Rose Like Flowering Shrub.

[ironorchid]

Our local supermarket has a hedge around it, it is just coming into flower and has dark pinky purple flowers that look like roses and it has hips in the Autumn/winter. I have noticed it also all over the local trading estate. Can anyone tell me what it is please?

[hammerman]

Maybe it's the normal dog rose....Rosa canina. You can get pink, white and purple varieties and they smell devine.

[woofgang]

Its usually Rosa Rugosa. Vert tough and thorny, a good discourager of thieves and vandals.
http://www.hedgesdirect.co.uk/acatalog/rosa_rugosa.html

[jamesnan]

Certainly sounds like Rosa Rugosa, which I have in pink and white as well. Lovely hips in the winter, which the birds love to eat. Excellent hedging plant, needs to be kept under control if near a path, otherwise no problems.

[Chipchopper]

"Dark pinky purple" sounds to me like Rosa rugosa, it's often used in those kind of locations too.
You should be able to ascertain this by the extraordinary amount of fine, closely spaced thorns.