Piggly Wiggly, Mt. Pleasant, Texas
By Sam Ferguson, Production Manager, East Texas Journal
Piggly Wiggly – The last Piggly Wiggly in Mt. Pleasant was built in 1948 by owner and operator Gerald Lee Brogoitti. It’s between Sixth and Seventh Street at 601 North Jefferson Avenue, where the La Jaliscience Meat Market is now.
It opened Thursday April 14, 1949 as the first air-conditioned, 100% self-service supermarket in Mt. Pleasant.
“COOL OFF, Your New Piggly Wiggly’s AIR CONDITIONED COMPLETELY, and you can do all your shopping in complete comfort. The building is delightfully cool at all times and we invite you to come in and enjoy the cool atmosphere whether you want to buy or not. We know you will feel better afterwards, “said the grand opening ad in the MP Daily Times.
“Free $250 worth of groceries. Valuable merchandise given away on opening day. The store will have a guessing contest, Thursday, Friday and Saturday of a large basket filled with cans of Pet milk and eight baskets of groceries will be given away to the right guesses.”
“This new Piggly Wiggly was designed especially for the greater shopping convenience of food store customers. All merchandise has been displayed for easy visibility and access with easy to read price tags hung before each item. One feature of the store is the open, three-shelf refrigerated dairy case designed especially by Piggly Wiggly engineers. Other features include a 36-foot meat display case, stocked with the finest products, including the best fish and poultry department to be found in this section of the state and the frozen food department is modern in every respect. The store has a 36-foot mirror-backed refrigerated fruit and vegetables case with florescent lighting. There is a modern drug and cosmetic department,” said Brogoitti in the MP daily Times April, 1949.
G. L. Brogoitti was born January 16, 1905 about ten miles west of Gilmer in Upshur County. In 1912 he moved with his parents, Christopher Columbus Brogoitti and Ella Davis Brogoitti, to Newsom in Hopkins County. He attended high school at Sulphur Springs, and later attended a business college at Long Beach California. He worked in a dry goods and shoe store before going with the Atlantic & Pacific (A&P) store in Sulphur springs in 1926 and later in the Mt. Pleasant’s A&P he resigned from management in 1946 to take a position as a buyer for the Gus Presley Wholesale Grocery that was located at West Arkansas And South Jefferson.
G. L. Brogoitti married Vera Beatrice Hurley Brogoitti in 1924. They had three children, David, Gerry and Andre.
He was a member of the Kiwanis Club, a Mt. Pleasant school board member 1940-1945, president of the Mt. Pleasant Chamber of Commerce in 1960, president of the Titus County Fair Association, on the First National Bank board and served as Mayor of Mt. Pleasant 1967-1969., says R. L. Jurney’s, History of Titus County, Texas 1846-1960.
In March 1947, G. L. Brogoitti and O. Tidwell purchased the J. L. Montgomery grocery store that was operated by Charles Driggers and located on the West side of the Mt. Pleasant square. They made considerable improvements to that building with an entirely new store front and completely redecorated the interior. They renamed the store B&T Cash Groceries & Feed. They advertised “We buy fresh eggs from Titus County farmers every day and we pay the top price. 37c today,” said the March, 1947 MP Daily Times.
The first Piggly Wiggly in Mt. pleasant was opened in August of 1927 on the East side of the square in the Bassett building. It was under the management of Wilson Jones of Mt. Pleasant and he said ” The store is nicely arranged, being operated on the self-serving plan,” said the August, 12, 1927 Times Review.
September, 1929 headlines “BIG TARANTULA IN BUNCH OF BANANAS. While removing some bananas from a big bunch which had just come in Tuesday, G. L. Brogoitti, manager of the A&P Store, found a huge tarantula, which was just ready to leap upon him. The insect was an enormous one, which Mr. Brogoitti succeeded in getting into a large glass jar, and will preserve him in alcohol. The species of that tarantula comes from Central America is said to be very poisonous,” said the MP Daily Times.
The lot that the 1949 Piggly Wiggly was built on was previously where the old West Ward school was located.
A number of grocery stores have been at that location since Piggly Wiggly. In 1984 Johnny Vinyard opened Vinyard’s Food, until Rehkoph’s Food Store opened, then La Carreta Meat Market opened, then La Michiocana Meat Market and now La Jaliscience Meat Market is located there.
La Jaliscience Meat Market was opened in 2023 by owner and operator, Laura Romo with her son Juan Carlos Ruvalcaba as store manager. Laura was part owner of the La Carreta Meat Market. She started her career in grocery management 25 years ago in Houston’s La Michiocana Meat Market.
