 | |
| Industry | Internet retail |
|---|---|
| Fate | Bought by Somerfield |
| Founded | October 1995 |
| Founder | Adrian Flanagan, Dominick Scott-Flanagan |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | South East England |
Key people | David Noble |
| Services | Groceries |
Supermarket Direct was a pioneering online grocer, providing a home grocery shopping and delivery service in London from October 1995. [1] The company sold Sainsbury's-provided groceries until it was bought by Somerfield and integrated into the Somerfield Direct home shopping service. [2]
Supermarket Direct was founded by Adrian Flanagan and Dominick Scott-Flanagan, and launched in October 1995. [2] [3] [4] The deal with Sainsbury's made Sainsbury's the first major grocery store in the UK to provide home shopping. [5]
At the launch, customers could select from a catalogue of 1,700 proprietary branded groceries, and telephone or fax their order to a call centre. Orders received before 6pm could be delivered within a two-hour period the following day. Following a relaunch in 1996 a further 800 Sainsbury's-branded groceries were added to the catalogue, and by November 1998 over 4,000 products were available including Flanagan's own label products. [6] [7] Delivery was charged for, initially at £4, later at £5. [8] [9]
Running a small fleet of 12 vans, [6] by the start of 1997 the company had 5,000 regular customers and was taking 170 orders per day. [1]
Somerfield bought Supermarket Direct in April 1999 for £3.25 million, and Supermarket Direct partners Dominick Scott-Flanagan and David Noble joined the Somerfield Direct board. At the time Somerfield Direct only covered the South West of England from its base in Bristol. With the incorporation of Supermarket Direct, Somerfield Direct extended its range to the London area. [2]
A supermarket is self-service shop offering a wide variety of food, beverages and household products, organized into sections. It is larger and has a wider selection than earlier grocery stores, but is smaller and more limited in the range of merchandise than a hypermarket or big-box market.
Tesco plc, trading as Tesco, is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer with headquarters in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues. It has shops in seven countries across Asia and Europe, and is the market leader of groceries in the UK, Ireland, Hungary and Thailand.
Safeway is a food wholesaler and a former chain of supermarkets and convenience shops in the United Kingdom. It started as a subsidiary of the American Safeway Inc., before being sold off in 1987.
Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc, trading as Morrisons, is the fourth largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, and is headquartered in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England.
J Sainsbury plc trading as Sainsbury's is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 16.0% share of the supermarket sector. Founded in 1869, by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company became the largest retailer of groceries in 1922. In 1995, Tesco overtook Sainsbury's to become the market leader, and Asda became the second largest in 2003, demoting Sainsbury's to third place for most of the subsequent period until January 2014, when Sainsbury's regained second place. In April 2019, whilst awaiting to merge with Asda, Sainsbury's was again demoted into third place as their rival placed second.
A grocery store or grocer's shop is a retail shop that primarily sells food, either fresh or preserved. Large grocery stores stock significant amounts of non-food products, such as clothing and household items, blurring the line between grocery stores and supermarkets.
Waitrose & Partners is a brand of British supermarkets, selling groceries as part of Britain's largest employee-owned retailer, the John Lewis Partnership. Its head offices are located in Bracknell and Victoria, England. Waitrose & Partners has 338 shops across the United Kingdom, including 65 "little Waitrose" convenience shops, and a 5.1% share of the market, making it the eighth-largest retailer of groceries in the UK. They also export products to 52 countries and have locations in the Middle East.
Somerfield was a chain of small to medium-sized supermarkets operating in the United Kingdom. The company also previously owned 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.
Budgens Stores Ltd, trading as Budgens, is a chain of grocery stores in the United Kingdom. The business was founded in 1872 by John Budgen, who opened the first shop in Maidenhead, Berkshire. The business was incorporated as a private limited company on 28 May 1962. The company is a subsidiary of Booker Group.
Ocado is a British online supermarket that describes itself as 'the world's largest dedicated online grocery retailer'. In contrast to its main competitors, the company has no chain of stores and does all home deliveries from its warehouses. The company was floated on the London Stock Exchange on 21 July 2010, and is a member of the FTSE 100 Index.
Kwik Save is a British convenience store chain that was founded in the United Kingdom. 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.
Argos Limited, trading as Argos, is a British catalogue retailer operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and a subsidiary of Sainsbury's. It was established in November 1972 and is named after the Greek city of Argos. The company trades both through physical shops and online, with over 883 retail shops, 29 million yearly shop customers, and nearly a billion online visitors per annum, making it one of the largest high street retailers in the United Kingdom. It has also franchised overseas to countries such as China.
LeShop.ch is the Swiss market leader among online supermarkets and a subsidiary of the Migros Genossenschafts-Bund (MGB), the largest retailer in Switzerland.
Tesco.com is an electronic commerce website operated by Tesco. It offers a wide range of other products, including electronic goods, books, broadband and financial services. Recently, Tesco closed their Tesco Direct website.
Sainsbury's Online is an electronic commerce website operated by Sainsbury's, the UK's second largest supermarket chain. It offers a wide range of other products, including electronic goods, books and financial services.
An online grocer is either a brick-and-mortar supermarket or grocery store that allows online ordering, or a standalone e-commerce service that includes grocery items. There is usually a delivery charge for this service. Online grocery delivery services are available throughout Europe, Asia and North America, mostly in urban centres. The online ordering is done through e-commerce websites or mobile apps.
The term dark store, dark supermarket or dotcom centre refers to a retail outlet or distribution centre that caters exclusively for online shopping. A dark store is generally a large warehouse that can either be used to facilitate a "click-and-collect" service, where a customer collects an item they have ordered online, or as an order fulfilment platform for online sales. The format was initiated in the United Kingdom, and its popularity has also spread to France followed by the rest of the European Union.
Instacart, headquartered in San Francisco, operates a grocery delivery and pick-up service in the United States and Canada. The company offers service via a website and mobile app in 5,500 cities in all 50 U.S. states and Canadian provinces in partnership with over 350 retailers that have more than 25,000 grocery stores including Albertsons, Aldi, Costco, CVS Health, Eataly, H-E-B, Kroger, Loblaw Companies, Petco, Publix, Safeway Inc., Sam's Club, Sprouts Farmers Market, Target Corporation, Total Wine & More, and Wegmans.