Which British retail chain, now owned by Sainsbury's, was founded by Richard Tompkins in 1972?

The British catalogue retailer Argos, also known as Argos Limited, was established in November 1972 and is named after the Greek city of Argos. In 2016, it was acquired by the Sainsbury's supermarket chain. Until 2020, Argos displayed all its products in catalogues, both in store and online, from which customers may purchase. It sells a range of items from homewear to electronics.

The company was founded by Richard Tompkins (1918-1992) who came up with the idea for the catalogue retailer while on holiday in Argos, hence the name of the store. He opened the first shop in Canterbury, Kent in 1973 and it was purchased by BAT Industries in 1979 for £32 million. After releasing its own jewellery collection called 'Elizabeth Duke' in 1980, Argos became the UK's fourth-biggest jewellery retailer.

In April 1998, Argos was acquired by GUS plc, until 2006, when it became part of the Home Retail Group. After a bidding war between the South African conglomerate Steinhoff International and Sainsbury's, the latter purchased Argos for £1.4 billion.

In 2020, Sainsbury's closed the majority of the Argos outlets in the UK, incorporating them into some of their larger grocery stores instead. They also revealed that Argos will no longer produce printed catalogues and will only list its products online from now on.