Shopping at all hours: Leicester Coop's successful experiment

Leicestershire Cooperative Society is one of the top eight Coops in the country, and has a turnover in excess of £160m. It provides a range of retail outlets including superstores, supermarkets, “Home” departments, chemists, and travel bureaux. One of their most successful ventures has been the development of All Hours convenience stores, open from 8am to 8pm Monday to Saturday, offering the convenience of local shopping. The stores feature a wide selection of groceries, fresh fruit and vegetables, bread and cakes, meat, provisions, frozen foods and wines and spirits. The name “All Hours” was the idea of Leicester Society's Retail Controller, Nigel Harvey, and he describes the stores in the article which follows.