First Self-Service Grocery

First Self-Service Grocery

Newnan's First Self-service grocery store

Dorsey Bowers provided this interior view of the new self-service grocery store opened by the H.C. Arnall Merchandise Company April 17, 1929. The company had moved from what is now the Kessler's building to the former Burdett warehouse building on the northeast corner of Perry and Washington Streets. Arnall Merchandise, founded in 1869, was celebrating 60 years of business in Newnan with a grand opening sale. The retail store where customers served themselves rather than having orders filled by clerks was a new concept, and this was the first such self-service super store in Georgia, according to Beavers. The company continued to operate a wholesale grocery business in part of the building. In later years, the grocery store was known as the Krazy Kat. Shortly after World War II, the company name was shortened to Arnall Grocery Company, which still operates in a building on East Washington Street. The building at Perry and East Washington is no longer standing - it burned in the late 1970s and the site is now a city parking lot.

Newnan Times-Herald

April 17, 1929

Dorsey Beavers

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CCR 1987.04.21

Photograph