# Mainstop

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British supermarket chain

Mainstop Type Subsidiary Industry Supermarket/Retail Defunct 1983 Number of locations 22 (at peak) Products Grocery, bakery, dairy, deli, frozen food, general merchandise, meat, produce, seafood Parent British American Tobacco

**Mainstop** was a British [supermarket](/source/Supermarket) [chain](/source/Chain_store), 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.[1]

The Mainstop corporate logo illustrated on two promotional coffee mugs.

Mainstop was originally part of [International Stores](/source/International_Stores), itself a subsidiary of [British American Tobacco](/source/British_American_Tobacco). 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[2] (until Gateway took them over), whilst the remaining 15 were sold to Morrisons, Co-op and Presto in 1983.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*]

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** The full colour version of the logo may be seen on the Darlington branch in [this photograph](http://ww2.durham.gov.uk/dre/pgDre.aspx?&SEARCH=By+Keyword&TERM=Supermarkets&ID=DRE9662&PIC=Y) [Deprecated link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Archive.today_guidance) archived 2012-07-30 at [archive.today](/source/Archive.today) from Durham County Council.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** ["BAT Industries Uesful Dates - usfc.edu"](http://beta.industrydocuments.library.ucsf.edu/documentstore/k/h/w/h//khwh0208/khwh0208.pdf) (PDF). 23 April 2015.[*[permanent dead link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Link_rot)*]

v t e Defunct supermarkets in the United Kingdom Investor-owned chains Axe Bejam Botterills Burton Supermarkets Carrefour Cartier's Superfoods Cater Brothers Crazy Prices David Greig Downsway Supermarkets Elmo Fine Fare FJ Wallis FreshXpress Gateway GT Smith Haldanes Hillards Hintons International Stores Key Markets Lipton's Local Plus Mac Fisheries Mainstop Netto Premier Supermarkets Presto Safeway Sainsbury's Freezer Centres Sainsbury's SavaCentre Shoprite Somerfield Stewarts UGO Victor Value Wellworths William Low Co-operative societies CRS Chelmsford Star Croydon Anglia Regional Highburton Ilkeston Leeds London Lothian, Borders & Angus Midlands Moulton Norco Raunds Penrith Rochdale Pioneers Royal Arsenal Sheffield South Suburban St. Cuthbert's United Category Supermarkets

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