What time do supermarkets start/stop selling alcohol?

Welcome to 24 Hour Alcohol, the place to find supermarkets, convenience stores and petrol stations/garages licensed to sell alcohol 24 hours a day, so you can buy booze at any time of night.

What time of night do supermarkets such as Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons start/stop selling alcohol?

In England & Wales, the times supermarkets such as Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons are permitted to sell alcohol depend entirely on the licensing hours granted by the local authority where each individual supermarket is located. Thanks to the Licensing Act 2003 (the law which introduced 24 hour drinking in England & Wales), shops can sell alcohol 24 hours a day if they have been granted a licence allowing them to do so. There is no set rule when it comes to alcohol licensing times. For example, in the Waterloo area of London, there is a 24 hour Tesco Express licensed to sell alcohol from 6am until midnight right next door to a 24 hour Sainsbury’s Local which is licensed to sell alcohol at any time. The Tesco Express applied for a variation to sell alcohol 24/7 but was unsuccessful. This demonstrates how complicated it can be to determine the times alcohol can be sold at a particular shop. Don’t worry though: when trying to find a nearby shop selling alcohol late at night, you don’t have to be kept in the dark, as we maintain a database of all shops in England & Wales licensed to sell alcohol 24 hours a day, plus in some areas we also include shops with late night alcohol licences. Search our database to find the nearest shops licensed to sell booze 24 hours a day.

In Scotland, alcohol can only be sold in shops from 10am to 10pm (though some stores may have further restrictions). For more details, see: What time can I buy alcohol in Scotland?.

In Northern Ireland, the general permitted hours for alcohol sales in shops are 8am to 11pm Monday to Saturday, and 10am to 10pm on Sunday (although large supermarkets over 280 square metres may open for only five hours on Sundays, from 1pm to 6pm). Shops in Northern Ireland are not permitted to sell alcohol at all on Christmas Day. Restrictions that previously applied at Easter were abolished on 1 October 2021, when the permitted Sunday start time for shops was also brought forward from 12:30pm to 10am. For more details, see: What time can I buy alcohol in Northern Ireland?

There are many small 24 hour shops across England & Wales that are open 365 days a year. You can easily search our database to find the nearest shops licensed to sell booze 24 hours a day, which includes all 24 hour supermarkets, convenience stores and petrol stations licensed to sell alcohol 24 hours a day.

Generally speaking, Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Lidl, Aldi, Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Co-Op and Iceland branches in England & Wales are often licensed to sell alcohol for the duration of the time they are open to the public, but there are exceptions where local licensing authorities (councils) have refused to grant alcohol licences for the full hours applied for, so there is no guarantee that you’ll be able to purchase alcohol at any time the store is open.

Guidance issued by the Home Office states: “shops, stores and supermarkets should normally be free to provide sales of alcohol for consumption off the premises at any times when the retail outlet is open for shopping unless there are good reasons, based on the licensing objectives, for restricting those hours”.

Have you tried using our store locator to find shops licensed to sell alcohol 24 hours a day? If there isn’t a 24 hour shop nearby with a licence to sell booze all night, late-night alcohol delivery is an option in a growing number of locations in England & Wales.

Do 24 hour Asda stores sell alcohol all night?

Most Asda supermarkets in England & Wales that open 24 hours are licensed for 24 hour alcohol sales, but there are a number of 24 hour Asda supermarkets across the country that are not licensed to sell alcohol all night. There are also some Asda stores with licences to sell alcohol 24 hours a day that don’t sell alcohol at night due to Asda company policy (even though they have 24 hour alcohol licences) – these stores are usually located in areas where there may historically have been problems with late night antisocial behaviour. Our database indicates which Asda Supermarkets, Superstores and Supercentres with 24 hour alcohol licences do and don’t sell alcohol all night, although we always recommend calling your local store to confirm, as stores with 24 hour alcohol licences don’t have to sell alcohol all the time, and sometimes they choose not to for various reasons. At the end of 2023 Asda started transforming over 100 petrol stations acquired from Co-Op to Asda Express, many of which sell alcohol 24 hours a day. Around the same time Asda also started converting over 350 petrol stations acquired from EG Group (trading as Euro Garages Ltd, previously Asda On The Move and Spar franchises) to Asda Express and applying for 24 hour alcohol licences for these sites. All of the Asda Express sites that were granted 24 hour alcohol licences and now sell alcohol 24/7 are listed in our database.

Do 24 hour Tesco stores sell alcohol all night?

The majority of Tesco Superstores and Tesco Extra stores are licensed to sell alcohol 24 hours a day; however, in some parts of the country there are Tesco supermarkets that aren’t licensed to sell alcohol around the clock. Our database identifies which Tesco stores are licensed for 24 hour alcohol sales, so you can easily check where your nearest Tesco with a 24 hour alcohol licence is located. Unfortunately, since the pandemic, there are no longer any large Tesco supermarkets open 24 hours all year round. Many Tesco stores used to temporarily open 24 hours during the run-up to Christmas, but 2023 was the first year in decades that Tesco didn’t open 24 hours. For Christmas 2024 many Tesco stores opened between 5am and 1am in the week before Christmas. There are some smaller-format Tesco Express stores, often attached to Esso garages, that remain open 24/7 most of the year; however, most of them aren’t licensed to sell alcohol all night, but some are – our database shows you which ones are permitted to sell alcohol around the clock.

Do 24 hour corner shops sell alcohol all night?

Most small independent 24 hour convenience stores in the UK aren’t licensed to sell alcohol all night, which is why we developed our database of 24 hour off licences in England & Wales, so you can easily see which nearby 24 hour shops are licensed to sell alcohol night and day.

What time can large supermarkets open and sell alcohol on Sunday?

In England and Wales, shops can sell alcohol 24 hours on Sunday if permitted by their licence, however, Sunday trading laws prevent large supermarkets from opening 24 hours on Sundays, so they have to close by 11:59pm on Saturday nights. Sunday trading regulations dictate that large supermarkets over 3,000 square feet (280 square metres) can only open for a maximum of six continuous hours on Sundays, which must be between 10am and 6pm.

In Scotland, Sunday trading restrictions don’t apply, so large supermarkets can – and often do – open 24/7 unlike the rest of the UK. However, as mentioned above, 24 hour alcohol sales aren’t permitted and shops can only sell alcohol from 10am to 10pm every day.

In Northern Ireland, large supermarkets over 3,000 square feet (280 square metres) are restricted by Sunday trading laws to opening for just 5 continuous hours from 1pm to 6pm. Smaller shops face no restrictions on opening times, but as explained above, all shops can only sell alcohol from 10am to 10pm on Sundays. For more details, see: What time can shops open and sell alcohol in Northern Ireland on Sunday?

What time can convenience stores open on Sunday?

Stores under 3,000 square feet (convenience stores), aren’t affected by Sunday trading regulations, and neither are petrol stations of any size, so they can open 24/7 if they wish. This is the reason you’ll see many small 24 hour convenience stores such as Spar, Nisa Local, Costcutter, Mace, Londis, Budgens, Premier Stores, Family Shopper, Best One, Bargain Booze, One Stop, McColl’s, Go Local, Loco, Simply Fresh, Select & Save, Lifestyle Express and independent shops trading 24 hours on Sundays. Even Tesco Express, Sainsbury’s Local, Morrisons Daily, Asda Express and convenience stores within petrol filling stations can usually open all day and night on Sundays because of their small size.

The 24 Hour Alcohol website enables you to find 24 hour off licences such as supermarkets, convenience stores and petrol station forecourts/garages licensed to sell alcohol 24 hours a day. Find your local shop with a 24 hour alcohol licence by selecting your location from the list of counties/areas or by using our 24 hour booze store locator, or alternatively check if there is a service offering delivery near you to get booze dropped off at your door 24/7. Now that you can locate alcohol after hours, you need never run out of beer, wine or spirits ever again!