Opening in 1999 as Sainsbury's flagship store, the building design incorporated environmentally conscious features and gained critical acclaim, being shortlisted for the 2000 Stirling Prize.

[18] In 2014, planning permission to demolish the store was approved by Greenwich London Borough Council with Sainsbury's moving to a new site in Charlton.

[2]: 155–156  The scrutiny was due to Lord Sainsbury being a Labour Party donor and having a close relationship with Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.

[4]: 8  The store included bakery, meat, fish and delicatessen counters, a customer café, warehouse space, offices, and a staff canteen.

[4]: 8 By utilising daylight instead of artificial lighting and having combined heat and power (CHP), Sainsbury's Greenwich consumed 50% less energy than a conventionally-designed supermarket.

[1] Wind turbines and solar panels were installed to provide renewable energy,[7] intending to generate enough to power the store's signs overnight.

[26] An article in The Evening Standard noted that "for all the oil by-products saved by the panels in the nappy-changing rooms, rather more will come out of the thousands of exhaust pipes that will come and go everyday", and Friends of the Earth said the building was "repeating one of the worst mistakes of the 20th century in producing a car-generating high street-destroying superstore".

[2]: 158 Despite Hinkin's argument that the building was "ideally suited for a wide range of uses",[3] a principal criticism of the store's design was that it was seen as inflexible, which impacted upon its sustainability.

[4]: 2–3  The listing report by English Heritage noted that the heating and cooling systems limited the way the shop floor could be used, and the building's architecture meant that extension or alteration was less feasible.

[19][27] The store became one of 20 Sainsbury's shops in South East London to take part in what the company described as "the UK's first urban composting trial" to dispose of food waste that could not be donated.

[29] In February 2012, Sainsbury's announced its plans to leave its Greenwich store, move to a larger site nearby, and lease the vacant building to a different, non-supermarket retailer.

[33] The petition gained support from over 1000 people,[34] including architects George Ferguson and Angela Brady,[8] and Green Party leader Natalie Bennett.

[7] In February 2014, after IKEA had applied for permission to demolish the store and build a larger one in its place,[35] The Twentieth Century Society (C20) submitted an application to English Heritage for Sainsbury's Greenwich to be grade II* listed.

[8] Catherine Croft, the C20's director, said that demolition would be "a tragic waste of energy and resources" and result in the loss of "the most innovative retail store to have been built in the UK in the last 50 years".

[8] According to Building Design, IKEA's application for demolition was "expected to be recommended for approval" by Greenwich London Borough Council.

[37] In March 2014, Greenwich Council's planning board approved IKEA's proposal by five votes to two, while saying that the store's demolition was "unfortunate".