Great Britain: convenience store category sales share 2022
Convenience stores
Convenience stores are small retail businesses which often have high prices, a limited number of covered product categories and commonly a limited selection of products in these categories. The shops are often opened for longer hours. With the UK’s Sunday trading act the number of bigger stores with longer opening hours has increased. Their competition has cut into the presence of convenience stores.
Recent developments on the market
In the past years, large chains such as Sainsbury’s have tried to capitalize on the trend among consumers towards shorter and more frequent shopping trips. The number of Sainsbury's stores that were classified as convenience reached 814 in 2023, a slight increase on the previous year. Market leader Tesco had almost 2,000 convenience stores across the UK in the same year.