Sainsbury’s invited the local community in Alsager, Cheshire East, into its brand-new supermarket for the first time.

Showcasing Sainsbury’s unbeatable combination of quality fresh food, great value, innovative products and brilliant colleague service, the new store was declared open following a ribbon-cutting ceremony with customers, colleagues and Alsager community representatives. The first 500 customers through the doors this morning received a special-edition Sainsbury’s bag for life, featuring a design by Betsy Abbott, a pupil at nearby Excalibur Primary School.

The new supermarket is Sainsbury’s second store in Alsager, and the retailer plans to build on the success of its existing Local store in the town. Located on the newly created Brunds Farm Road, near Linley Lane, the new 25,000 sq. ft store is now open from 7am to 10pm Monday to Saturday and from 10am to 4pm on Sundays.

Sainsbury’s is passionate about providing good food for all of us and the new supermarket store centres around an extensive range of high quality, great value, tasty products including fresh food, fruit and veg, food-to-go, kitchen cupboard favourites, frozen food and baked bread and pastries.

The store will also include a new Argos store inside the supermarket, enabling customers to choose from thousands of products while picking up their groceries and the retailer’s popular Habitat and Tu Clothing ranges will be available to order online for collection in-store via Click & Collect.

The store is also contributing to Sainsbury’s sustainability ambitions, known as its Plan for Better. For example, like the rest of Sainsbury’s estate, it runs on 100% renewable electricity ,. It also features solar panels on the roof and a range of other state-of-the-art technology throughout the store to make it as energy efficient as possible, including 100% LED lighting, advanced hot and cold air recycling infrastructure and doors on refrigerated aisles to help keep fresh products cool. There is extensive wildflower planting around the edge of the store’s perimeter and there are even two bee hotels to provide additional bespoke habitats for bees onsite.

Outside the store, there is a new Pay@Pump petrol station, a 249-space car park, including 15 disabled spaces, and a Smart Charge hub with 4 ultra-rapid, fully accessible EV charging bays. A new Starbucks store is expected to arrive onsite in late Spring.

Katie Leese, Sainsbury’s Alsager Superstore Manager, said:

“We’ve been working hard over the last few months to get everything ready for opening day today and we hope our customers agree that it has paid off – I’d like to thank the many hundreds of people who have supported us for everything they have done to help launch the store. We’re already off to a fantastic start on our first day of trading and my team and I are all excited to meet many more customers in the coming weeks.”

Patrick Dunne, Sainsbury’s Chief Property and Procurement Officer, Managing Director of Smart Charge, said:

“All of us at Sainsbury’s are passionate about our tasty, well-sourced food and we want to bring more of it within easy reach of more customers wherever we can with brilliant new stores like this one – what’s more, EV drivers in and around Alsager can now benefit from a brand-new Smart Charge hub offering speedy, fully accessible and reliable ultra-rapid charging."

“We’re delighted to have opened our long-awaited Sainsbury’s Alsager Superstore and to have received such a warm response from the local community already. This is the second supermarket we’ve opened in 2025 and we’re looking forward to opening many more this year as part of our exciting new space programme.”

Next month, Sainsbury’s will implement the first of two increases in pay for hourly paid colleagues planned throughout 2025. All colleagues outside of London across both Sainsbury’s and Argos will move from £12 to £12.45 per hour in March, with a further increase to £12.60 per hour in August.

Since January 2022, 100 per cent of Sainsbury’s electricity has come from renewable sources – these are a combination of energy sourced directly from on-site solar PVs and eight UK wind farms, as well as certificate-backed renewable electricity from the UK in the form of REGOs.