ABSTRACT
The new retail format quickly came to dominate US grocery retailing but it was slow to be adopted in the UK. However, as wartime rationing came to an end in the 1950s the self-service revolution took off. The truth depends on how the people define a supermarket, because it was at about this time that the second stage of the supermarket transformation took place and the self-service format expanded along with the addition of a car park and shopping trolleys. By 2019 the discount supermarkets led by Aldi and Lidl were challenging the big supermarkets, having disrupted the UK grocery market not through innovation or technology but by keeping things simple and cheap. The impact of the discounters on the big four supermarkets came to a head in 2014. At the beginning of that year the supermarkets had been busy working on their ongoing program of new store openings in all formats.
