Metropol

Sainsbury's are to close 420 standalone Argos stores by 2024, replacing them with 150 Argos concessions inside supermarkets.

Meat, fish and deli counters which have been closed since March will stay closed.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54818644

I'm surprised at Sainsbury's closing all their deli, meat & fish counters - I can understand in small stores they may not be so well used but the the large out of town stores I would have thought they'd make a profit. Will Tesco follow?

GeekyJames wrote: ↑Thu 05 Nov, 2020 22.44 I'm surprised at Sainsbury's closing all their deli, meat & fish counters - I can understand in small stores they may not be so well used but the the large out of town stores I would have thought they'd make a profit. Will Tesco follow?

I'm less surprised, there was clearly no reason to have left the counters closed the way they did when Morrisons re-opened their so quickly.

Worth noting that around 120 Argos standalones that closed in March that stayed closed won't reopen and will count towards their 2024 closure target.

As for the counters, I wouldn't be surprised if that space goes to more concessions, such as Sushi Gourmet in my local superstore which replaced the fish counter last year.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54827984

A different perspective on how deli counters help reduce waste and the use of packaging - sometimes if you live alone you just want a couple of slices of ham or 1 piece of fish. It does feel like Sainsbury's are in a race to the bottom with cost cutting at the moment. Sad times.

I worked on the counters at JS back in 2008. The waste was absolutely horrific, particularly on the salad bar.

Even then the word was they weren't profitable, but were loss leaders to get the more affluent customers in.

Anecdotally I would suggest usage has been in constant decline throughout most of my life.

The sight of two inches of fat in the huge sinks after a Sunday shift on the hot food to go counter will never leave me, nor will the stench of the dishwashers.

I always felt there was too much crossover between the prepackaged sections and the delis.

For example Tesco in particular just had endless blocks of Cathedral City and Pilgrims Choice. This means you're only really targeting the spinster market who just want a tiny slice to save (their) wastage.

To me, the cheese counter should be selling the more exotic cheeses and premium cheddars.


But maybe that doesn't work either. Who knows.

To me the optimum setup involves the Morrisons method of shelf stock being packaged up by the counter staff. Every time I went to the Sainsburys where I used to live, the counters had 3 or 4 staff on them with very few customers. Surely if you want a piece of meat, if there’s nobody on the counter you’ll just get some from a fridge. Closing counters will lose them very few sales but save a lot of cost.

all new Phil wrote: ↑Sat 07 Nov, 2020 14.48 To me the optimum setup involves the Morrisons method of shelf stock being packaged up by the counter staff. Every time I went to the Sainsburys where I used to live, the counters had 3 or 4 staff on them with very few customers. Surely if you want a piece of meat, if there’s nobody on the counter you’ll just get some from a fridge. Closing counters will lose them very few sales but save a lot of cost.

Exactly right. The concern previously was always that you risk losing high-spending customers, but Covid has effectively allowed them to pilot such a move and clearly that isn't a labour/waste saving they're willing to give up.

Sainsbury's Bank has had a takeover offer.

https://news.sky.com/story/sainsburys-b ... sf-twitter

Photos here of the first Sainsbury's store to have been refurbished with the "Fresh Food Market" design.

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/medway/new ... re-237659/