Sainsbury's Local

Sainsbury’s Convenience Stores Limited (trading as Sainsbury’s Local) is a chain of 770 convenience stores operated by the UK's second largest supermarket chain Sainsbury's. Sainsbury's Local stores have different branding and fascia to the company's supermarkets.

In 1998, Sainsbury’s piloted its first Local store in Hammersmith. The store opened on the busy Fulham Palace Road, and was designed for the convenience of customers who did not have time to do a full 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 store also had a cash machine and opened until midnight most days of the week.

The Sainsbury’s Local store was also ground-breaking in terms of staff training. In most Sainsbury’s stores, colleagues were trained for specific departments (e.g. checkouts, cafe, fresh foods, GM). The small size of Sainsbury’s Local stores meant that staff needed a high level of product knowledge across all departments. Keeping in line with the ‘Local’ concept, the Hammersmith store also employed only local people.

In June 2003, Sainsbury’s announced that it was creating 100 new convenience stores at Shell petrol stations. The shops were to open over the next three years, leading to the creation of up to 2000 jobs.

The first of the stores opened in the autumn of that year, following a successful trial at six garages in south east England. The new stores were based on the existing "Sainsbury Local" outlets, but also sold car care products and motor accessories.

In the end, only 24 stores were opened. The joint venture has now ended due to being unprofitable.

Following rival Tesco’s purchase of the convenience store chain T&S Stores in 2002 and the subsequent conversion of 450 of the 870 T&S stores into its Tesco Express convenience stores, Sainsbury’s announced the acquisition of a number of convenience store 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 stores, and was owned and run by the Bell family. The stores were initially refurbished to trade as ‘Sainsbury’s at Bells’.

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