What was the first "big" supermarket to open in your local area?

[PTR 444]

Supermarkets have been a hot topic for discussion lately and this makes it somewhat hard to believe that a few decades ago, there were much less of these around and people had to travel further to reach one of their choice. Many of the big out of town supermarkets only opened in the past three decades or so, but there have been a few that have lasted longer so it would be interesting to find out which was the first to open in your local area.

In the Bournemouth & Poole area where I'm from, I think the first big supermarkets were those built as part of the Hampshire Centre complex in 1968, although these were rebuilt to be incorporated into the Castlepoint Shopping Centre in 2003. Poole's first I think was the Asda on Canford Heath which I seem to recall opened in 1980, while the Sainsbury's in the town centre followed a few years later.

 

[essexjohn]

Keddies, a department store in Southend-on-Sea, opened Supa Save, one the first supermarkets in the UK around 1962.It closed in the 70s because of competition from the larger chains.

 

[MotCO]

Safeways opened in New Malden High Street, probably in the late 60's or early 70's.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

The Fine Fair Superstore opened at Whinbush in Darlington c.1980 but for a really big shopping experience, it would be Asda at Portrack Lane in Stockton, tied in with a trip to Woolco and the Dickens home improvement hypermarket....

 

[Bletchleyite]

The big ASDA in the Old Roan (Liverpool) was the first one I encountered, though there were medium sized ones in north Wales well before that was built.

Early 90s I think.

 

[507021]

The first large supermarket built in my local area was an Asda, which I think opened in 2005/6.

 

[telstarbox]

In Tunbridge Wells the Sainsbury's opened in the late 1980s using the former yard for TW West station. When I worked there in the late 2000s it was expanded and started doing online orders as well.

There used to be a Safeway in the town centre (next to the main station) and I'm not sure if that was built slightly earlier.

In the 2000s TW also gained a Tesco out of town and an Asda on the industrial estate.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Fulwood Preston ASDA

 

[Ploughman]

In the York area within 3 miles of where I live.
ASDA York Jockey Lane in the late 70's replaced by Asda Monks Cross in the 90's.
Sainsburys Foss Bank 80's then added to with Sainsburys Monks Cross 90's
Tesco Clifton Moor 80's

My first recollection of a local small supermarket in the 60's was the VG store on Manchester Rd Southport. about number 74 I think.

However most of the family shopping in Southport, was done at a Cash and Carry MOJO's (Morris and Jones initially) as we had a business in town.

 

[PTR 444]

In the York area within 3 miles of where I live.
ASDA York Jockey Lane in the late 70's replaced by Asda Monks Cross in the 90's.
Sainsburys Foss Bank 80's then added to with Sainsburys Monks Cross 90's
Tesco Clifton Moor 80's

My first recollection of a local small supermarket in the 60's was the VG store on Manchester Rd Southport. about number 74 I think.

However most of the family shopping in Southport, was done at a Cash and Carry MOJO's (Morris and Jones initially) as we had a business in town.

There is another Tesco at Askham Bar which I visited while on a short break in Yorkshire last year. I seem to remember the welcome sign stating that it opened in 1990. In fact, a lot of Tesco stores now show on their sign what year each store opened.

 

[superjohn]

Tesco at Bar Hill near Cambridge. Bar Hill was among the wave of new towns, albeit a small one, that grew up in the late 60s and early 70s. The large Tesco and adjacent parade of smaller shops was built to serve it and was my first experience of the ‘all under one roof’ concept. As I child, I can remember being amazed to find records and toys, Star Wars figures in particular, being sold there as well as the usual groceries.

The store has since been demolished and replaced with an even bigger one, in the Tesco Extra format.

 

[JonathanH]

Savacentre Calcot opened in 1981 on the outskirts of Reading. For the first few days, the number of people going there led to enormous queues and people getting through the checkouts well after the official closing time. It was so busy for the first week or so that there was actually 'gridlock' between trolleys in the various aisles. Everything keyed manually into the till in those days - no barcodes.

Asda in Lower Earley came next in the Reading area - I remember an interesting arrangement they had whereby instead of conveyor belts, you 'inherited' the shopping trolley of the person in front of you at the tills - basically the assistant would life each item out of your trolley, key in the price and put it in the trolley in front.

A large Tesco followed in the early 1990s replacing the one in the town centre which had been there since 1971 https://www.inyourarea.co.uk/news/in-pictures-the-butts-centre-in-1971/. Sainsbury's had had a large town centre store in Reading from 1963. Waitrose had a fairly big store in Tilehurst from the mid-1960s.

Interesting stuff about retail in Reading in 2004 here http://www.reading.gov.uk/media/287...olume-1/pdf/Retail-Leisure-Study-Volume-1.pdf

 

[Ashley Hill]

Growing up in the early 70s my home town had 3 small supermarkets Gateways,International and Liptons. Liptons and International closed 79ish and Gateway moved to a larger new store as Somerfield. Then along came Safeway with their slightly out of town store. This was then sold to Morrisons upon which Somerfield closed leaving Morrissons to abuse their monopoly of the town to this day!

 

[gazthomas]

Hailing from North Wales we had to make do with Kwik Save until Asda opened. It was quite a long time before Safeway then Tesco came along

 

[RichT54]

When I moved to Sandhurst in 1985 the only supermarket in town was a medium sized Safeway. I believe that it had only just opened that year.

In 1990 the huge Tesco Extra and M&S stores were opened at The Meadows.

Following the takeover in 2004, the Safeway store was rebranded as Morrisons. In 2008 it was announced that the Morrison's store would be taken over by Waitrose. However, Waitrose closed the store in 2019 and it is now in the process of being converted partly into an Aldi store with the remainder to become a gym.

 

[Busaholic]

Tesco at Bromley South (now the site of a Wetherspoon's) was there when we moved to the town in January 1967 and was quickly joined by Safeway, right opposite. A Sainsbury's followed a decade or so later, which I think disappeared when the Glades Shopping Centre was built. I've a memory that Maidstone may have had one of the first Safeway's in the U.K. - when I worked in that town in the early 1980s it already seemed very dated.

In 1988 I moved to Penzance, which had no supermarket. We used to drive a dozen or so miles to the Safeway at Pool, between Camborne and Redruth, When a Safeway opened in PZ in 1989 it rapidly became one of that chain's most successful stores according to inside information: the Morrison's that took it over survives, but has no money spent on it and everyone expects it to close ere long.

 

[route101]

East Kilbride , think safeway opened up in early 90s then another in late 90s other side of town.

 

[telstarbox]

Tesco at Bromley South (now the site of a Wetherspoon's) was there when we moved to the town in January 1967 and was quickly joined by Safeway, right opposite. A Sainsbury's followed a decade or so later, which I think disappeared when the Glades Shopping Centre was built. I've a memory that Maidstone may have had one of the first Safeway's in the U.K. - when I worked in that town in the early 1980s it already seemed very dated.

In 1988 I moved to Penzance, which had no supermarket. We used to drive a dozen or so miles to the Safeway at Pool, between Camborne and Redruth, When a Safeway opened in PZ in 1989 it rapidly became one of that chain's most successful stores according to inside information: the Morrison's that took it over survives, but has no money spent on it and everyone expects it to close ere long.

In Maidstone, do you remember the old Sainsbury's inside the Chequers Centre and did it have a separate shop for frozen food?

 

[C J Snarzell]

Tesco at Euxton, Chorley and the Asda at Robin Park, Wigan were my earliest memories of larger supermarkets.

Does anyone remember when they stared doing Sunday trading in the late 1980s? There was a bit of a scandal about it in the local press at the time as Sundays were considered a no-no for retail trading.

CJ

 

[Bletchleyite]

I recall that B&Q traded on Sundays anyway, as the fines were lower than the extra income they got by opening and there was no other sanction, so it was in effect a Sunday trading tax which they considered worthwhile paying.

I'm familiar with Robin Park Asda, used to go there for lunch when I did summer work for the Co-op Bank.

 

[underbank]

In the 70s, our town centre had a shopping centre built, into which went a Tesco, a Fine-Fare and a Co-Op. It led to the closure of smaller grocery chains in the town centre, such as Liptons, Redmans, plus several independent stores.

Then in the 80s we got our first out of town supermarket which was Asda, and caused the closure of the Fine Fare and Co Op!

 

[Ianno87]

West of Bolton, Tesco at Horwich I think dates from the late 70s (the original site on the north side of Mansell Way, before it moved to the current Extra store in October 2001). Pretty sure most other Bolton supermarkets date from the mid-80s onwards

Morrisons Bolton Town Centre: Mid/late-80s
Morrisons Chorley Old Rd: 1994
Asda Horwich: September 1997.

Asda Astley Bridge - probably early 80s?

 

[Busaholic]

In Maidstone, do you remember the old Sainsbury's inside the Chequers Centre and did it have a separate shop for frozen food?

Sorry, forty years ago now almost to the day and I've no recollection of it - in any case, as I travelled from London every day I wasn't in the market for frozen food. The Probation Service, for whom I worked, thought the provision of a small fridge for the staff was going a bit over the top, a freezer would have blown a gasket!

 

[C J Snarzell]

The town I'm from had a small chain of supermarkets known as Whelans in the 1970s. They were owned by former Blackburn Rovers player Dave Whelan who of course went on to take over JJB Sports and then later launch the DW brand name.

The Whelan supermarket chain were your traditional town centre supermarket with open plan aisles, typical shopping baskets and that cheesy music that would always be played in shops of that era.

Whelan eventually sold his businesses to Ken Morrison in 1978 and the Morrisons chain didn't expand themselves to out of town supermarkets until the late 1980s. The first large Morrisons store I remember was Preston docks.

CJ

 

[Hadders]

Brieley's had a store in an old bowling alley in the St James area of Northampton that was taken over by Hillards which in turn was taken over by Tescos. The store closed in the 1990s and is now a Bingo Hall.

On the other side of Northampton Weston favell Shopping Centre opened in the mid 1970s and had large Tesco and a Key Markets stores. Tesco acquired the Key Market store and knocked it into one huge store which I believe was one of the largest (if not the largest) shops in the UK at the time. I seem to remember it having over 60 checkouts! It's still trading today.

 

[C J Snarzell]

West of Bolton, Tesco at Horwich I think dates from the late 70s (the original site on the north side of Mansell Way, before it moved to the current Extra store in October 2001). Pretty sure most other Bolton supermarkets date from the mid-80s onwards

Morrisons Bolton Town Centre: Mid/late-80s
Morrisons Chorley Old Rd: 1994
Asda Horwich: September 1997.

Asda Astley Bridge - probably early 80s?

I actually remember the Middlebrook development taking place 1996/97. The Asda, cinema complex and the Bolton Wanderers ground (I can't think what the stadium is presently called!) were all built at the same time.

The Middlebrook complex has actually been expanded about three times in the last twenty years and is huge now (I much prefer it to the Trafford Centre for a meal and a browse).

Didn't British Aerospace occupy the site prior to the redevelopment in the 1990s or have I dreamt that one up?

CJ

 

[EssexGonzo]

The first and only large supermarket in Brentwood is Sainsburys opened about 15-20 years ago on the old Thermos site - right on the town centre. There was a smaller high street shop beforehand.

 

[dgl]

A bit of a long one but this is what I remember in the various places I have frequented over my short life, inc. my many visits to south Somerset to see relatives.

in the Weymouth area the I'm guessing the earliest out of town supermarket would have been Normans out at Wyke Regis next to the army camp, later got turned into a bit of everything kind of shop and has now been knocked down for housing.
Concerning what still exists then that would be,
Morrisons, built in the 90's originally as a Safeway being extended in the 00's, a Sainsburys that opened in 2013 (opposite Morrisons), an out of town Aldi by the granby industrial estate and a Lidl that opened in the 90's being subsequently rebuilt in the 00's and extended later to add the bakery, another Aldi is being constructed just down from Sainsbury's/Morrisons to replace the current town centre one.
As for the town centre There has been an ASDA basically in the town centre since at least the early 90's being built on the old football stadium site and was going to be flats, they had plans to move the ASDA out to where the new stadium is but that came to nothing, a long established Iceland on one of the main shopping streets.

I suppose one weird one is Yeovil, as whilst the original Tesco has moved and is now a Wilkinson they didn't actually completely leave the town centre having a large extra store built at the end of the main street.
Yeovil does have out of town stores having Morrisons and ASDA, though I believe Morrisons was originally a Co-Op and as such could have been their first out of town store. Not sure when it was built though bit would have been the 80's at the earliest I would assume.
Also they are currently having a new Aldi built, right next to an Aldi that was closed many years ago and is now a farmfoods and majestic wine.

Dorchester is another one that doesn't do the out of town thing really, it does have a Lidl and a Tesco that are out of the main part of town though. The Tesco is an interesting one being built in the 90's I believe and partially designed by Prince Charles, hence for a Tesco it's quite impressive, with a fountain, gazebos and a sort of clock tower, puts the supposedly posher town centre Waitrose to shame!
Expanding on the town centre it also has a largeish C

 

[Butts]

When I was a lad and first took notice of these things Eastleigh in Hampshire was where our nearest Supermarkets were.

There was Fine Fare , International, Co-op and Torbocks ( a private one)

Tesco opened in the mid- seventies - I worked there as a Saturday Boy around 1977 - 70p hour !!!

The first really big one was a Carrefour Hypermarket that opened in nearby Chandlers Ford (late seventies?) I had a job there as a Trolley Boy - not reccomended (the job)

 

[PeterC]

"Large" is something that has changed over the years. In the early 60s the old Rex cinema in Collier Row, near Romford, was converted into a Tesco. It was probably the biggest food shop I had seen at the time. Now I think they class it as a "Metro".

One of the first hypermarkets was the Carrefour at Caerphilly in 1972. My uncle had used his redundancy money to but a corner shop a few years before and wasn't best pleased to find that they were not only undercutting him but also undercutting his wholesaler.