The store almost immediately restocks that empty shelf space with just enough product to fill it back up. The customer buys a product and leaves an empty shelf where the product used to be. When studying the American grocery industry, Ohno saw a staggeringly efficient manufacturing and sales system: That last item is a little hard to come by, but according to legend, that’s what Toyota industrial engineer Taiichi Ohno found when he visited a Piggly Wiggly in the early 1950s. The key to completely revolutionizing the manufacturing and production industry forever.More information may be found in our histories of the grocery trade such as The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America, The Rise and Decline of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company and Building A Housewife's Paradise.Here’s a list of things you might find in your local supermarket: The era of "don't touch the merchandise" was nearly over. A&P, the country’s largest grocery chain, finally adopted self serve in 1936. In 1932, Chicago’s Jewel Tea Company acquired Loblaw’s 72 Chicago stores and became Jewel Food Stores. The Toronto company entered the Chicago market in 1928. Notable in Chicago were the self-serve Loblaw Groceterias. Chicago by 1926 had over 300,000 automobiles or about one car for every two families. was moving from a rural economy, where nobody got paid until the harvest came in, to an industrial economy where workers got cash every day or every week. Chain stores were starting to take over from the thousands of independent groceries. Mass production and processing of food products allowed small individual packages and brand name identification. The stores were still small, but you could touch the merchandise. Tribune ads show that Chicago had 60 Piggly Wigglys by 1921. Chicago’s first five stores opened in June of 1918. Saunders immediately franchised Piggly Wiggly stores nationwide. Saunder's 1917 patent for a self serving store Also gone were the troublesome credit accounts. Turnstiles and fencing ensured the customer couldn't escape without paying. Customers moved through the aisles and the clerk remained at the cash register. However shopping changed forever when Memphis grocer Clarence Saunders patented the “self-serving store” in 1917. Today you can still get groceries delivered and small food stores are an important part of Chicago. The delivery cost about three percent and the credit two percent of the bill. The milkman and vegetable seller likely came directly to your house. Perhaps the groceries were delivered, but you would certainly stop off at the butcher shop and the bakery on the way home. Signage, also considered "modern," is lacking. Cash registers, scales and refrigerated cases were all considered modern. Months later, after a series of escalating demands and threats to cut off credit, the man of the house stopped by to put a few dollars towards the account. The clerk totaled up the goods and charged them to the family’s account. While the clerk was scooping navy beans out of a barrel and grabbing packages of crackers, the lady chatted with her neighbors. In those sexist times, the lady of the house, or perhaps a maid, would give the clerk a list. Merchandise was safely behind the counter. Stores carried no more than a few hundred boring items. Frank Baum's Princess Ozma of Oz was the only person with a video phone. Grocery shopping 100 years ago was very different. You pull out your video phone, point it at the soft drink display, call home, and demand to know “EXACTLY what kind of grape soda do you want?” Finally, you push your shopping cart full of needed and unneeded items to the front of the store, pay and carry everything home. People less honest than you or me may taste a grape or even slip something into a pocket. Childlike, you not only test the 43,844 items with your eyes, but you pick them up, shake them, compare weights and set them back down. You let your eyes roam from brightly colored box to brightly colored box. Perhaps when you go to the supermarket, you run from aisle to aisle with preplanned precision, picking up only those items you need and finish shopping in the 10 minutes you have allocated. Wooden Barrels, Continued: Technology That Changed Chicago.Air Rights: Technology That Changed Chicago.Artesian Wells: Technology That Changed Chicago.Standard Time: Technology That Changed Chicago.Gaslight: Technology That Changed Chicago.CTA Subways, Freight Tunnels, Street Car Tunnels: Underground Chicago.Gas and Other Utilities: Underground Chicago.
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