The Columbus dispatch. (Columbus, Miss.) 19??-1922, 1921-07-03
Clarence Saunders, Head of Piggy WiggIy
Corporation Got His Training First Hand.
First Salary $4 MOnth--Put Over
His Self-Seryer Plan In Less
Than q Week


The Philadelphia Public Ledger.
From a position at 81 a month al
assistant in a grocery store in town
with population of 200 to presiden
If corporation doing monthly
business mounting up into the mil
lions may seem something Of {
jump for a man still under forty, but
then the story Of Clarence Saunders
president of the Piggy Wiggly Stores
Corporation, reads more like a fairy
tale than anything else.
Born in Virginia of an old South
ern Family, Saunders moved at ar
early age to Palmyra, Tenn, where he
started school at the age of nine. His
vacations were spent as a clerk in the
ocal grocery and when, at fourteen,
ne was offered a permanent position
at a salary of Sd a month and board,
ne packed up his books and announced
q his father that he was about to en-
bark on a business career.
Six months later an offer of $40
month lured him to a nearby town,
,ut he soon returned to Palmyra. In
10th of these towns his duties con-
'isted largely of keeping books, ship
ping frienght and looking up tariffs,
none of them interesting occupations
ror exactly what young man would
choose as short cut to fame and for
fortune, but in Saunders case it
proved the foundation upon which all
his later business judgment was based.
Perhaps nothing demonstrates SO
accurately the spirit of the maa as
The principle under which ne has
worked. His theory is "When you go
after something, go after it hard.
Subordinate everything to that end
If it shortens your life ten Yeas,
what's the difference? Better live
fc,ty years and accomplish what you
want, than ninety and never attain
IT,"
At nineteen Saunders became a
salesman for a wholesale grocery
house with headquarters at Clarks-
vile, Tenn. lat salary of $50 a
month. This was a big step ahead
and he was quick to take advantage
of it, not only by working up his
sales arguments so that his orders
totaled more than those of any other
salesman, but by studying the retail
angles more closely,
Solved Many Retail Problems.
His next move was the acceptance
of a position with firm in Memphis,
which had been boycotted by local
chain of stores. This might have
seemed like handicap to most young
men, but to Clarence Saunders it Of
fered an added stimulus to further eff
forts. In this position his previous
studies of the problem of retail mer-
chants stood him in good stead and
when he went up against the antagon-
istic merchants instead of spending
his time talking obaut the superior
quality of the goods he had to sell
he interested himself in the business
problems of his client, gave him help
full hints on how to increase sales on
a line that was not pulling well,
mapped out a clever window display |
or told him how to save the time and |
of his clerks by eliminating |
waste motion
The suggestions made to these
merchants covered every problem and |
conditions of their store, both large
and small. Sometimes it was a sug
gestion to move the cashiers desk
nearer the front of the store to re-
lieve congestion about the counters;
again it was that of placing popular
goods within easy reach or how to
make the vegetable rack look cool
and refreshing instead of like a pile
Of wiltered greens. All this won for
him the admiration and respect of the
men from whom he solicited orders.
Each time ! did this" said Saun-
iers, "I'd mention an attractive price
IN some staple line, but | never fol-
owed it up until the grocer showed
some interest never believe IN
'orcing a mans decision, and want
20 orders in gratitude for any help
we given to make line pull well.
Invariably, however, | would hear
rom that man within a few days and Z
good order would follow
While doing this work, Saunders $
ould not but see how much more j
he average store was paying for
FOODS by buying in small lots, and