Sainsbury's Castle Marina, Nottingham (Sainsburys)

Name: jennikitten

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Product:	Sainsburys
Date:	11/06/08 (256 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great range of services

Disadvantages: Not always well/freshly stocked

For clarity's sake, I'm going to review the Sainsbury's store I shop at most regularly, which is Castle Marina, Nottingham. This is one of the larger stores that boasts a dry cleaning service, a photo service, a postbox, ATMs and a Starbucks outlet. I have to say that of these services, I have only used Starbucks, which whilst being open for shorter periods than Sainsbury's itself, generally has good service and a typical SB environment.

One of the disadvantages of this Sainsbury's is that they never seem to order enough food, and consequently there is almost always a shortage of popular products, such as hummous. Although I regularly buy fruit there and they have a good selection, I have picked up boxes of mouldy strawberries at least twice over the past couple of months, which is very off-putting. Some of the product ranges could also be more developed, for example the range of ice cream is very limited, and they sell Nando's marinade but not sauce at this particular branch.

On to the good stuff...the Sainsbury's also has a petrol station, a large car park, and pretty extensive recycling facilities; whilst they don't take plastics, they do have banks for more unusual items, such as clothes and shoes which go to Oxfam. There is also the option to recycle plastic bags. These are things I use regularly, and it is my nearest recycling place and so very handy for dropping stuff off before shopping.

The prices I think can be a little expensive, though it is on the higher end of the supermarket chain and so this is to be expected. This is countered by the extensive range of cheaper 'Sainsbury's Basics' products, and if in Jamie Oliver style you mix and match the more expensive with products from this range that aren't very important taste-wise, such as pasta, it's good value. Also, the instore bakery usually reduces food substantially in the evenings, where it's possible to get a large fresh baguette for 50p or so.

The staff I have always found very friendly and helpful, even going out of their way to find bargains for me even without me asking, and opening up new tills and general friendly chat.

Overall, this is my local supermarket and it has a lot of good features.

Summary: Great overall