Making Life Taste Bitter (Sainsburys)

Member Name: benben_uk

Product:	Sainsburys
Date:	16/07/04 (1059 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of Checkouts

Disadvantages: Expensive, They Steal your money, Poor Quality Fruit and Veg

I've been shopping at Sainsbury's about once every week for three years. I can't stand the place, heres why:

* My local Sainsbury's is in the centre of Cambridge, annoyingly it's the only supermarket in central Cambridge so is the only choice for the majority of students who don't have time for the 20 minute cycle ride to Tesco or Asda. Unfortunately Sainsbury's seem to be very much aware of this and seem to have put up their prices to take advantage of their monopoly. It is by far the most expensive Sainsbury's I have been in.

* It has recently changed to a Sainsbury's Central. Although this has reduced the regular 20 minute queues for the checkouts to about 5 minutes due to the introduction of more checkouts, the items on the shelves have also changed. The majority of the value products and those that were reasonably cheap have been replaced with Sainsbury's Finest brand and more expensive alternatives. It seems that the changes were mainly intended to milk more money out of the poor students who have little choice but to shop there.

*I have been ripped off by Sainsbury's on numerous occasions. Sainsbury's have lots of buy 1 get 1 free offers. Or so it seems..... On at least three occasions, I have picked up two items on such an offer and have been charged for both. It's not just me having bad luck either - I know a number of other people who have had the same problem. Complaining doesn't seem to do much good either - they refund the cost of the second item but don't seem to actually fix anything. Thousands of people must get ripped off like this, given that I have noticed it on my receipt three times in the last year. I really am appalled that Sainsbury's continue to let this happen, I guess they probably know that most people won't bother to complain event if they do notice that they are being ripped off.

*It's too small. Okay, so maybe this
is isn't entirely their fault due to the cost of land in central Cambridge, or is it....? Legend has it that many years ago, Sainsbury's bought an adjacent shop from Trinity College, the owner of most property in the area, in order to expand. There was a condition attached - that Sainsbury's would not alter the facade of the shop, since most shops in the street have nice old looking facades and it would spoil the area if it were changed. But Sainsbury's broke the agreement and changed the facade, so Trinity College is now refusing to sell any more land to Sainsbury's. So maybe it is their fault, maybe the legend is true, maybe it isn't. Nobody knows.....

*The things I want are often out of stock - This is partly due to the supermarket being too small, however more could be done to help the problem. Sainsbury's could perhaps stock the shelve with more regular products and fewer of their 'Finest' brand products, oh but I guess that would make them less money because people wouldn't have to buy the 'Finest' products when the standard ones run out....

*Sainsbury's Fruit and veg is manky and mouldy. Since Sainsbury's won an award for their fresh fruit and veg, I expect the mouldiness is confined to the Cambridge supermarket which I guess the judges must have missed. The reason for the poor quality fruit and veg is clear - the staff throw it around and don't seem to care about it getting battered and bruised. Fruit that I buy often goes mouldy on the day after I buy it, I doubt that this is helped buy the well developed mould I have seen growing on some trays of fruit.

Sainsbury's isn't all bad - the one good thing I can say about it is that the staff on the checkouts are mostly nice and friendly, unlike the weird bloke at Tesco who gives me an evil look whenever he sees me. I'm sure most Sainsbury's aren't as bad as this one, but when I have time I certai
nly very much prefer spending an hour cycling to Tesco and back to spending 20 minutes going to the Sainsbury's at the end of my road.

Summary: