put a few pennies in it — stuck it back on my neck — and a lot of money commenced to grow inside. The moral of this is that nothing is worse but what it could be worser."

Then, as usual, he followed with a incredible list of just about every product he sold.

My favorite of these full-page ads, though, is the one where the headline was "I'M A ROOTING ANIMAL." I could share the whole "intro" story here, but just like the others, it had nothing do with groceries, or good service, or low prices. It caught your attention, unlike the other ads from other stores, and that's all he wanted.

The man was ahead of his time, in so many ways. And let's include newspaper advertising among them.

Here are the ads I mentioned. I know they may be hard to read — these newspapers are almost 100 years old — but they give you a sense of how overwhelming and powerful his ads were. It's almost impossible to look away from them — or not read why Clarence claimed he was a rooting animal!