Local boy comes back to where it all began.

With the opening of the new Sainsbury's Local in The Cut this month, it is interesting to note that the founder of this now massive supermarket business was born not a cabbage throw from where this new shop is and actually worked on a stall in the original New Cut market.

John James Sainsbury was born in number 5 Oakley Street, Lambeth (what is now known as Baylis Road) on the 12th June 1844; his father, John Sainsbury, was a frame maker for pictures.
John's first job at 14 (round about 1858) was with a grocer in The New Cut Market.
With his father dying in 1863, it was up to John to support his mother and family; five years later he married and set up a small dairy shop in 173 Drury Lane with very claustrophobic accommodation above the shop.

From that small shop was built a massive chain of stores (there were 128 stores flourishing at the time of his death in 1928) probably using his business know how learned on the stall along the way.

Now with well over a thousand stores UK wide, this new local store seems to complete a circle from where it all began.