Mainstop was a British

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. Strictly speaking, a supermarket is larger and has a wider selecti ...

chain A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. A ...

, with branches across the whole of England, and parts of Wales, for a period from the early eighties. Mainstop branches were large general grocery stores, often featuring in store specialist departments, such as butchers and bakeries. The corporate logo consisted of four interlaced rectangles, forming an approximation of the "hash" symbol (#) from a computer font set, turned through 45°, or the letter "x" printed twice, so as to overlap. This logo was used in signage and marketing, and on promotional items, including coffee mugs widely distributed through the early 1980s, at the opening ceremonies of new branches. Mainstop-mugs

Mainstop was originally part of

International Stores International Tea Co. Stores was a leading chain of grocers based in London. It was an original constituent of the FT 30 index of leading companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. History The business was founded in 1878 by Hudson Kearley ...

, itself a subsidiary of

British American Tobacco British American Tobacco p.l.c. (BAT) is a British multinational company that manufactures and sells cigarettes, tobacco and other nicotine products including electronic cigarettes. The company, established in 1902, is headquartered in London, E ...

. In the late 1970s, the largest International Stores were rebranded as 'Big I', and finally in 1981 as Mainstop, although the Torquay branch was rebranded as Supernational. The 22 Mainstop stores ran at a loss during their brief existence, and therefore eight were returned to the International Stores fold in 1983 (until Gateway took them over), whilst the remaining 15 were sold to Morrisons, Co-op and Presto in 1983.

References

{{Defunct UK grocers Defunct supermarkets of the United Kingdom