Sainsbury's

[Snoopy]

Hi - for alot of those questions about specific products you'd be better off writing on the sainsburys.co.uk forum. They have the actual buyers at Head Office who will check in to the forum and will discuss specific products with you. Link here Sainsbury's forum

These ranging decisions aren't usually made by the Store but are initiated by the buyer.

[Zaardvark]

Hi,

So how did the meeting with the manager go?

best

Z

[northlondoner]

Actually I kinda like the place. But get 'em to scrap those annoying self-service automated lanes. Well done for being so proactive.

[minder]

Yeah, it's alright if you have someone with you to pack the stuff at the end, but the looks you get if you don't and it all ends up in a pile at the end! I won't use them on my own again.

[PeckhamRose]

Unexpected item in bagging area.

[ruffers]

I feel pretty close as we very very very nearly moved into DKH so I keep trying this Sainsburys.

I'm an average fellah with average needs, not too fussy, but at 4.30 - 5.00 on a Saturday I expect shelves to be full, stackers to be busy, a cage to be on the shop floor being worked not just sat there.

Forest Hill gets knocked on here but is a million times better at meeting expectations than DKH.

[BellendenBear]

Can you ask that they are more vigilant in policing the parent and child parking bays. Having an empty child seat in the back of your offensive SUV shouldn't mean you need extra space to get your lazy fat rear out of the car. I urge more people to report this to the store, they generally respond politely but I don't know if they enforce the ?50 fine.

perhaps they could set an age limit on the people who use the self check out. They can really speed things up unless you are stuck behind a 55+ fumbling around with their bottles of shloer

Re the clock. Why do you need one in sainsburys if you don't need one the rest of the time? Do you time your shopping? What's your record?

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

I'm sorry to hold you up BB - it's a reflex action when someone up their arse is behind me.

[PeckhamRose]

An AGE limit on the self check outs?

That has t be the funniest line I have read in ages.

BellendenBear, can we also suggest they only allow nice middleclass educated and speedy people to use the store, with typed shopping lists so they don't spend time trying to read their own hastily read written shopping lists written by their spouses back home, and can we only allow people to park who have NICE children who won't cause a fuss and scream when dulwichmummy has the stupidity to say NO to them? And can we put up the fine for parking in the child parking bays according to the sort of car that was in there? And can we just all be like ME.

[Zaardvark]

Hi

Why is everyone still discussing this - Unkle_Paulie was due to have meeting with them on Saturday just gone if I read his posts correctly. The purpose of the thread originally was to help him make a list of the most common complaints for that meeting - adding new ones now is missing the point.

Unkle Paulie - could you update us on the meeting before these guys tear themselves apart? :)

best

Z.

[sportbilly]

We are often overcharged. Why is it just as you like something they withdraw the item!

[Unkle_Paulie]

Morning Sainsbury's Fans!

I went to Sainsbury's on Saturday however due to horrid traffic heading back from the Southwest I didn't get there till after 6pm. The manager had since left so I'm heading down this morning.

I will let you all know how I get on.

U.P.

[Sue]

So what happened?!

[snorky]

The fines, as I have said before, are not enforceable & nor should they be

BUt this isnt about fines - its about consideration & the rest of the community

I do however agree that vermin who use up disabled & Family spaces should not be allowed to carry on such anti sovial behaviour - or at least be made to think about it.

there are more effective ways of ensuring that an arrogant car user remembers his trip to Sainsbos.

[chryssie]

I would like them to decide to either make everyone put a coin in for their trolley or no one, at the moment it can be dificult to return a trolley when ones without coins have just been dumped anywhere, resulting in having to re-arrange all the trolleys so you plug yours back in. Also in France bulky items, such as packs of water, they have the bar codes at the till points so you don't have to lift them onto the till and then back into the trolley again, it is a simple system that weems to work! Hope I'm not too late with these sugestions.

[Unkle_Paulie]

Evening All.

Apologies for the delay in updating you.

I met with the Deputy Manager David Leach who was kind enough to sit down and go through all our comments. I was advised on Saturday the Manager would be in however he wasn't, but luckily David was aware that I had planned on coming in.

David had taken the time to visit the forum and has seen the comments raised by one and all. I printed off all the comments and we went through them however I won't bore everyone by listing every response so I will summarise the main points;

Overcharging - this has been duly noted and has been deemed very unacceptable by the management. Further training and notification will be carried out to ensure staff stop making this error. We will have to wait and see the outcome. If you are overcharged and have to visit customer services I have been assured they are looking at increasing the number of people on the till to help ease the queues.

Lack of Stock & Crowded Aisles - this is a difficult one so I'll explain. Lets take a Saturday shopping day - On an average day they serve 11,500 people. They go through 4 complete cycles of fresh produce, so from fully stocked shelves to empty and then restock to full, this equates to 4 lorry loads! This is one of the reasons why the aisles are cluttered with trolleys and boxes. There is no way around this other than letting the shelves remain empty. Although it is not ideal for us, there is a system in place for the staking of shelves and setting up the trolleys in the aisle so as not to cause customers conflict. However this system is to be revised in order to minimize the impact following our comments. With regards to the stock, although it's really annoying to go in and face empty shelves I guess if stock goes out so quickly and re-stocking clogs the aisles it's a bit of a catch 22 situation. Some might say it's not good enough or that its not our problem but considering the facts and figures I can kinda see how difficult it is to overcome this issue. Apparently to get all the fresh stock out on one shelf for a Saturday, it would need to be the entire length of the store.

Security - this issue is being dealt with by the management as we speak. They are aware that this has been poor and have employed new staff who they say are very good in comparison to the previous staff.

Clock - apparently there is one at customer services however they will look into getting a bigger one!

BOGOF Offers / 241 etc. etc. ? there are two points here (1) the product that is on offer is above the sign NOT below. Apparently this is a very common mistake that customers make, although I did highlight that if it?s not clear to the customer then there is an issue. (2) the management are aware that this is not working as well as it could and therefore they have put in place a new system to know what is to be on offer a week earlier. This is to ensure they have adequate stock. This is recent so hopefully things will get better.

Raw / Out of Date Food ? there are very strict guidelines and policies in place to prevent either from happening. The Environmental Health Officer for Southwark has shopped at Sainsbury?s for many years and has never seen anything that has been considered unacceptable. They recently visited and Sainsbury?s were given a bill of good health! However it?s been noted that products have been found in the wrong place. Whether this is because of a customer not bothering to put it back or an item being misplaced, Sainsbury?s take this issue very very seriously.

Parking ? there is a company that patrol the car park on behalf of Sainsbury?s. The comments regarding the parent/child parking and disabled parking have been noted. David?s thought?s were to bring the patrol hours forward to include the early mornings e.g. before 11am. Cars which park illegally in parent/child spaces are given a warning first. Cars which park illegally in disabled spaces are given tickets. Whether this is acceptable is yet to be seen.

One of the main points to come out of my meeting was the suggestion of a Sainsburys forum. This would either be held at Sainsbury?s, quarterly or other, or perhaps having a separate ?room? on the EDF that people can use to leave feedback and this would be regularly visited by the management. I wonder whether this would work and whether we would see the benefits. I know this has happened in the past and it?s not been successful but this would be a new opportunity to get ourselves heard.

I know David Leach will be looking at my response and I hope that I have conveyed our conversation as correctly as possible. I would hope that any comments received now will be seen by the management and perhaps even responded too.

[Zaardvark]

Hi,

Thanks very much for this - much appreciated.

For David Leach:

With the overstocking thing - I think the main issue is that the boxes/trolleys are left unmanned and full of unpacked produce for significant periods of time, if it were the case that they were being unpacked as quickly as possible I doubt there would be complaints. I observed on Sunday that boxes of bananas were left so as to almost completly block the fruit ailse for 15 minutes or so and then someone arrived and started/finished unpacking them.

This has got much much worse since the enlargment, which does not quite make sense if it is just a restocking issue.

Best

Z

[Lizziedjango]

Thank you U.P. this is very helpful! :)

[Unkle_Paulie]

Lizziedjango Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Thank you U.P. this is very helpful! :)

you're welcome!

[Sue]

Thanks UP :)

[PeckhamRose]

Well done UPaulie!

I have this vision of stock on the fruit and veg aisles coming from a sort of suspended ceiling so it's lowered down to the bays, thus negating the need for trollies of stuff to be loaded taking up space in the aisles. But now if someone nicks my brilliant idea I want a cut of the profits, mind.

[Ladymuck]

Unkle-Paulie,

I reckon that you and SMBJones (station manager)should hold joint place for forumites of the month. Well done you. And thanks for your useful work.

LM.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Well done UP.

Rather than make poor Admin work harder for us by setting up a separate room, it might be sensible if Sainsburys Management logged on in the manner of the sainted SMBJones and took direct queries/complaints, sort them out and respond.

[PeckhamRose]

Do you think people being utterly helpful, listening to all our concerns, doing things to address the concerns, saying what they'll do, doing it, telling us that they've done what they said they'll do,

will

catch

on?

I'm scared.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Welcome to Utopia.