Slightly more Shekels required, but a super supermarket all the same (Sainsburys)

Member Name: edinburgher

Product:	Sainsburys
Date:	03/03/09 (188 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great product range, offers, customer service and corporate social responsibility

Disadvantages: Not always the cheapest

Thought I'd pitch in a few words on my experiences at Sainsbury's, an altogether better supermarket.

It is true that it is slightly more expensive than the discounters (Asda, Tesco), but I believe that their vast product range offers value for money, some good 'savers' options and superior customer service.

*Online, offline, on the highstreet*

Sainsbury's stores have expanded since I were a lad and they now offer several different shopping channels for your money spending needs. They run a great home delivery service (see my review for this), they have the usual out of town supermarkets and they also have smaller stores in city centres - usually more expensive in my experience. As far as I'm concerned, great customer service is the norm across all of these outlets.

*Product range*

Sainsbury's stock all the usuals that you would expect from a supermarket, in addition to some very lovely extras that you won't get elsewhere (bar maybe Waitrose). So, if you're looking for some lumpfish caviar to garnish a starter, truffles or a speciality cheese for that special recipe Sainsbury's are likely to deliver. This has perhaps contributed to their slightly negative public persona, which in part explains the need to employ 'culinary everyman' Jamie Oliver in their adverts.

What people forget is that Sainsbury's know how to play the bargain game just as well as their peers and offer a rapidly growing Basics range that caters to savvy shoppers, as well as some genuinely good Buy one get one free (BOGOF) offers and the like. I've never been a fan of Tesco multibuy offers and Asda appear to be scaling back such promotions to offer reduced costs. I think this is somewhat of a mistake, as the British public has grown very used to bulk buying their favourites!

*Costs and customer service*

As mentioned, Sainsbury's can be slightly dearer on branded goods, but compare favourably when it comes to promotions, own brand items and household items. Their customer service is excellent and I can't think of a negative experience, while being able to think of plenty of positive ones.

Staff are friendly, motivated and seem to go the extra mile. For example, delivery drivers who don't get lost or complain, customer service staff who call you back when they promise they will and uber-polite managers.

*The environment*

Sainsbury's actively promote the greening of the environment in a range of ways. These include: additional recycling points in their car parks, encouraging customers to use less plastic bags (and rewarding them for doing so), as well as reducing the amount of packaging used for their own brand products. Admittedly, it's not on a par with Marks & Spencer's 'Plan A', but they seem to be producing a lot less waste than Asda and Tesco and look to be reducing their environmental footprint further.

*Corporate social responsibility*

Schemes such as the highly popular Active Kids show a retailer who is willing to engage with the community and put their money where their collective mouth is with decent contributions and freebies for children, local communities and other groups. While there are obvious benefits to maintaining these schemes (kudos), I do feel convinced that such ideas fulfil more than just the basic engagement required between a major retailer and the public.

In addition to this, they are very good at incentivising schemes that benefit the community by offering 'something for everyone'. An example of this would be the fact that the current Active Kids vouchers get the voucher holder a free prize draw entry and guaranteed '2 for 1' activities (as well as being widely collected by schools and youth groups). Sainsbury's seem to be good at promoting a win win solution for their customers and I applaud them for this.

*Nectar for all*

Sainsbury's support the Nectar reward programme both offline and online. It's often possible to get additional points for shopping with this retailer by looking at the bonus points section on www.nectar.com and it's possible to get a range of rewards as diverse as cinema tickets to free cruises! For many collectors of Nectar points, this will be their main source of freebies. After all, everybody shops.

Summary: A very good supermarket that differentiates itself from the competition