The Innovation of Grocery Stores IELTS Reading Answers

The Innovation of Grocery Stores

A At the beginning of the 20th century, grocery stores in the United States were full-service. A customer would ask a clerk behind the counter for specific items and the clerk would package the items, which were limited to dry goods. If they want to save some time, they have to ask a delivery boy or by themselves to send the note of what they want to buy to the grocery store first and then go to pay for the goods later. These grocery stores usually carried only one brand of each good. There were early chain stores, such as the A&P Stores, but these were all entirely full-service and very time-consuming.

B In 1885, a Virginia boy named Clarence Saunders began working part-time as a clerk in a grocery store when he was 14 years old, and quit school when the shopkeeper offered him full-time work with room and board. Later he worked in an Alabama coke plant and in a Tennessee sawmill before he returned to the grocery business. By 1900, when he was nineteen years old, he was earning $30 a month as a salesman for a wholesale grocer. During his years working in the grocery stores, he found that it was very inconvenient and inefficient for people to buy things because more than a century ago, long before there were computers, shopping was done quite differently than it is today. Entering a store, the customer would approach the counter (or wait for a clerk to become available) and place an order, either verbally or, as was often the case for boys running errands, in the form of a note or list. While the customer waited, the clerk would more behind the counter and throughout the store, select the items on the list – some form shelves so high that long-handled grasping device had to be used – and bring them back to the counter to be tallied and bagged or boxed. The process might be expedited by the customer calling or sending in the order beforehand, or by the order being handled by a delivery boy on a bike, but otherwise, it did not vary greatly. Saunders, a flamboyant and innovative man, noticed that this method resulted in wasted time and expense, so he came up with an unheard-of solution that would revolutionize the entire grocery industry: he developed a way for shoppers to serve themselves.

C So in 1902, he moved to Memphis where he developed his concept to form a grocery wholesale cooperative and a full-service grocery store. For his new “cafeteria grocery”, Saunders divided his grocery into three distinct areas: 1) A front “lobby” forming an entrance and exit and checkouts at the front. 2) A sales department, which was specially designed to allow customers to roam the aisles and select their own groceries. Removing unnecessary clerks, creating elaborate aisle displays, and rearranging the store to force customers to view all of the merchandise and over the shelving and cabinets units of sales department were “galleries” where supervisors were allowed to keep an eye on the customers while not disturbing them. 3) And another section of his store is the room only allowed for the clerks which were called the “stockroom” or “storage room” where large refrigerators were situated to keep fresh products from being perishable. The new format allowed multiple customers to shop at the same time and led to the previously unknown phenomenon of impulse shopping. Though this format of grocery market was drastically different from its competitors, the style became the standard for the modern grocery store and later supermarket.

D On September 6, 1916, Saunders launched the self-service revolution in the USA by opening the first self-service Piggly Wiggly store, at 79 Jefferson Street in Memphis, Tennessee, with its characteristic turnstile at the entrance. Customers paid cash and selected their own goods from the shelves. It was unlike any other grocery store of that time. Inside a Piggly Wiggly, shoppers were not at the mercy of shop clerks. They were free to roam the store, check out the merchandise and get what they needed with their own two hands and feet. Prices on items at Piggly Wiggly were clearly marked. No one pressured customers to buy milk or pickles. And the biggest benefit at the Piggly Wiggly was that shoppers saved money. Self-service was positive all around. “It’s good for both the consumer and retailer because it cuts costs,” noted George T. Haley, a professor at the University of New Haven and director of the Center for International Industry Competitiveness. “If you looked at the way grocery stores were run previous to Piggly Wiggly and Alpha Beta, what you find is that there was a tremendous amount of labor involved, and labor is a major expense.” Piggly Wiggly cut the fat.

E Piggly Wiggly and the self-service concept took off. Saunders opened nine stores in the Memphis area within the first year of business. Consumers embraced the efficiency, the simplicity and most of all the lower food prices. Saunders soon patented his self-service concept and began franchising Piggly Wiggly stores. Thanks to the benefits of self-service and franchising, Piggly Wiggly ballooned to nearly 1,300 stores by 1923. Piggly Wiggle sold $100 million – worth $1.3 billion today – in groceries, making it the third-biggest grocery retailer in the nation. The company’s stock was even listed on the New York Stock Exchange, doubling from late 1922 to march 1923. Saunders had his hands all over Piggly Wiggly. He was instrumental in the design and layout of his stores. He even invented the turnstile.

F However, Saunders was forced into bankruptcy in 1923 after a dramatic spat which the New York Stock Exchange and he went on to create the “Clarence Saunders sole-owner-of-my-name” chain, which went into bankruptcy.

G Until the time of his death in October 1953, Saunders was developing plans for another automatic store system called the Foodelectric. But the store, which was to be located two blocks from the first Piggly Wiggly store, never opened. But his name was well-remembered along with the name Piggly Wiggly.

Questions 1-3

Complete the sentences below. 

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the text for each answer. 

Questions 4-6
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
In boxes 4-6 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE  if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

Questions 7-13
Choose the correct letter, A,B,C or D

7. How did the traditional grocery store model before Piggly Wiggly differ from Saunders' self-service concept?
A. Customers had to wait for a clerk to retrieve items, rather than selecting them themselves.
B. Customers could only purchase a limited selection of dry goods, rather than a wider variety.
C. Customers had to pay for their items upfront, rather than after selecting them.
D. Customers had to rely on delivery services to have their purchases brought to their homes.

8. What was the key problem that Clarence Saunders identified with traditional grocery stores?
A. Lack of product selection
B. Inefficiency of the ordering and checkout process
C. High labor costs for store clerks
D. Difficulty for customers to access items on high shelves

9. What was the primary purpose of the "stockroom" or "storage room" in Saunders' "cafeteria grocery" store layout?
A. To store large quantities of merchandise
B. To provide a designated area for store clerks
C. To house refrigeration units for perishable items
D. To create a separation between the sales floor and checkout area

10. How did the layout of Saunders' "cafeteria grocery" store facilitate the self-service concept?
A. It created a clear separation between the sales floor and the checkout area.
B. It allowed customers to freely roam the aisles and select their own items.
C. It provided designated areas for store clerks to retrieve items for customers.
D. It included a front lobby that served as both the entrance and exit.

11. How did Saunders' self-service concept impact the shopping experience for customers?
A. It allowed customers to take their time and browse the store.
B. It eliminated the need for customers to interact with store clerks.
C. It provided customers with a wider selection of products to choose from.
D. It streamlined the checkout process, making it faster for customers to pay.

12. What was the impact of Saunders' patented self-service concept and franchising on the growth of Piggly Wiggly?
A. It allowed Piggly Wiggly to rapidly expand to nearly 1,300 stores by 1923.
B. It limited the company's growth to the Memphis area due to the patented concept.
C. It led to a significant increase in labor costs, reducing the company's profitability.
D. It failed to attract enough franchisees, leading to a slower expansion rate.

13. What was the primary reason for Clarence Saunders' bankruptcy in 1923?
A. His self-service concept failed to gain widespread acceptance.
B. He was unable to maintain control over the Piggly Wiggly franchise network.
C. The stock market crash of 1923 led to a significant drop in sales.
D. He had a dramatic falling out with the New York Stock Exchange.