Merchandise from a long-standing regional grocery store chain, with locations spanning the Midwest and Southern United States, has unexpectedly become a highly desired item among consumers.
A Global Appreciation for Retro Branding
Nicola Miller, a resident of Suffolk, England, exemplifies the brand's broad appeal. When visiting America, she often travels up to 50 miles out of her way to stop at a Piggly Wiggly store, hoping to add another T-shirt featuring the distinctive, smiling Mr. Pig to her growing collection.
Miller's initial encounter with the beloved mascot was in the 1978 science fiction film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," where the vintage pig illustration makes an appearance in the movie's concluding scene.
She expressed that the Piggly Wiggly stores and their emblem evoke a sense of "joy" and nostalgia for her. Miller's enthusiasm is not an isolated phenomenon.
"Younger shoppers are drawn to exactly the qualities that make it retro: the hand-drawn feel, the humor, the fact that it's unmistakably regional and not from a national chain," said a representative for the brand. "For a lot of younger customers, it's less, 'I remember this' and more, 'This is where I'm from.'"
The branding is perceived as welcoming and "doesn't take itself too seriously."
"Mr. Pig has never been redesigned into something sleek and corporate. He looks like he looked. In a category where most logos get sanded down every eight years, that consistency is rare, and people respond to it."
The Pioneering History of Piggly Wiggly
Piggly Wiggly was established in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1916 by founder Clarence Saunders.
Saunders is credited with introducing the groundbreaking concept of modern self-service grocery shopping, a practice unheard of at the time. Prior to Piggly Wiggly, customers typically provided their shopping lists to clerks, who would then retrieve the items from the store shelves.
The self-service model proved remarkably successful, enabling Piggly Wiggly to expand rapidly from its single Memphis location to a national chain boasting over 1,200 stores by 1923.
Currently, more than 500 Piggly Wiggly stores operate across 18 states.
The exact origin of the name "Piggly Wiggly" remains an enigma, according to the company, but its Mr. Pig mascot has been an integral part of the brand's identity since its inception.
Merchandise Strategy and Community Connection
For more than two decades, Piggly Wiggly has formally offered branded merchandise both online and within its stores. Additionally, individual store locations have developed their unique designs. Informal circulation of Piggly Wiggly shirts, however, predates the formal merchandise program.
"That's a big part of what makes this fun," stated the brand representative. "Piggly Wiggly Midwest is a mix of franchise and corporate-owned stores across Wisconsin and Illinois, and our independent operators know their communities better than anyone at a corporate office does."
While strict brand standards govern the use of Mr. Pig and the logo—a mark protected for over 110 years—stores are granted flexibility.
"Within that, stores have latitude to [make] designs that speak to their town, their high school colors, their local events. That's why you'll find shirts in one store you won't find anywhere else."
Demand for Piggly Wiggly merchandise has shown remarkable consistency.
"What we see instead are lifts tied to moments: a new design drop, a seasonal item, a tie-in with something happening in the community," the representative explained. "People aren't buying a shirt because a grocery store put its logo on one. They're buying it because Mr. Pig means something to them, and wearing it is a way of saying where they're from."
Among the various items, T-shirts featuring the pig's face on the front and its backside on the back are by far the most popular.
"It's not close," the representative affirmed. "The retro self-service design does very well, and honestly, anything involving the pig butt tends to move."
Some enthusiasts approach collecting these items much like they would ballpark or brewery merchandise.
"They'll pick up a shirt from a store they haven't been to before," the representative noted. "Nobody has ever told us they own too many Pig shirts."
Beyond T-shirts, Piggly Wiggly offers seasonal and limited-edition designs, alongside branded socks, shoes, hats, stuffed animals, and other accessories.
Deepening Brand Loyalty
At the Wisconsin State Fair this month, the enthusiasm for the brand extended beyond tangible merchandise.
"We had people lined up for over an hour — in August, at a state fair, with a thousand other things to do — for a temporary Mr. Pig tattoo," the representative recounted.
The company also distributed 6,000 reusable Piggly Wiggly bags in less than six hours.
"That's not a merchandise transaction," the representative emphasized. "That's people wanting to be associated with something."
According to the brand representative, everyone seems to have a unique story related to Piggly Wiggly.
"It's never generic," he concluded. "It's always personal and always tied to a specific place and a specific memory."