--- title: Remembering Keedoozle, America's First Automated Grocery description: In 1948, photographer Francis Miller went to Memphis in order to document Keedoozle, the world's first fully automated grocery store. canonical: https://time.com/3880751/keedoozle-americas-first-automated-grocery/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-25T17:43:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:03:37.671Z og:title: Remembering Keedoozle, America's First Automated Grocery og:description: In 1948, photographer Francis Miller went to Memphis in order to document Keedoozle, the world's first fully automated grocery store. og:url: https://time.com/3880751/keedoozle-americas-first-automated-grocery/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt959b3efc6b5bac10/6987f12ff887dce6efe8e9e8/50516969.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2646 og:image:height: 1488 og:image:alt: LIFE Looks Back: Keedoozle, the Automatic Grocery Store og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Remembering Keedoozle, America's First Automated Grocery twitter:description: In 1948, photographer Francis Miller went to Memphis in order to document Keedoozle, the world's first fully automated grocery store. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt959b3efc6b5bac10/6987f12ff887dce6efe8e9e8/50516969.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Keedoozle, We Hardly Knew Ye: Remembering America's First Automated Grocery > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Aug 25, 2014 5:43 PM UTC  Keedoozle, a fully automated grocery store, Memphis, Tenn., 1948. Keedoozle, a fully automated grocery store, Memphis, Tenn., 1948. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Aug 25, 2014 5:43 PM UTC In 1937, a Memphis, Tenn., grocer and innovator named [Clarence Saunders](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence%5FSaunders%5F%28grocer%29) introduced a bold new concept in shopping for food: History’s first fully automated grocery store. It was called Keedoozle. (See the explanation of the unusual moniker below.) In 1948, photographer Francis Miller traveled to Memphis in order to document the third incarnation of Saunders’s technological phenomenon. TIME magazine, meanwhile, reported on the groundbreaking operation thusly: --- > “” --- At least, that’s how it was all supposed to go down, in theory. Saunders tried the Keedoozle concept three times, but failed each time because the circuits couldn’t handle the traffic during peak hours. Customers regularly got mixed-up orders. In addition, the conveyer-belt system wasn’t fast enough or efficient enough when there was high demand. Keedoozle closed its doors for good in 1949.  Keedoozle, a fully automated grocery store, Memphis, Tenn., 1948. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Clarence Saunders stands with the ticker-tape technology at the heart of Keedoozle, his fully automated grocery store, Memphis, Tenn., 1948. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Keedoozle, Memphis, Tenn., 1948. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Keedoozle, Memphis, Tenn., 1948. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Keedoozle, Memphis, Tenn., 1948. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Keedoozle, Memphis, Tenn., 1948. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Keedoozle, Memphis, Tenn., 1948. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Keedoozle, Memphis, Tenn., 1948. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Behind the scenes at Keedoozle, Memphis, Tenn., 1948. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Keedoozle, Memphis, Tenn., 1948. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Customers await delivery of their groceries at Keedoozle, Memphis, Tenn., 1948. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Behind the scenes at Keedoozle, Memphis, Tenn., 1948. 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