EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN! The GameStop Phenomenon Is Hardly New. Here’s How a Similar Squeeze Played Out in 1923.
Long before GameStop, there was Piggly Wiggly.
In 1923, the supermarket company—which still does business in the South and Midwest—was at the center of a short squeeze/market morality play that echoes the recent frenzy around GameStop.
As with GameStop and other “meme” companies like AMC Entertainment, Piggly Wiggly was being sold short by several big Wall Street investment firms. This aroused an unexpected popular backlash, stirred by a resentment of “city slickers” getting rich off the “yaps,” or little guys. So there was a sense of triumph when investors fought back and put the squeeze on the shorts.
“New York speculators,” crowed one newspaper, “made to pay through the nose.”
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