 | This article has an unclear citation style .(April 2020) |
Sainsbury's Local (a trading name of Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd) is a chain of 820 convenience shops operated by the UK's second largest supermarket chain Sainsbury's. [1]
| This article has an unclear citation style .(April 2020) |
Sainsbury's Local (a trading name of Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd) is a chain of 820 convenience shops operated by the UK's second largest supermarket chain Sainsbury's. [1]
In 1998, Sainsbury's piloted its first Local shop in Hammersmith. The shop opened on the busy Fulham Palace Road and was designed for the convenience of customers who did not have time to do a full weekly food shop. Research showed that people were working longer hours and more women were in employment than ever before. Customers needed to spend less time on chores such as shopping, so local ‘top-up’ shopping was an ideal solution. As well as a large range of ready meals, wines and desserts designed for people on-the-go, the branch also offered hot drinks and freshly baked goods, alongside Sainsbury's best-selling products. The Hammersmith shop also had a cash machine and was open until midnight most days of the week.
Sainsbury's Local shop was also ground-breaking in terms of staff training. In most Sainsbury's shops, colleagues were trained for specific departments (e.g. checkouts, café, fresh foods, GM). The small size of Sainsbury's Local shops meant that staff needed a high level of product knowledge across all departments. Keeping in line with the ‘Local’ concept, the Hammersmith shop also employed only local people. [2]
On 12 November 2008 Sainsbury's announced that 50 convenience shops would open in the 2009/10 financial year, and a further 100 the following year. [3]
In June 2003, Sainsbury's announced that it was creating 100 new convenience shops at Shell petrol stations. The shops were to open over the next three years, leading to the creation of up to 2,000 jobs.
The first of the shops opened in the autumn of that year, following a successful trial at six garages in the south-east of England. The new shops were based on the existing "Sainsbury Local" outlets, but also sold car care products and motor accessories.
In the end, only 24 shops were opened. [4]
Following rival Tesco’s purchase of the convenience shop chain T&S Stores in 2002 and the subsequent conversion of 450 of the 870 T&S shops into its Tesco Express convenience shops, Sainsbury’s announced the acquisition of a number of convenience shop chains:
In February 2004, Sainsbury’s announced it was to buy Bells Stores in the North East of England for around £22m. Bells Stores operated 54 neighbourhood shops, and was owned and run by the Bell family. The shops were initially refurbished to trade as ‘Sainsbury’s at Bells’. [5]
In August 2004 Sainsbury's further increased its presence in the convenience shop sector, by acquiring Jacksons Stores for £78m from the family food business William Jackson & Son Ltd, owned by the Oughtred family. Jacksons Stores had 114 shops in the Yorkshire area and the North Midlands, and just before the Sainsbury's acquisition, was voted the UK's best independent convenience shop chain. The acquisition doubled Sainsbury's market share in the convenience shop sector to 2%. The shops were initially refurbished to trade as ‘Sainsbury’s at Jacksons’. [6]
In November 2004, Sainsbury's acquired JB Beaumont, a convenience chain owned and run by the Beaumont family and which was then number 48 in the Grocer Top 50. The company first began trading as a butcher in Kirkby-in-Ashfield (Nottinghamshire) in 1902. The six JB Beaumont shops were located in Cotgrave; Bingham; Keyworth; Long Eaton; Chilwell and Gedling. The shops were initially refurbished to trade as ‘Sainsbury’s at Beaumonts’. [7]
In April 2005, Sainsbury's acquired SL Shaw Ltd, a neighbourhood convenience shop operator with five shops in the south-east of England. After a programme of refurbishment, the five shops converted to the Sainsbury's Local format, combining Shaw's reputation and customer service with Sainsbury's expertise in fresh and convenience foods. [8]
Sainsbury's initially retained the strong Bells and Jacksons brands. For example, refurbished shops were called Sainsbury's at Bells or Sainsbury's at Jacksons. These were effectively Sainsbury's Local shops with a revised fascia, retaining some features of the former local chain. Unrefurbished shops retained the original brand and logo, but still offered Sainsbury's own brand products, pricing and some point of sale, without accepting Nectar cards. The old websites were also retained with some of Sainsbury's branding.
This was an experimental format and on 4 May 2007 it was announced that all shops would be rebranded as Sainsbury's Local, with the management teams of the smaller shops integrated into Sainsbury's own teams. [9]
A second convenience format, Sainsbury's Central, was announced in 1999 for small to mid-sized shops in town centres and commuter areas, similar to Tesco's 'Tesco Metro' format which launched in 1993. [10] Central shops had an offer dominated by convenience foods, but also carried selected ranges from the full Sainsbury's range. These were later rebranded as Sainsbury's stores.
Tesco plc is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen in Hackney, London in 1919. In 2011, it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in the world measured by revenues. It has shops in Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia. It is the market leader of groceries in the UK.
Safeway Limited is a British groceries brand, and former chain of supermarkets and convenience shops. The British Safeway was founded in 1962 by the American Safeway Inc., before being sold to Argyll Foods in 1987. It was later listed on the London Stock Exchange. It was purchased by Morrisons in March 2004. Most of its 479 shops were rebranded as Morrisons, with others being sold. Safeway-branded shops disappeared from the United Kingdom on 24 November 2005.
Wm Morrison Supermarkets Limited, trading as Morrisons, is the fifth largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. As of 2021, the company had 497 supermarkets across England, Wales and Scotland, and one in Gibraltar. The company is headquartered in Bradford, England.
J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is a British supermarket and the second-largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom.
British Home Stores, commonly abbreviated to BHS and latterly legally styled BHS Ltd, was a British department store chain, primarily selling clothing and household items. In its later years, the company began to expand into furniture, electronics, entertainment, convenience groceries and fragrance and beauty products.
Somerfield (;) was a chain of small to medium-sized supermarkets operating in the United Kingdom. The business started life in the 19th century as grocers J. H. Mills, and after a series of buyouts and mergers, the company became known as Gateway. A major rebranding to the created Somerfield brand started in 1990, and in 1998 the company purchased the Kwik Save chain of discount food stores. The company was taken over by the Co-operative Group on 2 March 2009 in a £1.57 billion deal, creating the UK's fifth-largest food retailer. The Somerfield name was replaced by the Co-operative brand in a rolling programme of store conversions ending in summer 2011.
Netto is a Danish discount supermarket operating in Denmark, Germany and Poland. Netto is owned by Salling Group.
Kwik Save is a British convenience store chain. Prior to 2007, it was also a discount supermarket chain that had shops across the United Kingdom. It went into administration in July 2007, but was brought back in April 2012. Its shops were small to medium-sized high street supermarkets, mainly located in areas with below average incomes.
Lotus's is a retail chain in Thailand founded and operated by Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group, with operations in Malaysia following the acquisition of Tesco Malaysia in 2020.
Habitat is a brand of household furnishings in the United Kingdom and the main homewares brand within the Sainsbury's group.
In the Republic of Ireland, the retail sector provides one of the largest sources of employment in the economy, representing over 12% of the workforce. As of 2017, approximately 40,000 wholesale and retail businesses employed almost 280,000 people in Ireland, with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment reporting that 90% of these businesses were Irish-owned.
Shoprite Limited was a community food store chain in the Isle of Man. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of Isle of Man Enterprises plc, until Tesco announced its purchase of the business on 9 October 2023.
Jacksons Stores Ltd, named after the founder William Jackson, was a British chain of 114 convenience shops in Yorkshire and the North Midlands that was founded in 1891 by the Hull-based William Jackson & Sons Ltd and sold to Sainsbury's in 2004, an acquisition which doubled that company's share of the convenience shop market. After the takeover by Sainsbury's, many Jacksons Stores were initially refurbished to trade under the Sainsbury's at Jacksons brand. This brand was phased out and replaced with the Sainsbury's Local brand by March 2008.
Bells Stores Ltd was a chain of 54 convenience shops in North East England. It was owned and run by the Bell family until February 2004, when it was acquired by Sainsbury's, the UK's second largest supermarket chain. Shops were initially refurbished to trade as 'Sainsbury's at Bells', but in May 2007 it was announced that the shops would be re-branded Sainsbury's Local by March 2008.
SavaCentre was a chain of 13 hypermarkets and later a further seven discount supermarkets owned and operated jointly by Sainsbury's and BHS, beginning in 1977. Sainsbury's later took full control of the stores alone in 1989, rebranding them as Sainsbury's SavaCentre, until 2005 when the stores were integrated into the Sainsbury's supermarket brand. The hypermarket stores ranged in size from 66,000 sq ft (6,100 m2) to 117,000 sq ft (10,900 m2) and the discount supermarkets ranged in size from 31,000 sq ft (2,900 m2) to 70,000 sq ft (6,500 m2). At the time of its inception, it was the only dedicated hypermarket chain in the UK.
Big W was a British retail chain owned by the Kingfisher Group in the United Kingdom, which operated between 1998 and 2004. Big W stores were large format out-of-town megastores that featured products from all of Kingfisher's main retail chains at the time, consisting of Comet, B&Q, Superdrug and Woolworths.
Tesco has expanded its operations from the United Kingdom to 11 other countries. Tesco pulled out of the United States in 2013, but continues to see growth elsewhere. Tesco's international expansion strategy has responded to the need to be sensitive to local expectations in other countries by entering into joint ventures with local partners, such as Samsung Group in South Korea, and Charoen Pokphand in Thailand, appointing a very high proportion of local personnel to management positions. It also makes small acquisitions as part of its strategy: for example, in its 2005/2006 financial year it made acquisitions in South Korea, one in Poland and one in Japan.
My Local was a chain of 130 convenience shops in the United Kingdom.
| 'Big four' | |
|---|---|
| Convenience | |
| Discount | |
| Frozen specialists | |
| Online | |
| Premium | |
| Regional | |
