Supermarket Index: The density and price tag of Britain’s favourite chains revealed

Tesco has the most amount of shops across the UK

Supermarket	England	Wales	Scotland	Ireland	Total
Tesco	2350	122	215	55	2742
Sainsbury	1269	29	97	13	1408
Nisa Local	775	77	95	84	1031
ALDI	781	56	95	–	932
Lidl	722	59	104	–	885
Morrisons	601	37	61	18	717
ASDA	514	41	61	17	633
Waitrose	345	6	7	6	364
Farmfoods	218	26	98	–	342
Simply Fresh	24	1	–	–	25

CIA Landlord’s research reveals that Tesco has the most stores across the UK, the majority of which are based in England. The super chain has 2,350 locations across England, as well as 122 in Wales, 215 in Scotland and 55 in Ireland, bringing their total to2,742 stores. 

Coming in second is Sainsbury, with a total of 1,408 stores across the United Kingdom. The vast majority of these, 1,269 shops, are located in England in addition to the 29 Welsh, 97 Scottish and 13 Irish stores. 

Surprisingly, ranking third isn’t another big name like ASDA or Waitrose, it’s actually Nisa Local that takes this place  with a total of 1,031 shops including 775 locations in England, 77 in Wales, 95 in Scotland and 84 in Ireland. 

Nottingham has the highest density of supermarkets

City	Country	No. of Tesco’s	No. of Waitrose’s	No of Lidl’s	No. of Nisa Local’s	No. of Sainsbury’s	No. of Farmfoods’s	No. of Aldi’s	No. of Morrisons	No. of ASDA’s	No. of supermarkets	No of supermarkets per 100,000 people
Nottingham	England	30	1	7	0	22	3	5	11	7	86	55.95
Manchester	England	38	0	11	14	18	5	5	13	10	114	28.82
Warwick	England	1	2	1	0	3	0	0	1	0	8	25.52
Glasgow	Scotland	41	2	15	12	26	22	5	12	9	144	24.34
Leeds	England	30	1	8	16	23	3	5	14	9	109	23.95
Southampton	England	27	3	9	0	8	1	5	2	1	56	22.75
Peterborough	England	9	1	3	12	2	1	4	3	2	37	22.65
York	England	6	1	2	1	14	2	3	2	2	33	21.47
Walsall	England	1	0	3	11	12	2	0	2	2	33	19.17
Edinburgh	Scotland	26	2	11	0	27	5	6	6	6	89	19.14
Bristol	England	43	4	13	4	22	1	5	5	7	104	16.85
Oxford	England	6	4	0	3	10	0	2	0	2	27	15.75
Belfast	Ireland	10	0	0	14	3	0	5	0	3	35	12.74
Birmingham	England	34	3	10	30	20	6	5	7	8	123	12.50
Swansea	Wales	10	0	4	7	3	3	4	1	1	33	10.99
London	England	304	54	72	72	277	5	7	12	12	815	10.78
Cardiff	Wales	9	2	6	5	8	2	8	1	5	46	10.28
Reading	England	10	3	4	2	5	0	4	1	3	32	10.06
Plymouth	England	6	1	7	1	3	1	1	3	2	25	9.61
Sheffield	England	8	1	5	6	16	2	7	8	7	60	8.75
Liverpool	England	32	0	6	3	5	8	7	3	7	71	8.22

When looking at the highest density of each popular chain both separately and accumulated, the data reveals that Nottingham has the highest number of supermarkets per capita. With a total of 86 supermarket locations including 30 Tesco’s and 22 Sainsbury’s, the total comes down to 55.95 per 100,000 people.

Our favourite chains are represented by far fewer numbers in the city ranking second. Manchester tallies up to a total of 28.82 supermarkets per 100,000 people, which includes a whopping 38 Tesco stores and 13 Morrisons, totalling 114 shops across the city.

Whilst Warwick only has a total of 8 supermarkets, with a population of just 31,345 people this comes down to 25.52 per 100,000 inhabitants. 

Price Adjustment by Location/Supermarket

Region	Lidl	Aldi	Morrisons	ASDA	Waitrose	Marks & Spencer	Sainsbury’s	Co-op	Tesco	Iceland	AVERAGE
Birmingham	£1,024.35	£488.19	£341.14	£399.20	£7,366.95	£3,781.77	£569.39	£282.53	£342.06	£911.33	£1,550.69
Bristol	£2,052.04	£1,747.71	£1,827.44	£1,462.96	£5,002.43	£6,896.77	£1,285.04	£643.88	£972.29	£2,517.82	£2,440.84
Edinburgh	£1,583.96	£1,575.51	£483.72	£1,299.16	£14,531.35	£323.99	£770.23	£386.83	£575.41	£1,652.21	£2,318.24
Glasgow	£484.48	£452.64	£142.22	£399.42	£6,362.72	£14,270.84	£881.13	£149.07	£245.33	£535.57	£2,392.34
Leeds	£2,792.11	£1,257.42	£494.87	£772.56	£5,378.44		£1,106.95	£394.80	£1,158.32	£1,017.65	£1,597.01
Leicester	£4,071.09	£2,385.43	£1,834.76	£1,756.79	£9,147.93	£15,114.12	£1,747.29	£772.53	£1,525.76	£6,439.47	£4,479.52
London*	£2,511.57	£3,356.26	£1,864.17	£1,676.79	£4,424.59	£62,945.05	£349,343.45	£699.50	£1,621.54	£1,608.75	£43,005.17
Manchester	£174.40	£82.17	£75.78	£39.43	-£158.21	£2,661.88	£35.26	£23.09	£40.11	£63.09	£303.70
Sheffield	£1,272.58	£454.44	£212.32	£586.22	£9,568.44	£25,329.95	£416.61	£143.53	£330.81	£963.89	£3,927.88
AVERAGE	£1,774.06	£1,311.09	£808.49	£932.50	£6,847.18	£16,415.55	£39,572.82	£388.42	£756.85	£1,745.53	£6,950.08

Whilst we usually don’t give our daily or weekly shop much more thought beyond what’s for dinner and if we have any loo rolls left, some of us do take the availability of our favourite supermarkets into account when hunting for a new house or flat. What is more commonly known as “The Waitrose Effect”, is a reflection of supermarket density onto the prices of real estate across cities in the UK. 

CIA Landlord’s research found that based on postcodes associated with each location, the local house price and the quantity of each supermarket in the surrounding area shows a difference in price from the average for that city divided by the number of supermarkets to show the average price difference per local supermarket.

In regard to the average increase of price tags per supermarket, most chains cause an increase of about £1,000. However, two of the most well-known higher tier supermarkets such as Waitrose and Mark’s & Spencers, see property prices in the same postcode skyrocket. For instance, locations in the same postcode as a Waitrose in Edinburgh will see property prices increase by £14,531.35 on average whilst wanting to live nearby a Sainsbury’s in Sheffield sees buyers pay £25,329.95 more for a home.

Having a supermarket in the same postcode as your home address will see the value of properties in Leicester rise by £4,479.5 on average, £2,440.84 in Bristol, and £2,392.34 in Glasgow.

* Disclaimer for London results: this data is based on the average London house price however the postcodes we could get data for ended up only providing data for central London, where the values were higher. Property prices in central London are generally a lot higher than the national average, resulting in a bigger price difference.

Further helpful information can be found at https://www.cia-landlords.co.uk/news/supermarket-index/