(Last updated: 2 Aug 2010)

Self-guided grocery retail familiarisation tour

This one-day tour will take you to some of the UK’s independent food stores, food halls and grocery supermarket retailers who have outlets in central London. Given the high level of traffic in the centre of the city, you should consider using public transport. We suggest you purchase a one-day Travelcard which gives you access to both the underground (tube) as well as buses.

Take the Circle Line tube (yellow) from Temple to Kensington High Street (see tube map at Appendix 5).

On coming out of the exit, turn right for Whole Foods Market at 97 Kensington High Street, W8. Turn left for Waitrose (see B, below) at 243 Kensington High Street, W8 6SA.

Take the District Line (green) from Kensington High Street station to Earls Court station, as marked on map below. Take the main exit (not the exit to exhibition halls/galleries) for Tesco (B, below), 100A West Cromwell Road, W14 8PB.

From Earls Court, take the District line (green) south one stop to West Brompton. Change from the Underground/Tube to overground mainline rail system. From West Brompton travel one stop to Clapham Junction mainline station. The exit from this train station is marked A on the map below) and proceed to Asda (B below), 204 Lavender Hill, Clapham, SW11 1JG.

Now you can proceed to Marks & Spencer ‘Simply Food’ (see B below), 45-49 St Johns Road, Clapham, SW11 1QP.

For a Sainsbury’s supermarket store, take mainline train from Clapham Junction to West Brompton. Change onto the District line (green) and go one stop to Earls Court. Change to the Piccadilly line (dark blue) north to Knightsbridge. Proceed to (B) below, 112-114 Brompton Rd, Chelsea, SW3 1JJ.

While in this area, it is a good opportunity to visit the premium Harrods food hall and Harvey Nichols & Co food hall.

Now head to Marble Arch/Oxford Street on the Central Line (red).

From here you can visit the Oxford Street Selfridges and John Lewis Partnership (which includes an example of one of its John Lewis department store Waitrose food halls).

You can also walk north, to Marylebone High Street to visit The Natural Kitchen, 77/78 Marylebone High Street, W1U 5JX. The Natural Kitchen is a pioneering ‘slow food store’ selling organic, wild and artisan foods with sustainability, seasonality, traceability, low food miles and animal welfare key on the menu.

From Marble Arch station you can take the Central Line (red) along to Shepherds Bush station and Morrisons at 114/125 Concorde Centre, Shepherds Bush , W12 8PH. Whilst in the area, you may also like to visit the Westfield Shopping Centre at White City – opened in late 2008.

Further information on stores mentioned above

Harrods Ltd – www.harrods.com
Since the store first opened its doors in 1849, Harrods has prided itself on a reputation for excellence, extraordinary customer service and sourcing the finest-quality merchandise. The food hall and wine cellar are particularly impressive. One main store plus airport concessions (mainly own-brand food & beverage product).

Harvey Nichols – www.harveynichols.com
Harvey Nichols' flagship store opened in its present form on the corner of Knightsbridge and Sloane Street in the 1880s. There are eight floors of fashion, beauty and home collections, with the Fifth Floor dedicated to food and restaurants. Six stores across the UK and Ireland. A large private label range plus numerous high end branded products with a number of Australian food/beverage products. Buyers look for unusual products of excellent quality that have very good labelling/packaging. The store puts on frequent instore tastings and suppliers are encouraged to participate in these and the ‘fairs’ (group promotions) in stores around Christmas and other key calendar dates.

Whole Foods Market – www.wholefoodsmarket.com
Healthy, bio-dynamic, organic – this is the flagship store of Whole Foods Market, the US company that recently took over the UK’s Fresh n Wild business. Whole Foods Market has plans to expand in the UK. The store prides itself on being highly selective, dedicated to stringent quality standards and committed to sustainable agriculture.

The Natural Kitchen – www.thenaturalkitchen.com
A pioneering ‘slow food store’ selling organic, wild and artisan foods with sustainability, seasonality, traceability, low food miles and animal welfare key on the menu. Products include everything from fresh fruit to takeaway foods from such suppliers as Hugh Fernley Whittingstall’s River Cottage brand, wines from organic specialists Vintage Roots and the Well Hung Meat Company. The store includes a café, a ‘wine cave’ and an ‘artisan tasting table’.

Tesco – www.tesco.com
Tesco became the market leader in 1995 and has continued to increase its market share ever since, reaching a staggering 31.5% in 2006 although has since dropped back slightly. This retailer takes approx 12.5% of total consumer spend in the UK and has over 2,200 stores in the UK.

Asda – www.asda.co.uk
Asda’s business is more focused on hypermarkets and out-of-town stores than those of the other UK chains, following the model of US retail giant Wal-Mart which bought Asda in 1999. Approx 400 stores in the UK

Sainsbury’s – www.sainsburys.co.uk
One of the top five multiple retailers with over 800 stores nationwide. These include town-centre and out-of-town stores, and smaller convenience stores in major cities. It has a good upmarket image in the UK and battling to gain market share against both Asda and Morrisons. During 2008-09 it has focused clearly on its ‘Basics’ private label range to maintain customer footfall and loyalty – and this appears to be paying off.

Morrisons – www.morrisons.co.uk
With the strapline ‘freshness, service and value’, Morrisons is the UK’s fourth largest food retailer by market share with over 400 stores. Uniquely, it sources and processes most of the fresh food that it sells though its own manufacturing facilities, and it claims to have more people preparing more food in-store than any other UK retailer. The retailer hopes that its ‘market street’ concept, which is based around fresh food, will help it to win further share from Tesco, Sainsbury’s and the Co-Operative. Morrisons has started its own research farm in Scotland and plans another for the south of England. A weekly nine million customers pass through its doors and its marketing is focused on competitive prices and hundreds of special offers. In 2008-09 it opened a number of convenience format stores to help it penetrate more prosperous urban areas.

Waitrose – www.waitrose.com
Waitrose is part of the John Lewis Partnership and is regarded as a more up-market supermarket and with over 210 stores in the UK and with more stores planned. In 2008-09 it has started to roll out convenience sized stores, with the fourth, latest store opening in Crouch End in London in Jul 09.

Marks & Spencer – Simply Food – www.marksandspencer.com
M&S has 450 stores in the UK many of which include their ‘Simply Food’ food hall. Additionally, there are a further 150 M&S stores worldwide. Almost all its food is own-brand product, but the organisation is highly regarded by many consumers at the higher end of the market. During the 2008-09 recession/credit crunch, M&S Food has suffered a fall in market share and like for like sales.

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