The Liberty Market was in the first floor of a three-story building adjacent to the Liberty Theatre. One of the public markets was the Liberty Market just north of the northeast corner of First and Pike Street. (Lawton Gowey collection via Paul Dorpat) This was the first home of Piggly Wiggly in Seattle, on First near Pike. Behind the streetcar jumble the awning says “Liberty Public Market”. The first two stores were in public markets where the co-location of butchers, green grocers (produce), bakeries, and other food vendors provided convenience to shoppers. Piggly Wiggly was focused on non-perishable goods with some produce. In 1921 Jones suddenly announced that he had purchased the Piggly Wiggly franchise for Washington State and would begin opening stores. Jones photo published a week before stores opened, Septem( Seattle Star) He registered for the draft that year in Seattle but escaped World War One because of his dependent wife and son.
Arthur and his wife Virginia lived in Seattle from at least 1917 while he continued traveling for Van Camp.
In that capacity he came to Seattle and was an early seller to Groceteria Stores. He became a selling agent for Van Camp Packing Company, which still exists as a brand of canned beans but at the time sold all kinds of produce wholesale. Jones grew up in Navarro, Texas in a large family, son of grocer John D. Seattle was the first city in Washington State to get Piggly Wiggly stores, a pair that opened November 1921. By the time Piggly Wiggly arrived in Seattle, Groceteria had been in business for six years and had 30-odd stores mostly in the city but also around the region. As discussed in the Groceteria article, Piggly Wiggly was actually beat to that business model by several stores including Seattle’s Groceteria stores in 1915. Piggly Wiggly is popularly remembered as the first American self-service chain grocery, starting in 1916. It started in Tennessee and expanded through regional franchise licenses across the entire country during and after World War One. Piggly Wiggly is a chain grocery store that continues today mostly in America’s Midwest and South.
Piggly Wiggly in Washington State split into half that joined Tradewell’s immediate predecessor, and half that turned into Tradewell’s main competitor, Safeway. But it carried on a long, twenty-four year legacy of self-service chain stores in Seattle. Tradewell was christened in October 1939, based in Seattle, and spread stores down the West Coast. This article is fifth in an exploration of Seattle’s chain grocery history, focusing on the predecessors of Tradewell. In Seattle Piggly Wiggly competed with the companies that became Tradewell Stores for 15 years.
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