The BBC tried quite hard to differentiate Superstore from its long-running predecessor Swap Shop. At the start there was even an attempt to give the show a kind of storyline. Elaborating on the thin 'retail' theme, the idea that the new show was set in a shop was plugged at every opportunity, with the presenters each running a different 'department' of the store; David Icke in the Sports Department, Sarah Greene as 'the Saturday Girl', Keith Chegwin on the delivery van, the telephone operators at the checkouts. This tiresome idea was pretty much abandoned after the first series, and the programme settled down into what it essentially was: Swap Shop, with a different Radio 1 D.J. at the helm.

Eventually Sarah Greene was promoted to the front desk with Read, setting the pattern that has continued in the BBC's flagship show ever since (only with slightly less sexual chemistry than came later).

Gimmicks:

• Crow (a talkative puppet, later joined by a young sidekick, and even later parodied by Lee and Herring). Featured in his own spoof soap opera, "Crow's Road", later ripped off by Iain M Banks.
• Squeaky robot 'Sievehead' which crawled up and down in front of Mike Read.
• The annual "Superstore Superstar" competition, a junior Opportunity Knocks, with a similarly dire success rate.