Skaggs family

The Skaggs Family, starting from a small frontier town in southern Idaho, came to have an important impact on merchandising across much of the United States.

He and six of his sons, with varying degrees of collaboration, introduced in the early 20th century two important changes in merchandising: the low-margin, cash-and-carry approach to business, and rapidly growing a multitude of common outlets, now called chain stores.

Circa 1887 Samuel M. Skaggs, with his wife Nancy (E. Long) and two of his brothers and their families, moved from Tennessee to Missouri.

He opened a small grocery store, but to compete with the few that were already operating, he changed its business model from one of credit accounts, which were tailored to the sporadic and seasonal income of farmers, to a cash-only basis.

To portray the evolution and impact of the merchandising practiced by Skaggs and to track the creation of stores and their ownership transfers, a nearly 100-year chronology is used.

This chronology begins with Sam Skaggs moving his growing family west: The Skaggs sons were frugal men and wanted to give their customers that same opportunity for frugality through low margins, compensated from a business perspective through wide replication of retail outlets.