The Unofficial Sainsbury's Thread

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Pete
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thegeek wrote: Sat 07 Jan, 2017 20.07
gottago wrote:First Sainsbury's Market in London Victoria which looked like an early 2000s experiment. Basically they brought all of the counters to the front of the store, made them much longer, snaking in corners. The rest of the other regular but very wooden panelled store is behind. There was even one of those ceramic pizza ovens in the hot food bit. Surprised the store hasn't been rebranded as a regular shop, the plastic signage on the outside looked tired and dirty.
I was probably there 6 or 7 years ago, and thought it looked a bit like an abandoned experiment even then. Surprised it's lasted so long!
On a related note, I never quite understood the tesco idea of having counters in a giant wide asile rather than in their rightful place on the back wall.
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gottago
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all new Phil wrote: Sat 07 Jan, 2017 20.21 The talk of concept stores got me thinking - is there really much further a supermarket could and should go? Do people not just want well-stocked shelves and fridges rather than endless counters and other gimmicks?

I used to live close to a Morrisons concept store, which has since been changed to a standard store. The eco Sainsbury's in Greenwich closed a few years back. Morrisons ditched their weird cold steam things for fruit and vegetables. The amount of money that must have been thrown after finding the next big thing - are they just trying to reinvent the wheel?

Saying that - one thing I'm surprised never really caught on is when Morrisons (I think) trialled having coffee cup holders on the trolleys in a store. I loved that idea.
I don't know. There's a lot of things that are now commonplace in supermarkets that I don't remember being there as a child: pizza counters, hot food counters and salad bars all presumably started in a concept store before being rolled out. Not everything's going to work but they have to keep things reasonably interesting to stop people going elsewhere.
gottago
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This is what Sainsbury's Market looks like by the way:

https://goo.gl/images/9vb60x
woah
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Another slightly oddball Sainsbury's thing - at Meadowhall shopping centre they still have two petrol stations, despite the fact that the superstore there closed in 2005. They seem to have been forgotten about because they've still got the 1999-era branding on the store itself, equally old petrol price signage and old petrol pumps with no pay at pump fitted. I've always thought it's a matter of time before they're closed but they seem to keep on going...
Martin Phillp
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Sainsbury's in Forest Hill, London before it was refurbished in the noughties had checkouts at both ends of the store. One end was for the car park and the other for the main road. Friends who'd visit me were astonished about the strange layout of the tills!

After the refurb, the tills are now parallel to both ends of the store to maintain access to both exits.
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gottago
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Any particular reason why they had two petrol stations in Meadowhall in the first place?

My local Sainsbury's in Balham has tills at both ends: all self serve on the high street and mainly regular checkouts for the car park end. The store's too long to have checkouts going parallel.
woah
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gottago wrote: Sun 08 Jan, 2017 01.20 Any particular reason why they had two petrol stations in Meadowhall in the first place?
I'm not sure - I can only assume they felt it was worthwhile because each one is nearby a different main route into Meadowhall. They are a looking pretty dated now with canopies that were obviously built to fit in with the architecture of Meadowhall when it was built - with the extensive refurbishment of the mall ongoing I do wonder if they might rebuild them.

Here's one of them: https://goo.gl/maps/j6YnAGyWk4y
all new Phil
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I can't decide whether I love or hate the new Sainsbury's adverts.
gottago
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all new Phil wrote: Thu 19 Jan, 2017 21.41 I can't decide whether I love or hate the new Sainsbury's adverts.
Hate. Dreadful adverts made for dreadful people. Have they got a new ad agency? This and that awful Christmas ad have been a total step in the wrong direction.
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WillPS
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A few supermarkets with the older till software have been upgraded so that they now offer contactless - the former Central in Sheffield is one of them.

Handy. Time the transaction limit was upped to £50 though I reckon.
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Martin Phillp
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WillPS wrote: Sun 29 Jan, 2017 18.02 A few supermarkets with the older till software have been upgraded so that they now offer contactless - the former Central in Sheffield is one of them.

Handy. Time the transaction limit was upped to £50 though I reckon.
Dulwich has been upgraded since the beginning of January. I've noticed that the text on the chip and pin reader is slightly bolder since the upgrade too.
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