Piggly Wiggly’s time in Milledgeville, which dates back to the 1950s, is coming to a close.
The grocery store at 731 South Wayne St. recently was purchased by a new ownership group, which plans to relaunch next month as B&T’s Food Fresh Market, a Georgia-based chain with stores popping up around the state, including one in nearby Gordon.
The turnaround will be quick, according to John Triplett, who opened the first B&T’s location in 2017 alongside childhood friend Clark Brunson. The final day for the “southside Piggly Wiggly” is set for March 8, with B&T’s holding a “soft grand opening” the very next day.
“It will take us a few months to get everything up to our standards, so we’re asking shoppers for patience,” said Triplett, a native of Screven County in east Georgia.
CEO Mark Mulkey added that all new B&T’s locations receive a deep clean, which includes “shelving, casing, all the way down to the fans.”
Also, B&T’s is leaning heavily into technology and will offer a digital rewards program, with customers signing on the website and entering their rewards program number at the checkout counter.
B&T’s ownership group recently bought up seven more grocery stores around Georgia, which all operated as either Piggly Wiggly or Food World.
This brings the company’s portfolio to 17 grocery stores.
“We like to think of ourselves as an old-school IGA, and we actually prefer rural towns,” Triplett said. “We’re an independent grocer, which means we can buy from any purveyor we like. This gives us an edge on the market for getting the best freshness with our meat and produce.”
The first Milledgeville Piggly Wiggly opened in 1954, situated across from the old courthouse and on the site of the current courthouse. The first “southside Piggly Wiggly” opened roughly a dozen years later in the Town & Country Shopping Center. Piggly Wiggly then moved two blocks north and into its current location in 1983.