Clay’s Piggly Wiggly is now advertising it is Piggly Wiggly “Cost Plus,” the first one of its kind in the Birmingham market.
The signs inside and outside the Clay store reveal it is selling its products at its cost plus 10 percent.
“We saw how much success tent sales were in Clay,” said store manager Jason Russell. “It kind of got us thinking that Clay would be a good place for this to work.”
The customer sees the actual store’s “cost” on the labels and the 10 percent is added at the checkout
. When asked if people would confuse “our cost” with the common use of the term to be wholesale cost, Russell said: “Often it is wholesale cost. If you shop our store and look at the receipt when you walk out of the store, 99 percent of times it will be cheaper than others, including Walmart.”
The 10 percent take above the “our cost” must also pay power bill, insurance and other expenses. So, the profit is not 10 percent.
“We’ve decreased margins, but we will increase volume,” Russell said.
Products inside the store have been re-arranged with produce and dairy now on the same side. Russell said closing the store to re-tag all the items gave the store an opportunity to change the layout to be more convenient to the customer.
Piggly Wiggly has been in Clay since the mid-1980s. It has gone through other changes including a relocation, space cut and cutback in organic products.
