If you missed part 2 of this series, you can view it here.
In this final part of the Supermarket Locations blog, we take a closer look at the spread of supermarkets (supplied via GeoLytix open source data) in a number of varying towns and cities throughout the country. In the table below you can view the summary statistics for the selected locations and the major supermarket breakdown within each, as well as a total for all of the areas.
As we can see in the table, Tesco and Sainsbury’s have the largest presence in all of the locations. Between the two chains, they have a combined store count of 137 (67%) of the total 204 supermarkets across the 5 areas. Let’s take a look at the different areas and how Tesco and Sainsbury’s have achieved their high level of coverage.
In each of the above images, you can see that we’ve distinguished between smaller store formats and normal to large ones. Smaller ones can be identified as they have a label of either ‘Metro’, ‘Local’ or ‘Express’ and any of the larger store formats do not have a label.
Clearly having the different store formats has allowed the two supermarket chains to gain the highest level of coverage throughout each of the areas. Morrison’s also has a smaller store format but it just doesn’t have anywhere near the same number as Tesco and Sainsbury’s. Coincidentally an article has just been released explaining that Morrison’s are now retreating from the convenience store market and are offloading their 140 M Local stores (Read the full article from The Independent here).
It’s really interesting to see just how extensive the two brands have grown their store network and coverage to be. By moving so fast and establishing such a network, it makes it extremely hard for rival and competitive stores to setup without facing direct competition at a local level. It’s also apparent that in terms of the normal to large store formats, these are much more equally spread in comparison to the local or small store types.