Sainsbury’s today opened its 500th convenience store in Southsea, Hampshire, today and will create 10,000 job opportunities in its convenience business over the next three years

Sainsbury’s will open one to two convenience stores a week and opened 49 in its first half. Its convenience business reported nearly 20% growth in the first half, with over half a million extra customers shopping in those stores since the start of the calendar year.

Simon Twigger, Sainsbury’s director of convenience, said: “Opening our 500th store is a real milestone in our plans to create a scale convenience business. The business is going from strength to strength.

“We see people continuing to shop little and often, using local ‘top up shops’ to help them manage their budgets, reduce the need to travel to out of town retail parks and minimise the amount of food they waste.”