Memphian Clarence Saunders opened America's first self-service grocery store, the Piggly Wiggly,  on Jefferson Ave. in 1916. I'll let the historical marker tell you about the opening day festivities:

"With a brass band, a beauty contest, flowers for the ladies, and balloons for the children, Clarence Saunders of Memphis opened the first Piggly Wiggly, America's first completely self-service grocery store at 79 Jefferson Avenue (1/2 block west of here) on Sept. 6, 1916. In conventional stores of that time, shoppers presented their orders to clerks who fetched their goods, ground coffee beans, measured flour and sugar and then added the bills in pencil on the back of sacks."

I don't know about you, but I don't know if I'd want to be the Piggly Wiggly beauty queen.

You can reenact a shopping trip at the original Piggly Wiggly at the Pink Palace Museum (which, incidentally, is housed in a mansion that Clarence Saunders built in the 1920s). They've got a full-sized replica of the Jefferson Ave. store one the second floor.