David Cappello, a business writer who lives in New Orleans, will discuss his new book, The People’s Grocer: John G. Schwegmann, New Orleans, and the Making of the Modern Retail Worlds at 7 p.m. on Thursday, August 24, at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon, Metairie.
This event is free of charge and is open to the public.

The People’s Grocer is a business-based biography of John G. Schwegmann, founder of a legendary New Orleans’ supermarket chain and one of the most innovative retailers of the postwar era. Virtually unrecognized in retail history, visionary Schwegmann pioneered the modern big-box concept.

Even more important, his 1951 Supreme Court victory over “fair trade” laws played a key role in legalizing discount pricing. A marketer extraordinaire, Schwegmann’s offbeat and controversial ads and shopping bags came to symbolize the Crescent City. As a fierce consumer crusader, his fiery passions ultimately drove him into politics.

Among just a few of his pioneering achievements:
• He built the world's first supercenter in 1950, followed by the world's first hypermarket in 1957;
• He instituted a strategy of everyday low prices decades ahead of Walmart;
• He rolled out one of the first successful supermarket/drugstore "combo stores" before they became commonplace; and
• He was the first independent retailer to locate the main parking lot in front of his store.

Along with spotlighting the life, career, and family legacy of John Schwegmann, this biography illuminates a spectrum of neglected socioeconomic topics that includes: Old corner grocery stores, outdoor and public markets, real estate in the Great Depression, manufacturer price fixing, the supermarket revolution, postwar New Orleans politics, and the battle over the Superdome—all these stories and more are explored in a book spanning retail history from the pre-industrial 1850s to the post-industrial 1990s.

David Cappello is a business writer, musician, poet, and playwright. He lives in New Orleans.

For more information regarding this exhibition, contact Chris Smith, Manager of Adult Programming for the library, at 504-889-8143 or wcsmith@jefferson.lib.la.us.