The birth of a supermarket

2:25pm Wednesday 13th August 2003

Sainsbury’s is one of the UK’s biggest supermarket chains but few are aware of its humble beginnings in Croydon.

While the empire’s founder, John James Sainsbury, was born and raised in neighbouring Lambeth, he chose a premises at 9/11 London Road, Croydon, to open a pioneering showpiece branch in 1882 which later paved the way for how all supermarkets operate today.

A visionary John James ploughed a lot of money into his Croydon branch of Sainsbury’s, but this lavish approach to business did not win him any favours with his rivals.

The Victorian businessman placed the biggest emphasis on making the store look appealing for customers, carefully selecting fashionably-coloured tiles for the walls and counters along with mosaics for the walls.

However, the one factor which John James knew would keep his business one step ahead of his rivals was cleanliness – something which was not yet at the forefront of his competitors’ stores.

His son the late John Benjamin recalled: “Failure was predicted for such an extravagance by others but the critics missed the point my father had in mind, and that was to produce a shop to ensure perfect cleanliness and freedom from the menace of all food shops in those days – mice and rats.

“For all time my father must stand as the founder of the modern provision trade.” The store was a great success and John James Sainsbury opened other branches in the borough, including Purley and Selsdon, with his sons and other family members taking on various responsibilities within the business.

However, it wasn’t until 1950 that a radical change was made to the London Road store which would revolutionise the way in which people shopped forever.

The shop was extensively refurbished to create the country’s very first self-service store, which officially opened on June 26, 1950.

The Croydon store incorporated many technical improvements which were to become standard in all new stores. One of these was fluorescent lighting, another was the use of perspex on counters and displays but the most important technical advance was the introduction of refrigerated cabinets.

So far, only a few Sainsbury’s branches had been equipped with refrigerated bins, known as coffins, where a small range of frozen foods such a peas and ice cream were kept.

But these were inadequate for a self-service store so in 1949 part of the Selsdon store was converted into a laboratory to develop better refrigerated cabinets.

The formal re-opening of the London Road store was something of an anti-climax. It is thought that many of the regular customers were so confused by the disruption during the shop’s refurbishment that the only person queuing up outside was the manager’s wife.

Most customers were impressed by the self-service.

After years of queuing and shortages during the war, the experience of choosing one’s own groceries at leisure was irresistible.

An extract from an article published in Home News read: “Our only criticism – it’s the easiest way in the world of spending too much money.” However, there were a few customers who were less impressed, mainly elderly people who found it difficult to adapt to the new system or the more wealthy who felt the idea of self-service was an insult.

More assistants were employed to help customers readjust to the new system which prompted a number of amusing incidents.

When one customer was offered a wire basket by a manager at the entrance they threw it back at him in contempt. At the newly-opened branch in Purley a judge’s wife screamed abuse at a manager when she discovered she was required to carry her own shopping home.

Even those in the trade were not entirely convinced, with a competitor telling the then manager of the Croydon branch that the British public would never accept the concept of self-service, to which he replied: “How wrong they were. And how lucky we were that they were wrong.” Pictures and text reproduced courtesy of the Sainsbury’s Archive Museum