Self-service layout and display

Self-service stores looked very different to the counter service shops. Walls and counters were still tiled, but designs were simpler and the old green, cream and teapot brown tiles were replaced with lighter shades.

Goods were displayed on free-standing shelving units rather than in windows or on counters.These shelving units or ‘gondolas’ incorporated a display area at each end.

Find out more about self-service store features

Cheaper goods tended to be displayed on the left of shelves, moving to the right as the prices increased. How much of each product was displayed depended partially on its sales.

By the 1970s, gondolas had grown much taller to accommodate more products and overhead signage was introduced. Mobile display cages became popular with many retailers, as they could be delivered ready-filled by suppliers. They were briefly used by Sainsbury’s in the mid 1970s, but were felt to be untidy-looking, as well as incompatible with centralised distribution.

During the 1960s and 70s, many larger new stores opened. Increased floor space made shop layout even more important. Layouts were standardised so that customers could find what they wanted.

View layout plans for self-service stores at Croydon (1950), Ealing (1956) and Norwich (1970): Self-service layouts [PDF 720KB]

Download a table showing the number of Sainsbury's stores and average size of their sales area between 1870 and 2000: Branch numbers / sizes [PDF 20 KB]

Larger edge-of-town stores provided space for ample car parking, customer restaurants and a variety of retail concessions. Service counters were also reintroduced alongside the self-service ones. Sainsbury's first supermarket delicatessen counter opened in Wandsworth in 1971 and stocked 73 items. The first in-store bakery followed at the Telford store in 1973.

'Freeflow' produce, which allowed customers to select and weigh their own items, was introduced from 1976 and proved extremely popular. As stores grew larger displays became more imaginative. When the Bretton branch opened in 1972, its wine department was arranged as a self-contained 'shop within a shop'.