page_title: Sainsbury's
section_title: Supermarkets
hierarchical_section_title: Sainsbury's / Shops / Supermarkets
caption_attribution_description: English: Sainsbury's Gloucester Quays
context_page_description: J Sainsbury plc trading as Sainsbury's is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 16.0% share of the supermarket sector. Founded in 1869, by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company became the largest retailer of groceries in 1922. In 1995, Tesco overtook Sainsbury's to become the market leader, and Asda became the second largest in 2003, demoting Sainsbury's to third place for most of the subsequent period until January 2014, when Sainsbury's regained second place. In April 2019, whilst awaiting to merge with Asda, Sainsbury's was again demoted into third place as their rival placed second.
  The holding company, J Sainsbury plc, is split into three divisions: Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd, Sainsbury's Bank and Sainsbury's Argos. The group's head office is in Sainsbury's Support Centre in Holborn Circus, City of London.
  As of February 2018, the largest overall shareholder is the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar, the Qatar Investment Authority, which holds 21.99% of the company. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
  In April 2018, Sainsbury's and Asda were in talks of merging.
context_section_description: On 29 September 2010, Sainsbury's opened one of its largest UK shops, an extension of its existing shop in Crayford, South East London, which now has over 100,000 sq ft (9,300 m²) of retail space and is its largest supermarket to be built in the UK. Bybrook in Ashford Kent, which reopened on 16 November 2011 has over 100,000 sq ft (9,300 m²).
  The refurbished Lincoln, Lincolnshire shop opened on 24 November 2010 making it the UK's second largest Sainsbury's supermarket after Crayford at 98,712 sq ft (9,170.6 m²).
  Shops in the 'supermarket' category all have similar layouts and operations but may vary in their offering to the customer. Most will have a convenience kiosk, produce, meat, fish, groceries and frozen food, and manned and self-service checkouts. However depending on the size of the shop they may also have an in-shop bakery, butcher, fishmonger, delicatessen and pizza counters, a cafe, TU clothing, general merchandise, petrol station and online picking department. Some shops also feature concessions such as a beauty hall, travel agents, Jessops, Patisserie Valerie, Specsavers, Carte D'or and Ben and Jerrys ice cream stands, Zizzi pizza counters,  Sushi Gourmet counters, juice bars, The Fragrance Shop, Argos and Habitat. Others also feature a "Centre for Dentistry" where dental treatments are offered and/or an "Explore Learning" centre where children are offered extra English and maths tuition. Some shops also feature a Starbucks Coffee instead of an in-shop cafe.
  In March 2020, due to the escalation of the coronavirus pandemic, Sainsbury's supermarkets allowed shoppers to buy no more than three of each food item, to ensure all visitors have access to the products they need.
caption: Interior of Sainsbury's Gloucester Quays shop
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot A550", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "96", "Image YResolution": "96", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.6.6", "Image DateTime": "2009:07:23 10:43:11", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "210", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "3320", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "12251", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/80", "EXIF FNumber": "13/5", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:06:15 09:49:58", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:06:15 09:49:58", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "101/16", "EXIF ApertureValue": "11/4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "11/4", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "29/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1517", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1365", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "2048", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "1536", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "3172", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "81920/9", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1536000/169", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "db68cc864bafaceb934f4041165b065b"}