Sainsburys v Tescos! (Sainsburys)

Member Name: nomie

Product:	Sainsburys
Date:	19/05/01 (142 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great offers, Good customer service, Wide organic range

Disadvantages: No large clothing range

I have only been living away from home for a year so my experience of supermarket shopping is limited. In that short time however, I have found that I love shopping in Sainsburys and am not very keen on Tescos.

My local Sainsburys, in Belfast, is in a shopping mall called Forestside. It was built some years ago to replace a supermarket called Supermac. Since Sainsburys came to Northern Ireland, Tescos and some other chains have also arrived. Before then we didn't have any of the chain supermarkets like the rest of Britain except for the CO-OP.

The Sainsburys I go to is well laid out and the products are easy to find. Each aisle is labelled, which is the norm in most supermarkets now. On the whole I find the staff friendly and helpful. My main quibble with Tescos is that the stores in Belfast (I don't know about anywhere else) are confusingly laid out with aisles slanted at angles and I find it very hard to navigate!

Sainsburys sells almost everything you want when doing your weekly shop. The prices are good and there are always plenty of offers on- buy-one-get-one-free etc. They have their own range of products, as well as all the big names. There are also some 'economy' things. These are usually just as good quality as anything else but at much lower prices. Among the economy products I've tried are carrots, cheese, kitchen roll and j-cloths, all of which I've found to be up to scratch.

One of my favourite parts of my local store is the fresh bakery area. You can smell the fresh bread as soon as you walk in. The products are always delicious although don't taste as nice the next day, which is always the way with crusty-type bread. There are also fresh fish, meat and cheese counters if you prefer to buy this way.

Sainsbury's does a wide range of organic products too as there is a large demand for this nowadays. They try to keep the prices as low as possible and I find that th
ey're not unaffordable.

As well as food and household items, the store sells some baby equipment, socks, CDs and some toys. I love looking at the latter because they're from the Early Learning Centre and good quality toys.

If I had one complaint to make, it would be that I wish Sainsburys had a clothing range such as Tescos or Asda. Although you can get a few items such as baby's vests and underwear for children, there is not much else, and if they branched out in this way I would definately never stray to Tescos!

Summary: