Argos (retailer)

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Argos Limited, commonly known as Argos, is a British general merchandise retailer currently owned by Sainsbury's. The company was incorporated as Argos Distributors Limited in November 1972 and began trading in 1973, when entrepreneur Richard Tompkins opened 17 catalogue showrooms. Its retail system developed from Tompkins established Argos by evolving his existing Green Shield Stamps business and combined elements of mail-order and conventional retailing: customers selected products from a catalogue before ordering and collecting them from a stock held at a showroom. Argos became associated with a distinctive catalogue-showroom model in which relatively little merchandise was displayed on the sales floor. The printed catalogue instead performed much of the product-display and merchandising function, while stores primarily handled stock checking, payment and collection. Retail historian Leigh Sparks has identified this separation of production selection from fulfilment as an important feature of the company's development and later adaptation to multichannel retailing. The business expanded rapidly during the 1970s and acquired by BAT Industries in 1979. BAT demerged Argos in 1990, returning it to independent public ownership, before Great Universal Stores (GUS) acquired it in 1998 for approximately £1.9 billion. GUS subsequently incorporated Argos into Argos Retail Group, which was demerged in 2006 as Home Retail Group alongside Homebase. Argos developed substantial internet and multichannel operations during the 2000s. Internet orders accounted for 15 per cent of sales by 2006 and 42 per cent by 2012. A five-year transformation programme launched in 2012 sought to make Argos a "digital-led retailer", with redesigned stores, greater use of mobile and online ordering, and changed to its distribution network. In 2015 it introduced Fast Track, a nationwide same-day delivery service. Sainsbury's acquired Home Retail Group in September 2016 following a takeover battle valuing the company at about £1.4 billion. It subsequently relocated hundreds of Argos stores...