Farewell Piggly Wiggly, Hello Bi-Lo: Edisto Getting New Grocery Store

Just the other day I covered up a sticker on my car that had been there for more than three years. It was from the Piggly Wiggly and said “Local Since Forever.” The sun had long ago turned the letters into a faded version of their former selves and I figured my new bumper sticker would look better. I had a brief moment of hesitation before covering up the sticker due to the fact that I am extremely nostalgic and have commitment issues. However, I’d already removed the backing to the new sticker and had to use it.

Now I kind of wish I hadn’t.

It’s just been confirmed that Piggly Wiggly Carolina, which operates stores in South Carolina and Georgia, has sold several of its stores to the grocery store chains Harris Teeter and Bi-Lo.

Rest assured that the sale does not mean that Edisto will be without a grocery store. Instead, our Piggly Wiggly will become a Bi-Lo once all is said and done, sometime after the first of the year.

This isn’t the first time that the building located at 104 Jungle Road has been some kind of grocery store. In my day (1983 and onwards) it was an IGA before becoming “The Pig,” as the locals say. Back then we bought our groceries in Charleston because the IGA had slim pickings. In fact, I still buy most of my groceries in town seeing as the shelves at the Pig are picked clean during the high season (plus, and you might not have noticed, but the local Pig has some of the highest prices around).

When the switch happens, I imagine things will remain quite the same. Perhaps they’ll widen the aisles and lower prices…. but I doubt it.

All I know is that I will have to nab some Piggly Wiggly shirts before they’re a thing of the past.