Sainsbury’s has opened a new supermarket in Selly Oak, Birmingham which includes a food market format and experimental layout.
The 67,000 sq ft store, which comes as part of a 10-year regeneration project of the Selly Oak Shopping Park, incorporates an eat-in food market section offering freshly-made bread, pizza, cakes and self-service coffee. Customers can also choose dishes from Wok Street, Sushi Gourmet, Little India Kitchen, the West Cornwall Pasty Company and Fresh Kitchen concessions, and eat in the 180-seat food court.
Argos and Habitat are both fully integrated into the store, rather than a store-in-store format with separate units. Products from the two stores are displayed in showroom settings rather than stacked on shelves.
Argos jewellery and watches are also prominently displayed in the clothing area, making it easier for customers to accessorise their outfits and browse items.
Other third-party concessions at the store, which opened yesterday (21 November), are Oasis clothing items and Sainsbury’s revamped beauty offering trial. This incorporates 1,500 products from premium brands such as Essie, Burt’s Bees and Tisserand, alongside dedicated in-store advisers, and is being tested at seven other branches.
Gallery: inside Sainsbury’s Selly Oak
Other features include a bakery and patisserie, as well as fish, meat, deli and sushi counters.
Sainsbury’s said “great quality, competitively priced food” is at the heart of the store, through a vast range of both branded and own-label food.
“Our new Sainsbury’s at Selly Oak has been 10 years in the making and it’s wonderful to see it come to fruition, providing our customers with a fantastic new store,” said store manager Tom Balay. “Our team of colleagues have worked really hard to get the store ready and are now excited to welcome and serve customers. Sainsbury’s distinctive food is at the heart of our store and we hope people will try out our new food market.”
A spokesman added Sainsbury’s has no plans to roll this format out to other branches, but said customers “may notice elements of it in other stores in future, such as the food market or Argos layout”.
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