WHO ARE THEY?
Sainsbury's are the UK's third largest, following Tesco and ASDA, supermarket chain. They have a long and illustrious history in this market, starting much like their competitors from very humble beginnings.
Sainsbury's was founded in 1869 by John James and Mary Ann Sainsbury, ... Read review
Advantages: Good Quality Produce. Fewer Check Out Queues. Good Electrical Bargains. The Best Trolleys Disadvantages: Limited Clothes Range. Some Items Still Expensive.
WHO ARE THEY?
Sainsbury's are the UK's third largest, following Tesco and ASDA, supermarket chain. They have a long and illustrious history in this market, starting much like their competitors from very humble beginnings.
Sainsbury's was founded in 1869 by John James and Mary Ann Sainsbury, who opened a dairy shop at 173 Drury Lane in London. At that time it was one of the poorest areas of the capital which had a population, ... ...was successful and their shop gained a reputation for selling top quality produce at good prices. By 1882 there were four London branches - they then opened a much more up-market store in posh, more rural Croydon, this too proved a quick success.
By the turn of the twentieth century they had 48 shops, employing 950 staff. Remarkably in appearance, they changed very little over the next seven decades. I have just been looking at a ... more
WHO ARE THEY?
Sainsbury's are the UK's third largest, following Tesco and ASDA, supermarket chain. They have a long and illustrious history in this market, starting much like their competitors from very humble beginnings.
Sainsbury's was founded in 1869 by John James and Mary Ann Sainsbury, who opened a dairy shop at 173 Drury Lane in London. At that time it was one of the poorest areas of the capital which had a population, then, of around 3.5 million.
The partnership was successful and their shop gained a reputation for selling top quality produce at good prices. By 1882 there were four London branches - they then opened a much more up-market store in posh, more rural Croydon, this too proved a quick success.
By the turn of the twentieth century they had 48 shops, employing 950 staff. Remarkably in appearance, they changed very little over the next seven decades. I have just been looking at a Victorian photograph of one of their London branches, it is the spitting image of their old store (long gone now) in Western Road, Brighton that I well remember being taken into as a small child in the 1960's.
Indeed until 1973, the whole company remained in the private hands of the Sainsbury family; it was in that year the biggest floatation that the stock exchange had ever seen.
The modern Sainsbury's, as an organisation, is actually surprisingly complex and encompasses several other stores that I had not heard of. In 2006 we have; Sansbury's Supermarkets, Sainsbury's Local, Bells Stores, Jacksons Stores and JB Beaumont, Sansbury's Online and last but not least Sainsbury's Bank.
HOW MANY BRANCHES?
As of March 2005 there were 465 Sainsbury's supermarkets and 262 convenience (including "Local") stores.
HOW MANY VISITED?
We have visited many Sainsbury's in very many parts of the country. Our "Home Store" - in Nectar Card terms at least, is the Hove, Hangleton Supertore branch. There is another large supermarket on the other side of Brighton and a new "Local" store, almost next to Waitrose on our main shopping street. There is also a very run down looking Sainsbury's store in London Road. Locally we also regularly use the Newhaven and Worthing branches.
Away from our immediate area, we have used Sainsbury's in Croydon, Chiswick, Tunbridge Wells, Leyland (Lancs) and several others which escape me currently.
WHAT DO THEY SELL? 6 / 10
They sell a very wide range of foods, groceries and pet foods and have a particularly good selection of wines and spirits. Of the main supermarkets, they are the only ones to sell some Polish produce in the form of sausages and smoked ham.
With the possible exception of Waitrose, Sainsbury's offer the best selection of cheeses and dairy products in town. We also particularly like their poultry selection, very often they have excellent Gressingham Duck on special offer, they are always vastly better quality than ASDA or Tesco ducks.
Whilst not carrying anywhere near the range of clothes and electricals that Tesco and ASDA do, they have a limited range of both. Particularly appreciated in Sainsbury's is that they sell quality "household name" electrical goods (such as Sony and Philips) at knock-down prices, rather than ASDA and Tesco's lesser known makes.
Sainsbury does also have a very good children's section - in partnership with ELC (Early Learning Centre). Both clothes and toys for the young ones are particularly well catered for. I would have to remark here that in comparison with the other supermarkets this is a very expensive section.
Of all the supermarkets so far reviewed, our local Sainsbury's has the best and largest pet food and provision department. This is segregated at the front of the store which is really useful if you have no pets and want to avoid a large area of the supermarket altogether.
I would very briefly mention here also that Sainsbury's offer, according to a recent review read on Ciao, a very good pet insurance scheme.
As with Morrisons, most large Sainsbury's branches have a café restaurant, in this case called "J's". They offer a limited range of very reasonably priced main course meals, some branches have much better food than others, if you find yourself in Croydon, then their restaurant food is the best quality of any individual supermarket tried - I enjoyed a superb lamb shank when we were last there.
QUALITY & FRESHNESS OF PRODUCE 7 / 10
Over the last five years or so, Sainsbury's have really pulled their socks up here. In the "old" days they had a very poor reputation for fruit and vegetables, that simply is not the case now.
Our local store, in competition with Waitrose, has a fresh salad bar, neither Tesco or ASDA offer this feature.
My wife is particularly enamoured with the choice of good, fresh, herbs available in our Sainsbury's store.
Their meats are particularly fresh and wholesome looking as is their poultry.
Compared to the previous three supermarkets reviewed, Sainsbury's delicatessen counter looks particularly well stocked, fresh and appetising too. In direct contrast to Morrisons, there is never a smell from the fish counter either!
MONEY BACK GUARANTEE: 2 / 10
You will read momentarily about some shoe leather masquerading as roast beef in a frozen ready meal. Having thrown away the awful contents of the packet, I did exactly as advised on the wrapper and called Sainsbury's Customer Help Line to tell them exactly what I thought of it.
A very pleasant sounding Scottish gentleman dealt with my "concerns", taking very specific details of the packaging and my complaint. It must have taken fully eight minutes to answer all his various product related questions. I was told that a full refund would be posted to me and that as a "goodwill gesture" points (amount unspecified) would be added to my Nectar account.
Eighteen months later, the cheque is presumably still in the post, my Nectar statement showed no additional points.
A waste of time and a worthless guarantee.
On electrical and household goods, unlike Tesco who will attempt to repair and repair again, faulty goods, Sainsbury's offers a proper "no quibble" replacement - free guarantee. At least that is what they advertise!
AVAILABILITY OF STOCK ON SHELVES 7 / 10
We were particularly, and uncharacteristically, unlucky on the Saturday evening that I took the accompanying photographs! Very unusually, many of the fruit and vegetables were out of stock. However, on approaching a very helpful assistant, we were asked to wait whilst she went out to the warehouse to collect corgettes, the main ingredient that we were missing. Nine times out of ten in Tescos they come back with the answer that "no it's on the lorry due in later". Here she came back with our courgettes in her hand!
Usually we find that Sainsbury's have what we want on the shelves, indeed on very many occasions we have gone here after leaving ASDA or Tesco to finish our shopping.
OWN BRAND QUALITY? 5 / 10
Regrettably we had an "incidence" with a Sainsbury's frozen roast beef ready meal last year. The beef was so tough that you could have soled your shoes with it. We are not usually in the habit of buying ready meals, but this one certainly put us off of Sainsbury's!
FAIR TRADE PRODUCE RANGE? 6 / 10
Sainsbury's stock a class competitive range of Fair Trade Produce goods. This rather well fits in with their "notch up" the quality scale image. Certainly as far as the teas and coffees are concerned they stock a very wide range.
Aditionally they do have a very comprehensive range of organic products.
ANY "LABELS"? 6 / 10
In some quarters, in terms of meat and cheese for example, Sainsbury's itself seems to be regarded as a desirable "label"!
Sainsbury's "Taste The Difference" is their premium product range, covering food and drink at least. Similar in concept to Tesco's "Finest" range, any of these lines that we have tried have been of a universally high quality.
The healthier range - reduced fat, salts and or sugar etc - is labelled "Be Good To Yourself"
Last year Sainsbury's as part of a major image re-vamp, launched their TU adult clothes collection. Whilst limited in range, and in no way attempting to compete with ASDA's Geaorge range, they appear to be of good quality at comparatively high prices.
Much of the kitchen ware and limited range of soft furnishings seem now to fall under the Terence Conran umbrella.
HOW ABOUT THE TROLLEYS? 8 / 10
Going as far as describing Sainsbury's trolleys as the Rolls Royce's of supermarket trolleys may be a bit over the top, but we never seem to collect an MOT failure from the trolley bays at Sainsbury's.
THE CHECK OUT QUEUES! 8 /10
In our local store, this is the best bit of all. There are at any given time of day, fewer people shopping in here and more check outs open. I do not ever remember queuing in our Sainsbury's for more than a couple of minutes to get to the check out.
There are seldom queues here because it is so expensive nobody comes here to shop anyway! Sorry Sainsbury's that is a grossly unfair statement, indeed I am happy to pay a few extra pence on my shopping to avoid a long queue - time is money and all that.
In Sainsbury's the check outs seem to be well staffed, passage through the check-outs is more rapid than in other supermarkets too. We may be lucky, but we seldom suffer the bell ringing and delay of non bar-coded items here, that is so often the case in ASDA.
Sainsbury's also now, along with Waitrose, have dedicated, self scanned check outs open. Sainsbury's call these "Fast Track" check-outs. If you are registered and like the idea of scanning all your items into the basket then this may speed your weekly shop. We prefer to shop conventionally.
THE CARRIER BAGS 7 / 10
Again, no plastic supermarket carrier bag is a good thing; we always try to take our own re-useable bags with us.
The Sainsbury's give away carrier bags are better than most in terms of strength.
I have awarded an extra couple of points because, like Tesco, Sainsbury's are selling good, strong, reusable shopping bags - 75p each if I am not much mistaken.
SHOP AMBIANCE: 5 / 10
Sainsbury's have attempted to inject some "celebrity" into their stores by the use of names such as Terance Conran and Jamie Oliver on the food side. Personally I happen to find this name dropping rather distasteful - RICHADA doesn't "do" celebrity and I find Sainsbury's policy of doing so a bit cheap frankly.
The ambiance generally inside an average Sainsbury's store is a notch up on an ASDA or Tesco, however, there are some really shoddy, cramped older Sainsbury's stores, one of which we do have in a main shopping street here in Brighton. These stores now really drag down the overall image as their modern stores at Hangleton, Chichester and Worthing are all clean, modern and brightly lit.
They are also ALL freezing cold inside - especially on the entry, fruit and vegetable, meats and cheeses sections. Whilst this can be a pleasant relief on a blazing hot summers' day, Sainsbury's is the only shop which we visit where we feel the need to "cover up" in order to go shopping.
THE STAFF 7 / 10
I have no complaints generally about Sainsbury's staff. All of the ones with whom we have had dealings recently have been pleasant, courteous and efficient, more than that I would not ask of any supermarket employee.
WHO ACTUALLY SHOPS THERE?
Well, amongst others, my M.D. (now you all know which supermarket the Saab is parked outside!) and our local Priest.
My car park observations show that, rather like Tesco, this is a pretty well cross class supermarket, quite often there will be Porsche's and Range Rovers parked in here along with the Priest's small Citroen.
I would be interested to know if Jamie Oliver actually puts his money where his mouth is and shops in Sainsbury's!
SNOB RATING: 8 / 10
Strangely, of the big supermarkets Sainsbury's, maybe because of the celebrity name dropping, seems to have the biggest snob value of the "big four". I rather suspect that a Sainsbury's shopper would never shop in a Morrisons store and probably vice-versa!
I, as you probably will be aware by now, carry no allegiance to any supermarket and use the lot at some time!
N.B. This rate does not count on the overall total!
VALUE FOR MONEY RATING: 6 / 10
Sainsbury's claim to have lowered 8,000 prices since 2004. Certainly the bill at the check-out does seem to have fallen over the last 12 months in this store. However, they still have some way to go to match Morrisons and ASDA in terms of overall low cost weekly shopping.
In terms of sheer value for money, as opposed to a cheap weekly shop, Sainsbury's would now be right up there with Tesco, to my mind probably even a point ahead.
INTERNET SHOP FROM YOUR PC and HOME DELIVERY: 7 / 10
Looking around our particular neighbourhood, we see far more Sainsbury's vans delivering than any of the other supermarkets. This may be a reflection on the socio-economic make up of our area, or even a reflection on the freezing cold / dull and dingy shop options here. However it is obviously a very popular service and therefore presumably a successful one.
MY SAINSBURY'S ANECDOTE: (8 / 10)
On the Saturday evening that we went to Sainsbury's, partly to shop, but also to take the photographs published below, whilst Mrs R was browsing the TU clothes section, I spotted in a Sony display cabinet, a Sony Sybershot P200 digital still camera on special offer.
We had been considering purchasing a special gift for my Polish parent-in-law's thirtieth wedding anniversary - a digital camera. What I had not intended doing was purchasing a fully featured 7.2 Megapixel Sony for £245.00! Indeed, having been keeping an eye on this particular camera (we have the superb, but slightly older P100) I knew that the very best internet price was just under £200.
Here in front of me Sainsbury's were offering it for £144.89!
Being RICHADA, never impulsive, I thought little more of it, until getting up the next morning. It suddenly occurred to me that we could pay substantially less for this camera in Sainsbury's - for four years we have been collecting Nectar reward points (mostly on BP fuel) and never cashed a single one. I knew that we could knock at least another £50 off the price of the camera, for less than £100 we could buy them a great digital camera rather than a cheap one!
Although we were on our way to the Sheep Centre, in completely the opposite direction, I talked Mrs R into returning to Sainsbury's on the Sunday lunchtime to get the camera. We looked at each other aghast, when the price was rung up and the Nectar card swiped, my credit card was hit to the tune of £57.39 for a camera that I could have paid £200 elsewhere for!
THANK YOU SAINSBURY'S!
LOYALTY CARD
Nectar - the best!
Yes, really, because you are not tied to Sainsbury's, OK, it is the only supermarket in which you can use it, but there are many, many other places where you can spend money and get it swiped. Most of our Nectar Collecting has been carried out at BP fuel stations, in Sainsbury's and Debenhams too, but you can also do a lot of internet shopping through the Nectar site, even at places such as PC World and Jessops. In four years, without spending a single penny that would not have otherwise have been spent, we accumulated £87.50 worth of Nectar Points.
CONCLUSION
Sainsbury's proved a dark horse here. It is not a shop where we regularly carry out a full weeks shopping, although we do shop there at least every other week. Recently we have been converted by their quality and value and can see Sainsbury's becoming regularly our "second" shop in preference to Tesco.
That Sainsbury's have managed so quickly turn around their rather dowdy, and expensive, blue rinse image is a tribute to their current management team. Now all that is needed is a re-vamp of some of those dingy medium sized stores and they could have a real success on their hands.
OVERALL RATING:
SAINSBURYS: 95.0 / 150 (63.3%)
That was a real surprise to me! I just was not expecting Sainsbury's to come up and take a substantial leap over the other supermarkets.
From the scores shown above they appear to have managed this by achieving solid all round marks, only really being let down by breaking their guarantee promise on what was a very sub-standard, inedible product.
Advantages: Pleasant staff, good quality products, lots of choice, nice ambience Disadvantages: A bit pricey
***** The choice *****
I’ve just returned from a shopping trip to Sainsbury’s. I don’t have to shop there: Lincoln is well endowed with supermarkets. Within a maximum of fifteen minutes drive I also have access to Asda, Morrison’s, Safeway, two Tescos, two Lidls and two Kwik-Saves; not to mention several Co-op supermarkets, Spar shops and freezer centres. But still I return to Sainsbury’s.
It’s not that I believe that they are more benign than ... ...and that is to separate me from my money as completely as possible (or am I being cynical? Well, yes I am; but it’s still true). And it’s not just that, living only half a mile from the store until last year, I got used to it: I used to teach within five minutes’ walk of Asda and probably used it more than Sainsbury’s. And now I live within a mile and a half of both of them. Nor is it their loyalty card: I’d much rather they put the prices down than ...
Floon 20.03.2004
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Sainsburys (Shop)
Advantages: trying harder to win custom Disadvantages: older town centre sites not as good
Over the Christmas period I have spent a fair amount of time in Supermarkets, not that I particularly wanted to, my philosophy on shopping is plan, execute, expedite in the shortest time possible, but spending Christmas in Manchester, New Year in Devon inevitably meant several re-stocks along the way, and I was introduced to a couple of new companies that vie for our hard earned cash.
When you add it all up our supermarket spend is the highest monthly ... ...the big four ( ASDA, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrison's) are working hard to attract your cash.
History
======
At this point I should tell you about my supermarket history as this will make sense of this review.
As a young boy living in a village that was fast becoming a town, we had a Butcher, Greengrocer, and a General Store that was an Aladdin's cave of goodies, they even had the overhead wires and tube where the money was sent to a cashier and ...
getscenic 10.01.2007 (12.01.2007)
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Sainsburys (Shop)
Advantages: It's 'making life taste better'! Disadvantages: nothing!
...a mum that works in Sainsburys is useful sometimes! It's the aim of Sainsburys for 2001, and of course their other aim of 'making life taste better!'
I live in a town called Colchester in Essex, Heard of it, the oldest recorded town in history....? Well anyway we have two Sainsbury stores in colchester, a small one in the town centre which mostly older people use and people who don't have cars and a big one the other side of town, the more popular ... ...for Sainsburys we get 10% of all our shopping which is basically why we do all our large family food shopping at Sainburys!
The Sainsburys store in the town centre is still quite old fashioned and VERY small but sells everything that you need. The other store however where my mum works has always been quite a large and popular store. After Sainsbury's lost there title of being the most popular supermarket in the country to TESCO a couple of years ...
emu128 01.04.2001
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Sainsburys (Shop)
Advantages: Well laid out, variety, choice, Disadvantages: Sometimes things are over priced
...the way the meat at Sainsburys is displayed. It really does look fresh and I think that they could teach Morrison's a thing or two when it comes to meat preparation. I have often had reason to moan at the way the meat looks at Morrison's and I have to say that at Sainsbury's it definitely looks great. I find Sainsbury's second only to Marks and Spencer's when it comes to ready made meals and their low fat offerings are both exciting and appetising.
... ...have to say I find Sainsburys so much more expensive than Morrison's for the brands that I buy on a weekly basis. I worked it out that if I do the same shop in both stores I spend more than twenty pounds less at Morrison's. This is of course taking into account all the buy one get one free offers I take advantage of at Morrison's. They have them at Sainsbury's too but more offers depend on bulk buying than bogof.
Sainsbury's have much more variety ...
MandyMinx 27.10.2003
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Sainsburys (Shop)
This review is based mainly on experience of two stores in Swindon, one a smaller town centre supermarket, the other an edge of town larger facility. The smaller store is within easy walking distance of where I live and the larger one is a ten-minute drive. Obviously the geographical relationship to my house is applicable only to me, but it is a major factor in my continued use of Sainsbury`s, so I thought that I should mention it. Although ease ... ...if the store at the end of that journey was not up to scratch, both are very useful and have their own pros and cons.
I do my shopping in small bite size chunks two to three times a week, that's the advantage of being so close to the shops, I can be in and out in a short space of time which suits be well. The smaller shop is my main source of purchasing and as you would expect the smaller size of the store means that although you have the convenience ...
steerpyke 23.06.2005
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Sainsburys (Shop)
Price
Value for money
Layout & presentation
Selection & range
Quality
Waiting / queues
Similar reviews »
Reviews which might be of interest for "Sainsburys (Shop)"
Advantages: Great Idea, Finds Cheepest Tariff, Free Phone Disadvantages: Badly Organised, Direct debits Don't Go On Time, Don't Always Get Your Bill
I am so glad that this category exists as I have to tell you a story about Sainsbury?s Mobile. This has to be the best idea and unfortunately the worst mistake you could ever make. Here is the story?..
CHAPTER 1
Some time ago there lived a young girl (ok then, not so young) who had many a mobile phone and could always pride herself in the fact that she got the best bargains. She always new where you could get a free DVD player or Gameboy Advance or simply the best tariff available. She would tell all her friends and they would worship the mighty bargain hunter for her valuable advice. One day she received a letter from Sainbury?s Mobile, she had been chosen! Chosen to receive a free Nokia 3310.
The heavens must have been smiling down at her as her existing contract was about to expire and she was in the market for a new phone ...
Advantages: Don't appear to be any. At all. Disadvantages: Too many to mention.
Where do I start?
Well, at the beginning, I suppose.
I have to say categorically that I didn't start to have any trouble at all with Sainsbury's Mobile UNTIL THEY GOT TAKEN OVER BY CARPHONE WAREHOUSE!!! Until that point everything was mostly hunky-dory.
Then they were taken over.
Since then I've had trouble with my Direct Debits (of which I can't alter the date, unlike a standing order) - did you know that if you're originally a Sainsbury's Mobile customer and you have a problem that necessitates you paying your bill by some other method than DD that you won't be able to pay it in your local Carphone Warehouse shop? That's right! The reason being that the computer systems between the companies are not aligned. Or at least that's what they told me! I've also been overbilled and to say that trying to get the cash back was ...
Advantages: Good tariffs Disadvantages: Very poor customer service and call Q Times
Well I have to start by saying that the idea that Sainsburys mobile has is a good one, I asoom that the company is dedicated to providing a good level of customer service, (that was not my case),
it all started when I got an email inviting me to a free phone a Nokia 3310, not the greatest of phones may I add, so I ordered my free phone and placed a note on the order over there website could you please contact me to arrange an upgrade to the nokia 8310, as all the other mobile phone shops out there are doing them for free!,
well it was about 7 weeks later that a scruffy looking man turned up at my door with a parcel in his hands,
so I signed for the parcel and proceed to open it, Well it was the phone that I ordered well the one they wanted me to have the nokia 3310 and not the 8310.
I had forgot all about the order, as you ...
