The Unofficial Sainsbury's Thread

[Pete]

Have always wondered why they felt this store needed 16 fuel pumps. Have also been confused by the Costco next door having pay-at-pump only pumps, but not open 24 hours... I guess they want someone nearby if there's an emergency?

that store is oddly large in general. was it formerly a sava centre perhaps?

do you need to be a costco member to use their petrol station?

The entire infrastructure around straiton and its retail parks is horrendous.
- the tiny slalom to get from Sainsburys to Next
- the shockingly tight turn into Ikea if you come from the sainsburys end
- the loading bay for ikea being easier to get into than the car park
- the lack of a roundabout at the top junction meaning you've got to do a three point turn if you come in via sainsburys instead of asda
- a 1 in 3 chance of being punted out of the car park at the wrong end to drive to the overflow warehouse
- the overflow warehouse's car park in general
- trying to get large items down the ramp at the overflow warehouse
- the random bus lane that appears out of nowhere just before asda that you accidentally end up in (I noticed they've finally updated the "get in lane" sign so ikea is now in the middle not the left)
- not being able to just go from sainsburys to ikea even though that'd encourage people to use the whole car park instead of just the busy end
- that preposterous KFC
- you can't easily walk from Costa to Nandos
- the not fit for purpose tiny mcdonalds with the drive thru that leaves you stuck in the loading bay for pets at home
- the fact you nearly run someone over outside M&S or Boots whenever you you try to leave that car park

[scottishtv]

that store is oddly large in general. was it formerly a sava centre perhaps?

do you need to be a costco member to use their petrol station?

The entire infrastructure around straiton and its retail parks is horrendous.

You probably already know there has been a Sainsbury's (and a former Homebase - where Next is now) on that site for quite some time. Perhaps it was a bigger draw in the 90s than it is now. I still don't know why they didn't change the little link road after Homebase was demolished.

The Sainsbury's is a bit weird in that the store is big enough to have an Argos and Lloyds - but doesn't actually have as big a range of food as Cameron Toll (which was formerly the SavaCentre) or the Craigleith store. As an aside, all the online grocery orders for Edinburgh come from Cameron Toll no matter which bit of the city you live in.

The city council really dislike Straiton because it's just over the boundary in Midlothian, and that council have let the developers do what they like for years, which they argue has not only taken people out of the city but also created a mess.

It's also why about 4-5 clusters of different box stores have all merged into one park, with bits of car parks everywhere. One slight improvement is that the little M&S has moved out of the little strip of shops where the Costa is, up to a massive food store in the main part of the park. It's rather nice and has a very big food range. The former M&S is becoming a Lidl.

The McDonald's is hilarious in that to avoid queues on the main road, you have to drive completely around all four sides of the building to get into the drive-thru lane. You then drive round the building to collect your order and exit, and if you decide to stay and eat in your car, you often face doing a third lap of the building to find a parking space...

That said, the whole place was really run down a few years back, so the current setup is an improvement. Quite hard to navigate though, and a recent multi-coloured light installation on yet another 'terrace' is so bright and distracting you can see it miles away on the city bypass, including one colour-changing light strip that is frustratingly out of sync with all the others.

As for Costco, yes - you have to scan your membership card at the pump before you can get petrol. It's got 16 pumps as well, so when you also take into account the Asda round-the-corner, that's 40 fuel pumps within about 0.5 mile radius.

Oh, finally... IKEA isn't actually signposted from the Sainbury's side. All the main road signage puts you round the back of the store and into that silly little lane to enter the car park - which is why that right turn you're doing is so difficult. They intentionally don't want you to approach from that side (mainly for queuing reasons again).

[Zimba]

the Asda in Govan has never had a shop - I think it was built with a drive-through kiosk (and possibly pay at pump only for some of the lanes). It must be about 25 years old.

Aren't all ASDA stores like that, all the ones I've ever been including pretty much all of them in the North East which aren't stores bought over have been like that.

ASDA at the Metro Centre has been pay at pump for all it's lifetime and is a similar vintage without the booths (believe it opened in 1999). Has to be one of the first pay at pump only stations.

[woah]

It seems like Sainsbury's only bothers to install Pay at Pump when it's time for new pumps to be installed - most of their stations still seem to have the older blue pumps.

ASDA, Morrisons and Tesco seem to be much more consistent with pay at pump across the board (although Asda only seem to put a small number of pay at pump in at stations with a shop)

Speaking of weird Sainsbury's petrol stations, the ones near Meadowhall Shopping Centre still soldier on 16 years after the supermarket in the centre closed. They still have the weird 1990s canopies and plenty of 1999-era Sainsburys branding. Only a couple of months ago did they replace the totem pole which still said 4-star on it!

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.41123 ... 384!8i8192

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.41697 ... 312!8i6656

Another quirk is that receipts/Nectar statements identify the stations as part of stores elsewhere in the city (The Moor and Wadsley Bridge) neither of which actually have their own petrol station.

[thegeek]

the Asda in Govan has never had a shop - I think it was built with a drive-through kiosk (and possibly pay at pump only for some of the lanes). It must be about 25 years old.

Aren't all ASDA stores like that, all the ones I've ever been including pretty much all of them in the North East which aren't stores bought over have been like that.

Nope - I've just checked my nearest one and it's not got a booth at all; and looks like it's been that way since the earliest Street View image in 2008.

[Zimba]

the Asda in Govan has never had a shop - I think it was built with a drive-through kiosk (and possibly pay at pump only for some of the lanes). It must be about 25 years old.

Aren't all ASDA stores like that, all the ones I've ever been including pretty much all of them in the North East which aren't stores bought over have been like that.

Nope - I've just checked my nearest one and it's not got a booth at all; and looks like it's been that way since the earliest Street View image in 2008.

Yeah think they changed roughly around 2000 to without booths, at some stores, very modern at the time. I know the (Gateshead) Metro Centre store was built without them. Believe they were almost all done with them before, can't remember ever seeing an ASDA shop in a petrol station unless it's an ex Co-op station or some other store like Benton was for a bit. There were a few which had a tiny little booth you had to walk into though, both gone now though (Ashington and Darlington)

[Jonny]

Believe they were almost all done with them before, can't remember ever seeing an ASDA shop in a petrol station unless it's an ex Co-op station or some other store like Benton was for a bit. There were a few which had a tiny little booth you had to walk into though, both gone now though (Ashington and Darlington)

Spennymoor has always had a little shop, but yes that would seem to be an outlier.

They added a forecourt to the Byker store in the last few years. Surprisingly, it has an old school staffed drive thru booth and only two of the pumps are P@P.

No idea why.

[woah]

https://www.alamy.com/1996-the-asda-sup ... 72574.html

It seems that Asda has been using the booths since at least the 80s, based on that image.

That whole set of images is brilliant for some 90s supermarket nostalgia - the store was closed and replaced with a new build supercentre a couple of years after in 98/99.

[BBC TV Centre]

It seems like Sainsbury's only bothers to install Pay at Pump when it's time for new pumps to be installed - most of their stations still seem to have the older blue pumps.

I can vouch for this one, they recently re-did my nearest one (Staines) and pay at pump appeared after the refurb. They've all got the grey pumps, whereas they were all blue before.

Suppose they were quick enough to replace the free air/water machine with one that now charges. Seems the days of getting anything complimentary are gone.

You can tell the accountants are certainly in charge.

[scottishtv]

Whilst we're on this topic, lol @ the Nectar app telling you to carry around a Nectar card to use at pay-at-pump instead of taking out your mobile phone...

[Sput]

I don't know about anyone else but I feel we're living in a golden age of nectar points at the minute. The machine at the checkout just keeps on spitting out bonus points voucher after bonus points voucher, as does the app.

Sainsbury's is very much a supermarket that wants me to stop ordering online. Exhilarating. 9/10.