Keedoozle Kerplunk

Grocer Clarence Saunders, who made and lost a fortune in the '20s with his Piggly Wiggly stores, had hoped to make a comeback with his "Keedoozle" store (TIME, Aug. 30, 1948). The Keedoozle ("Key does all") idea was fairly complicated, but it boiled down to shoppers punching a key in labeled keyholes, then picking up their groceries at the cashier's desk where they were carried by conveyors. Boasted Saunders: "In five years there will be a thousand Keedoozles in the U.S., selling $5 billion worth of goods."

Last month, Saunders' one and only Keedoozle in Memphis went kerplunk. In eleven months Saunders had lost $170,000. Said he: "Keedoozle was too much for the average mind to comprehend." Besides attracting too few customers, it cost too much to run the calculators and conveyor belts.

Next month Saunders will open a new store called Zizz-Buzz, on the late Keedoozle site in Memphis. Customers will "zizz right in and buzz right on out," shopping the same way as in a supermarket. Said Clarence Saunders: "I am really fed up with gadgets...regardless of how miraculous and wonderful they may be."

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