Trivia: Retail/food chains that don’t cover the entire UK

[SteveM70]

Central England and East of England Co-ops are independent businesses, along with the 30 or so other retail co-ops (e.g. Souythern, Midcounties, Radstock). They purchase many of their goods via a buying and marketing federation which is operated by the Co-operative Group.

They buy everything from the Cooperative Group. NISA stores don’t have to

Morrisons is based in Leeds

Bradford

 

[Hadders]

They buy everything from the Cooperative Group. NISA stores don’t have to

There are things that they can purchase direct but they generally don’t. They are still completely independent businesses.

They way I describe Co-ops to a lay person is to compare it to ITV television years ago, different companies (eg Thames, Central, Anglia) that are independent but generally do things the same way. It’s not an exact comparison but it’s good enough for general conversation.

Bradford

That’s what I meant! Post updated

 

[LowLevel]

Bird's Bakers in the East Midlands is quite similar to Greggs but much better quality. They still sell various types of fresh bread, do filled rolls and breakfast cobs (their sausages are superb!) and their cream cakes are to die for!

 

[W-on-Sea]

The Pizza Gallery was a peculiar thing, back in the 90s. Branches across Scotland, and just one in England.....in Kings Lynn.

 

[PaulC1309]

Whole Foods Market, although an American brand, has seven stores in the UK - all of which are located within London.

Until about 5 years ago there was one in Giffnock (South Glasgow) which is now Lidl.

Yes....they had one in the former Lewis's department store in Argyle Street, Glasgow about 15 years ago, IIRC. They also have branches in Newcastle, Durham and Hartlepool.

Pretty sure TJ Hughes was in the old C & A store in Trongate. Lewis's store became Debenhams.

 

[SteveM70]

There are things that they can purchase direct but they generally don’t.

Possibly some “ultra local” suppliers, but anything of any volume is via tCG, and the central tCG systems include volume for all the independent societies in the forecasts they give to their suppliers

 

[Big Tim]

Without trying to go too far "off topic" - the following - all now consigned to the history books were chains I remember here, but cannot recall them in other parts of the country:

Hillards Supermarkets (not sure if they existed outwith Yorkshire, but had branches in all of the "Ridings"). The York Branch became a Tesco for a very short while, then Grandways, Kwik Save, Somerfield and still trades as a Co-oP (Hull Road, near the University). Hillards disappeared mid/late 80's - at a guess 86 or early 87.

Walter Wilson - I believe they were mainly consigned to the North East (mostly in the Tyneside region), but my local shop as a child was a branch - it was only a small place but carried a huge number of lines and had an excellent meat and cheese counter for a tiny corner shop. I believe it was their most southerly branch, located in Heworth Village, York (not to be confused with Heworth in Tyne & Wear). It became a Spar around about 1997, then closed before re-opening as a shop selling hot tubs for a short time, then became a charity shop, and now seems to thrive as a showroom for disability scooters / similar!

Frank Dees / Dees Discount. I only have very vague memories of these supermarkets, but I believe they existed soleley in northern England - almost in a corridor from the Humber to the Wirral. (There were three branches in York - one in the aforementioned "Hillards" premises in the late 60's, and two smaller convenience stores - one in Clifton and the other in the newly built - at the time of trading - "Appletree Village" - this shop is still going as a Spar & Post Office).

Re: Heron Foods - there was a branch in York, in Stonebow House for a few years - but was redeveloped and opened as a Co-oP a few years back. The first one I remember visiting I think was in Whitby back in the late 90's.

 

[ChrisC]

Bird's Bakers in the East Midlands is quite similar to Greggs but much better quality. They still sell various types of fresh bread, do filled rolls and breakfast cobs (their sausages are superb!) and their cream cakes are to die for!

Birds sausages are wonderful as are their cream cakes. Their bread rolls taste so much better than many other bakers. Birds have always been quite a high class chain and used to be known as Birds the Confectioners. More expensive than Greggs etc but far better quality. In recent years they have become more like a high class Greggs to compete with the takeaway market but I don’t think the quality and variety of bread types they now sell is quite as good as it was 30+ years ago. Their pork pies used to be something to die for but are not as good these days.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I think Lennons was a Liverpool only supermarket? But we're going back 40 years now, which was, as they say, a different country.

 

[route101]

I can’t find the date when Waitrose in Newark opened but I have found out that it remained their furthest north branch until 2003.

There has been a Waitrose in Hexham for a while. There is only a few in Scotland, the Helensburgh one closed and became a Morrisons.

Margiotta stores in Edinburgh. Some sell Waitrose products.
I believe big Tescos and big Sainsburys only started appearing in Scotland in the 90s.

Leon, most seem to be in London but none in Scotland.

Until about 5 years ago there was one in Giffnock (South Glasgow) which is now Lidl.


Pretty sure TJ Hughes was in the old C & A store in Trongate. Lewis's store became Debenhams.

TJ Hughes is now in the St Enoch centre. There must be a link between TJ Hughes and Home Bargains,(TJ Morris)

 

[Hadders]

Possibly some “ultra local” suppliers, but anything of any volume is via tCG, and the central tCG systems include volume for all the independent societies in the forecasts they give to their suppliers

Agreed. They would never get the buying terms they can obtain through tCG but the independents also like to fiercely guard their indeopendence!

Hillards Supermarkets (not sure if they existed outwith Yorkshire, but had branches in all of the "Ridings"). The York Branch became a Tesco for a very short while, then Grandways, Kwik Save, Somerfield and still trades as a Co-oP (Hull Road, near the University). Hillards disappeared mid/late 80's - at a guess 86 or early 87.

Hillards were based in Cleckheaton. Their southernmost stores were in Northampton, Wellingborough and Peterborough. Hillards were taken over by Tesco in 1987 which gave them a foothold into Yorkshire.

The Hillard's Charitable Trust still exists:

https://www.hillardstrust.org/about

 

[busestrains]

Jempsons is another one which has not been mentioned yet. They are an independent supermarket chain which is only found in the Rother District and Wealden District of East Sussex only. They have six supermarkets all located in small towns and large villages in the East Sussex area, Battle, Bexhill, Northiam, Peasmarsh, Rye, Wadhurst, are their only branches. In all of these places (except Bexhill which has other chains) they are the only supermarket so they have a monopoly in many of the towns and villages they are in. Battle and Rye are decent sized small towns and the sort of place that normally has a Waitrose but Jempsons have a monopoly in both these places. Northiam and Wadhurst are large villages that would normally just have a Post Office or maybe a Coop but Jempsons are there too. Bexhill is their newest and smallest branch and i understand was taken over from Coop recently.

Their branch located is Peasmarsh is very interesting i find. Peasmarsh is their largest branch and is a huge full sized supermarket. It sells everything and even has a large cafe and petrol station. Peasmarsh however is a tiny little village in the middle of a very rural area with no other shops. It is the last place you would expect to find a supermarket. Places this size never even have a Post Office or a small shop. It is a very odd choice of location to put a huge full sized supermarket in but they must be successful as it has been there for decades.

Jempsons also used to also run a free bus service every day from many surrounding towns and villages to their Peasmarsh store. But they withdrew it in 2018 a couple years ago. Interestingly this was operated directly by themselves (rather than by contracted out like free bus services are normally) using AE55 VGJ which was a Dennis Dart MCV Evolution that was purchased brand new by them and owned by them and they employed their own bus drivers.

Whole Foods has already been mentioned but is a very interesting one. Over in the USA they are a massive chain with thousands of branches but here in the UK they have seven branches, Camden, Clapham Junction, Fulham, Kensington, Piccadilly Circus, Richmond, Stoke Newington, all located in London with nothing anywhere else. However they did used to have three non London locations, Bristol, Cheltenham, Glasgow Giffnock, but they closed all of these around five years ago when Amazon bought them.

Originally they used to be called Fresh & Wild and were an independent chain. Then they were purchased by USA based chain Whole Foods and all the shops were rebranded as Whole Foods stores. Then about five years ago Amazon unfortunately purchased Whole Foods so they are now Amazon owned which is a shame.

Planet Organic is another one. They are a quite similar to Whole Foods in that they sell a lot of healthy and organic and speciality foods. They have fourteen stores in total which are all in London except one. They are located in, Balham, Bermondsey, Broadway Market, Chiswick, Ealing, Hampstead, Henley On Thames, Islington, Muswell Hill, Queens Park, Spitalfields, Teddington, Tottenham Court Road, Westbourne Grove, so they randomly have one store in Henley On Thames which is their only non London store.

However just a couple months ago Planet Organic announced plans to open up over a hundred stores in the UK within the next three years. So it seems like they plan to expand rapidly. Going from fourteen stores to over a hundred stores in three years is a huge increase so they must have a lot of money.

Planet Organic and Whole Foods are both extortionately expensive. They are very nice shops with some excellent products but the prices are crazy. They make Waitrose look like a budget supermarket. They sell some products for double the price of what Waitrose charges. If you walk around the Kensington branch of Whole Foods (which is their largest branch and is a full size massive supermarket) you will find most of the shoppers are American or Arabs expats. It seems to be mainly be used by wealthy foreigners who work at all of the nearby embassies. But if you have the money they are good places to shop with some excellent products.

 

[bearhugger]

Thomas The Bakers is predominately North Yorkshire with a branch in Darlington and two branches in Middlesbrough.

 

[Amos]

I think Lennons was a Liverpool only supermarket? But we're going back 40 years now, which was, as they say, a different country.

Used to be a Lennons in Warrington.Think it is now something to do with the council.

 

[TAS]

Agreed. They would never get the buying terms they can obtain through tCG but the independents also like to fiercely guard their indeopendence!

And from my perspective, it works. I spend far more in my local East of England Co-op convenience store owing to the "Sourced Locally" products - a reasonable chunk of the bread, meat and fruit/vegetable (in season) sections, and pretty well represented across all food and drink segments - than I would if it were a standard Co-op. On an entirely subjective note, I also much prefer their branding to the "retro" identity being used by the Co-op Group!

A couple of other large East Anglian chains I don't think have had a mention yet are QD Stores (discount retailer) and Hughes (electrical), both of which have a few stores further afield. There are also various smaller chains with a handful of shops entirely in the region - those that come immediately to mind are Glasswells (home furnishings), Coes (clothes/sports), Townrow (department stores), Roy's (department stores) and Adnams (yes, the brewery - beers/wines/spirits/food/homeware).

 

[TheHSRailFan]

Simmons is worth going out of the way for their cheese straws!

If you eat them right of course. I find eating the cheese flakey parts on their own too strong without the pastry.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Four pages in and no mention (unless I missed it) of Tuffin's, who can be found in Shropshire, and along the Welsh Marches and nowhere else.

Not quite as posh as Booths, their Knighton branch is like a labyrinth of different warehouses, rooms and corridors.

Another former supermarket in West Yorkshire besides Hillards (who used to run the ugly Tesco next to Huddersfield viaduct) is Lodges. They were more a Co-op sized thing but had stores in several Huddersfield suburbs and a bigger store in Holmfirth.

 

[ChrisC]

Another former supermarket in West Yorkshire besides Hillards (who used to run the ugly Tesco next to Huddersfield viaduct) is Lodges. They were more a Co-op sized thing but had stores in several Huddersfield suburbs and a bigger store in Holmfirth.

Wasn’t it a Lodges supermarket where Marina used to work in Last of the Summer Wine? Howard was always shopping there!

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Wasn’t it a Lodges supermarket where Marina used to work in Last of the Summer Wine? Howard was always shopping there!

Yes there once was, but the one in Holmfirth hasn't been a Lodges for well over 25 years now. Believe the (Lodge) family sold up their family business in the early 1990s.

 

[jfollows]

Whole Foods has already been mentioned but is a very interesting one. Over in the USA they are a massive chain with thousands of branches but here in the UK they have seven branches, Camden, Clapham Junction, Fulham, Kensington, Piccadilly Circus, Richmond, Stoke Newington, all located in London with nothing anywhere else. However they did used to have three non London locations, Bristol, Cheltenham, Glasgow Giffnock, but they closed all of these around five years ago when Amazon bought them.

Originally they used to be called Fresh & Wild and were an independent chain. Then they were purchased by USA based chain Whole Foods and all the shops were rebranded as Whole Foods stores. Then about five years ago Amazon unfortunately purchased Whole Foods so they are now Amazon owned which is a shame.

I used to go to the Kensington and Piccadilly branches of Whole Foods because they had interesting stuff but, oh my, they are expensive, I totally agree. These days Fortnum & Mason tends to get my custom instead. In both cases once or twice a year when I happen to be in the area and have the time. I think I've been to a few of the US ones in the past and they seemed more sanely priced, albeit of course more expensive still than the "normal" supermarket in the area.
To be honest, most of the "interesting stuff" I liked I buy online now at lower prices too in the main. It's occasionally fun to browse a new store like these, but hazardous to the bank account. I'm not sure they'll ever be more than a niche catering to people with more money than sense, of whom there are a number in London I think.

 

[Andyh82]

Yes there once was, but the one in Holmfirth hasn't been a Lodges for well over 25 years now. Believe the (Lodge) family sold up their family business in the early 1990s.

It’s an awful looking building, in a fully looking position, I think it’s half Sainsburys Local, half a sort of indoor arcade that is almost mostly empty now.

 

[Steddenm]

Northern Ireland doesn't have Morrisons, Wilko, Farmfoods or Waitrose, but does have Supervalu, Dunnes*, Centra and Vivo which the mainland doesn't have.

There is a reason why there is no Aldi in Northern Ireland and it was due to the fact that the Aldi GB company is separate to the Aldi IE company, and has a range of completely different products and they couldn't work out together which version of the group was to open stores, so they didn't bother.

Sainsburys have now started to sell Spar-branded products in NI and Spar are selling Sainsburys-branded products. The Co-op in NI also have in the past sold Supervalu-branded products.

*Dunnes used to have some stores in the UK, but closed them all and Supervalu used to sell their branding to independent hardware stores oddly. Supervalu was previously called Superquinn and the brand lives on in the Superquinn sausage.

 

[david1212]

How widespread were Druckers, i know they were Midlands based but the only branch i saw outside Brum was in Redditch.

There was a branch in Leamington Spa.

From here also Stratford-upon-Avon and the furthest Poole.


Bought out by Tesco mid-1990's but William Low / WM Low supermarkets were mostly in Scotland with a few in the North of England.

 

[GatwickDepress]

Jempsons is another one which has not been mentioned yet. They are an independent supermarket chain which is only found in the Rother District and Wealden District of East Sussex only. They have six supermarkets all located in small towns and large villages in the East Sussex area, Battle, Bexhill, Northiam, Peasmarsh, Rye, Wadhurst, are their only branches. In all of these places (except Bexhill which has other chains) they are the only supermarket so they have a monopoly in many of the towns and villages they are in. Battle and Rye are decent sized small towns and the sort of place that normally has a Waitrose but Jempsons have a monopoly in both these places. Northiam and Wadhurst are large villages that would normally just have a Post Office or maybe a Coop but Jempsons are there too. Bexhill is their newest and smallest branch and i understand was taken over from Coop recently.

Their branch located is Peasmarsh is very interesting i find. Peasmarsh is their largest branch and is a huge full sized supermarket. It sells everything and even has a large cafe and petrol station. Peasmarsh however is a tiny little village in the middle of a very rural area with no other shops. It is the last place you would expect to find a supermarket. Places this size never even have a Post Office or a small shop. It is a very odd choice of location to put a huge full sized supermarket in but they must be successful as it has been there for decades.

Jempson's have operated coffee shops under the Jempson's Café brand for decades and they took on The Rye Bakery back in 2017, giving them more locations and a wholesale bread business too. These are generally located in areas that are already saturated with convenience stores, such as Hastings town centre and St Leonards and do a roaring trade. I buy most of my bread from one of their bakeries as they do this wonderful cheese and onion loaf that nowhere else stocks.

 

[Runningaround]

Talking of bakers, Sayers is a Liverpool thing whereas Greggs is everywhere.

Greggs isn't a Bakery it dropped that part as it's stores are just a re-heating facility. It's no more a Bakery than Subway.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Are there Merrie* England cafés anywhere other than Huddersfield? I'm pretty sure I remember there being one in Halifax town centre at one point, and I think there was one in Wakefield back in the day. Don't think they exist anywhere else though. For those that don't know, they're a local chain of cafés that have a sort-of mock-tudor style, and very popular with the older folk around Huddersfield. They even had a drive-through on the A640 heading up towards the M62 years before a certain American chain started putting them all over the country. No idea if it's still there as it's been a good while.

*= that's how they spell it. No idea why!

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Are there Merrie England cafés anywhere other than Huddersfield?

As well as the four in Huddersfield, there's one in Halifax and one in Brighouse, apparently, so, six in total, not enough to meet the OP's criteria (minimum = ten branches).

Coffee Shop Locator | Merrie England Coffee Shops

Find your local Merrie England coffee shop in and around Hudderfield in West Yorkshire.

www.merrie-england.com

 

[SteveM70]

Ah, the Merrie England. A Halifax institution. Beloved back in the day, as @61653 HTAFC says of old people, but also school kids wagging lessons and looking for somewhere to sit for two hours with a “milky coffee”. No such thing as a cappuccino then.

If you went in before 11am the first thing you’d see would be an enormous pile of bacon sitting under one of those hot lamp things. I’m sure it was a big factor in the growth of vegetarianism

 

[ChrisC]

Ah, the Merrie England. A Halifax institution. Beloved back in the day, as @61653 HTAFC says of old people, but also school kids wagging lessons and looking for somewhere to sit for two hours with a “milky coffee”. No such thing as a cappuccino then.

Did it used to be one of those places that made Horlicks using a very noisy machine to boil the hot milk and served it in Horlicks mugs? I remember going into the cafe in Mansfield Co op with my grandparents as a child back in the 1960’s and hearing that noise as they made the Horlicks.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

As well as the four in Huddersfield, there's one in Halifax and one in Brighouse, apparently, so, six in total, not enough to meet the OP's criteria (minimum = ten branches).

Coffee Shop Locator | Merrie England Coffee Shops

Find your local Merrie England coffee shop in and around Hudderfield in West Yorkshire.

www.merrie-england.com

Their image in my mind is so "old-school" that it never occurred to me to check if they had a website!