Kwik Save, Skegness (August 2018)
Logo date: 2002-2007, chain administration 2007
Is this the only surviving old style Kwik Save store in the country? Quite possibly. Never the most loved of the supermarket chains, the slow rise of the German discounters in the 00s made it seem a little lacklustre and old-hat in the modern age. A merger with Somerfield in the late 90s didn’t prove fruitful for either company with Somerfield divesting of the business in 2006, having kept the best stores for themselves and rebranding them. This left Kwik Save as a standalone firm in poor, unprofitable locations… and it didn’t last another eighteen months.
The inside of this store is very eerie and apocalyptic, as seen in these photos. Those were taken in 2017 following a fire that severely damaged part of the building’s structure.
The Kwik-Save brand was relaunched in 2012 as a convenience store franchise.
Update: having checked in while in Skegness in July 2019 I was surprised to see that finally, after a decade abandoned, the site’s been given a lick of paint and new lease of life as a car park. Not a bad idea in reality, Skegness always cries out for parking on sunny summer days, even if this is a fair twenty minute trek to the seafront.
