Keedoozler

While delegates from 31 states were dining & dancing at the 39th annual convention of the National Association of Retail Grocers in Dallas, Tex. last week, the most original grocer in the U. S. was preparing to give housewives another exciting thrill in Memphis, Tenn. Name of that grocer was Clarence Saunders, a onetime miner who likes to wrestle with financial problems all night in a bathtub of hot water. Name of his latest merchandising excitement: Keedoozle Corp. Cried Keedoozler Saunders: "Within a year I'll be worth $10,000,000. I won't have that much on hand, but I'll be worth it because I'll have Keedoozle."

In 1916 Clarence Saunders astounded the grocery trade by starting Piggly-Wiggly Stores, Inc., in which customers did most of the work, got their groceries cheaply. Receiving a basket at an entrance turnstile, a shopper picked up her own purchases, carried them to the cashier's desk at the exit. By 1923 Grocer Saunders was rich and Piggly-Wiggly was a $7,000,000 corporation listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Enraged at reports of wolfish raids on Piggly-Wiggly, Mr. Saunders once rushed to Manhattan in a special train with "a bag of gold" estimated at $4,000,000, proceeded to engineer the last great Stock Exchange corner. Shortly thereafter Grocer Saunders lost his fortune, his pink granite palace in Memphis, and Piggly-Wiggly, which went to Kroger Grocery Co.

Undaunted, Clarence Saunders borrowed $2,900 from a onetime employe, made and lost a second fortune in a chain called "Clarence Saunders-- Sole Owner of My Name." In 1931 he popped up in Memphis with a jazz band opening for still another merchandising venture. Boasted he: "You'll see yet that I'll build up the biggest industry in the world." That enterprise soon folded and Storeman Saunders, took over the "world rights" to a cleaning fluid called "Evernew," announced he had "thoroughly investigated the cleanser and found it to be the best on the market." "Evernew" also had a sorry ending. Its sponsor had to defend two of his salesmen who were haled into court by members of a Methodist Missionary Society who claimed the fluid had ruined their clothes. By last week Grocer Saunders had Keedoozle publicity well in hand, even if his store was still abuilding and may not open until next January. Keedoozle stores will be run by electricity. All articles for sale will be displayed behind glass. To purchase, the customer will insert a key in a hole in the showcase beside the sample article, press a button. In the stockroom the proper article will drop on a conveyor belt leading to the cashier's desk. Simultaneously the purchase price is recorded on an adding machine. After all purchases are made, the customer sticks his key into the adding machine, gets his bill. Using another key, the cashier releases the purchases all wrapped for the customer.

Incorporated last November by Clarence Saunders, his son Lee and one Robert A. Black, Keedoozle Corp. is capitalized for $500,000, presumably put up by Mr. Black. Its name was derived from the same source as Piggly-Wiggly: Grocer Saunders' fertile brain. This time Grocer Saunders will confine his own operations to Memphis, simply license Keedoozle units elsewhere. Said the irrepressible grocer: "In twelve months I'll have stores doing a million dollars worth of business a day."

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