Supermarkets in the United Kingdom - Definition and Overview

The UK supermarket sector is dominated by Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrison's, which are the only chains which operate full scale superstores of 40,000 square feet (3,700 m²) or more. They are all fully national; there are no major regional supermarket chains left in the United Kingdom, just a few small ones which operate smaller stores. The "Big 4" had a combined share of 74.6% of the UK grocery market in the 12 weeks to 2 January 2005 according to retail analysts TNS Superpanel.

Somerfield is the fifth largest United Kingdom food retailer.

Marks and Spencer and Waitrose are the most upmarket national chains of supermarket (although the former is also the UK's largest clothing retailer, and is often not perceived as a supermarket at all). They trade from medium and small sized stores.

List of current British supermarket chains

• Aldi (German owned hard discounter)
• ASDA (owned by Wal-Mart)
• Booths
• Budgens
• Co-op
• Costcutter (a symbol group)
• Iceland
• Kwik Save (owned by Somerfield)
• Lidl (German owned hard discounter)
• Londis (a symbol group)
• Marks and Spencer
• Morrisons
• Netto (a Danish owned hard discounter)
• Sainsbury's
• Somerfield
• SPAR (a symbol group)
• Tesco
• Waitrose (owned by the John Lewis department store chain)

• Alldays, Day & Nite, Local Plus, One Stop and Safeway are being rebranded following their take overs.

List of defunct British supermarket chains

• AllDays (bought by Co-op)
• Bejam (bought by Iceland)
• Day & Nite (bought by Tesco)
• Fine Fare (now Somerfield)
• Gateway (Now known as Somerfield)
• Local Plus (bought by Co-op)
• One Stop Stores (bought by Tesco)
• Safeway (UK) (bought by Wm Morrison)

(Safeway Compact Stores sold on to Somerfield)

See also

For supermarkets worldwide see List of supermarkets.