Where general retail & value is growing in the UK
8,477 general retail & value branded outlets across 27 brands are tracked in the UK in the November 2026 release. Birmingham has the most, with 111, or 0.9 per 10,000 residents; the top 25 local areas together hold 1,680 (20% of outlets with a mapped local area). The largest like-for-like net gain since the previous release is in Buckinghamshire (+2).
Which local areas have the most general retail & value outlets?
| # | Local area | Outlets | Brands present | Per 10,000 residents |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Birmingham | 111 | 17: Card Factory, Argos, Poundland, B&M, Marks & Spencer | 0.9 |
| 2 | Leeds | 107 | 18: Card Factory, Argos, B&M, Home Bargains, Marks & Spencer | 1.3 |
| 3 | Glasgow City | 100 | 19: Argos, B&M, Card Factory, Marks & Spencer, Home Bargains | - |
| 4 | ONS area E06000065 | 92 | 16: Marks & Spencer, Argos, Card Factory, B&M, Pets at Home | 1.4 |
| 5 | Liverpool | 79 | 16: Home Bargains, Card Factory, B&M, Argos, Marks & Spencer | 1.6 |
| 6 | County Durham | 76 | 14: Argos, Card Factory, B&M, Home Bargains, Boyes | 1.4 |
| 7 | Cornwall | 74 | 14: Argos, B&M, Card Factory, Pets at Home, Poundland | 1.3 |
| 8 | ONS area E06000066 | 73 | 15: Card Factory, Marks & Spencer, Argos, B&M, The Works | 1.2 |
| 9 | Sheffield | 73 | 17: Argos, Card Factory, Home Bargains, Poundland, B&M | 1.3 |
| 10 | City of Edinburgh | 72 | 17: Marks & Spencer, Argos, Card Factory, Home Bargains, B&M | - |
| 11 | Buckinghamshire | 68 | 17: Marks & Spencer, Argos, Card Factory, Pets Corner, The Works | 1.2 |
| 12 | Wiltshire | 65 | 15: Argos, Marks & Spencer, B&M, Card Factory, The Works | 1.2 |
| 13 | Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole | 62 | 19: Card Factory, Marks & Spencer, Argos, Pets at Home, CeX | 1.5 |
| 14 | Manchester | 61 | 15: Marks & Spencer, Argos, B&M, Card Factory, Home Bargains | 1.0 |
| 15 | Cheshire East | 55 | 14: Argos, B&M, Card Factory, Marks & Spencer, Home Bargains | 1.3 |
| 16 | Northumberland | 54 | 15: Argos, B&M, Card Factory, Home Bargains, Pets at Home | 1.6 |
| 17 | Wakefield | 54 | 13: B&M, Card Factory, Argos, Home Bargains, Marks & Spencer | 1.5 |
| 18 | North Northamptonshire | 53 | 15: Marks & Spencer, Argos, B&M, Card Factory, Home Bargains | 1.4 |
| 19 | Bromley | 52 | 17: Argos, Marks & Spencer, Card Factory, The Works, TUI | 1.6 |
| 20 | Cheshire West and Chester | 52 | 16: Argos, Card Factory, Home Bargains, Marks & Spencer, B&M | 1.4 |
| 21 | Kingston upon Hull, City of | 51 | 16: B&M, Card Factory, Home Bargains, Boyes, Argos | 1.9 |
| 22 | Bristol, City of | 50 | 15: Argos, Marks & Spencer, Pets at Home, B&M, Card Factory | 1.0 |
| 23 | Fife | 50 | 13: B&M, Card Factory, Marks & Spencer, Argos, Home Bargains | - |
| 24 | Cardiff | 49 | 17: Argos, B&M, Home Bargains, Card Factory, Pets at Home | 1.3 |
| 25 | Sefton | 47 | 15: Home Bargains, Card Factory, Argos, B&M, Marks & Spencer | 1.6 |
Local areas are local authority districts. Brands present shows how many brands have an outlet there and the five with the most.
Which local areas added the most general retail & value outlets?
| # | Local area | Net change | Previous release | This release | All outlets now |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Buckinghamshire | +2 | 66 | 68 | 68 |
| 2 | Hillingdon | +2 | 33 | 35 | 43 |
| 3 | Stoke-on-Trent | +2 | 35 | 37 | 37 |
| 4 | Lewisham | +2 | 26 | 28 | 28 |
| 5 | Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole | +1 | 61 | 62 | 62 |
| 6 | Sefton | +1 | 46 | 47 | 47 |
| 7 | Wirral | +1 | 44 | 45 | 45 |
| 8 | Doncaster | +1 | 43 | 44 | 44 |
| 9 | North Lanarkshire | +1 | 43 | 44 | 44 |
| 10 | West Northamptonshire | +1 | 41 | 42 | 42 |
| 11 | Coventry | +1 | 39 | 40 | 40 |
| 12 | Wandsworth | +1 | 39 | 40 | 40 |
| 13 | Barnet | +1 | 37 | 38 | 39 |
| 14 | West Suffolk | +1 | 37 | 38 | 38 |
| 15 | Bolton | +1 | 31 | 32 | 32 |
Net change in outlets for brands present in both releases, for local areas with at least 5 outlets in the sector. 6 brands in this sector first appear in this release and are left out of the growth table, so that adding a brand to the data is never counted as an area growing.
How these figures are made
Counts are h3hex's own store-by-store record of each brand's published UK locations for the brands listed in the General retail & value sector of the h3hex data store, November 2026 release (scrape window 30 Oct - 3 Nov 2026), page built 2026-11-06. Closed, pre-opening and head-office records are left out. 27 outlets with no mappable postcode are counted in the totals but not in the local-area tables. 4 districts created in 2023 are shown by their ONS code because the postcode lookup used here carries no name for them. Net change compares this release with the 29 October 2026 edition of the same dataset and reflects openings and closures as well as improved coverage of each brand's own locator. Resident population is Census 2021 usual-resident population by output area, summed to local authority district through the ONS postcode-to-output-area lookup (May 2024). The population table does not join to the lookup for districts in Northern Ireland and Scotland, so outlets per 10,000 residents is shown as - for them.
Use the data
Prospect site reports assess a single address against these brands, and the data store sells the general retail & value store lists brand by brand or as a sector bundle.