It's miserable now in my local small Sainsbury's

[paddleboardingmum]

They have for some unknown reason moved absolutely everything. I think they got rid of the door security person and have put plastic sliders in front of everything even bars of chocolate so that it's hard to reach them. Coffee with security tags on, big screens in front of the tills like you're in a bank. I get that there are reasons but it has made shopping there quite miserable.

Only tried the screen in front of the chocolate bars. They are ridiculous. They are hard to slide and access is too tight. I won't shop there now.

It's putting me off too @Katykaty11 I really don't understand those sliding things and there's not an explanation of how they work. What about pensioners or people who have other difficulties, not being able to access things now.

They've put some kind of bright, 100000 Watt LED lights in every fridge in my Sainsburys so you are bathed in a radioactive blue glow. It's like they are trying to put people off from browsing. Or from injecting themselves with heroin, I don't know. It's migraine-inducing and ghastly.

Our local run was closed over Christmas by environmental health for rodents and has zero hygiene rating.

Shoplifting has become brazen & an every day occurrence, a friend works in our Sainsbury's Local and says it has got so much worse, she's been there years. They have regular people who just come in, pick up the most expensive items they can find and walk out, threatening they staff with violence if they try to intervene.
They have now installed a cage for the tills, booze & fags. They sometimes have a security guard but not all the time. The Police are not interested & do nothing.

Saw a guy break the plastic slide thing and just take bottles and bottles of wine the other day , the security guy just watched him do it , said to him why are they paying you .

Well they're not paying him to get stabbed for a few bottles of wine, that's for sure.

I think they're probably paid their minimum wage as more of a deterrent.

Saw a guy break the plastic slide thing and just take bottles and bottles of wine the other day , the security guy just watched him do it , said to him why are they paying you .

This is terrible. But also goes to show the plastic things are pointless? just making ordinary customers feel gloomy. Every time I go in there it gets worse.

They have put the staff prison in our tiny Sainsbury’s local too. It takes up about a quarter of the shop, and you can barely get past it with a pram.

You have to hand your items through a grill to be scanned, the plastic so thick you can’t hear the staff.

I live in a v nice area, I’m not really clear what the staff need protecting from (and neither are they!).

I find all Sainsbury’s stores dark, depressing and miserable.

My local full size sainsburys has got rid of the bakery/staff where you could get your loaf sliced if you rang the bell.

Now there is an electric slicer with meagre instructions. I tried to use it and the bread got mashed, I couldn't see any staff so ended up walking off and leaving it.

Last time I went in I tried to find a staff member to avoid wasting a loaf and couldn't find anyone. Might sound like a small thing but it was one of the only reasons I went there (and ended up spending a good £80) - I am happy to pay for qood quality fresh bread. I'm a lot less likely to go now.

There's a fairly new, smaller Sainsbury's near us that only opens 6 hours on a Sunday and it's the most soulless, impersonal shop you've ever been in. Has been since the day it opened.

The smaller Sainsbury's Local in our town is much better.

Our Sainsbury's has done away with all the tills except for the cigarette counter, so the 5 items or fewer queues now full of old people with trolleys full of shopping. All self service now, baskets or trolleys. The staff spend so much time running around trying to deal with all the " computer says no" incidents that they might as well put the tills back. You can't put your own bags on the large checkouts unless someone overrides the system with their own security code. We now HAVE security guards, which we didn't before.

The self serve tills are soulless and yes they need staff anyway. Another thing I've noticed is the aisles are often blocked by big palettes (is that the word?) that they're unloading so that its hard to get past.

That's true but why are they paying him anything if he's not doing anything. If it's known he will stand watching word will get round that the store is a easy picking for theft.

It didnt help when police forces announced that they wiildnt investigate shoplifting less than 100 quids worth 😬 talking about giving the keys to the inmates!! I actually considered doing a bit of shoplifting myself, knowing the police wouldn't bother themselves with it !!

Our Sainsbury’s is fine. They tried to put those scan your receipt exit barriers up but we complained so they were got rid of!

Thats 200 quids worth i meant 😆

Our S’burys was its own worst enemy. About 20yrs ago there was a selection of bottle & can drinks exactly by the door where i noticed a youngster help themselves & immediately exit, without even slightest attempt to conceal in pocket!? I was waiting on other side at cigs counter pointed out the crime, cashier simply said “yeh they’re doing it all the time”.
I wonder now, if insurance is set up to assume there’s gonna be that much stolen, so no need to organise & arrange goods to properly never get stolen?

Haven’t been in our one for ages, but popped in yesterday. Two staff having a moan , only one of the self service tills was working and nobody to serve on the other tills, cages blocking up the aisles not unpacked and everyone looked so miserable.
The big Sainsbury’s near me isn’t much better. The staff seem really fed up constantly and people having to wait ages to have goods signed off.
It’s not the staff’s fault. It’s the supermarkets wanting larger profits and not enough staff.
One I went in on holiday up north last year had tags on the baskets. Not sure how that helps anyone , but not seen that where I live. Shop lifting is obviously seen as the norm for many people ;(

Definitely not the staff's fault. I wonder how they feel about it because spending all day putting codes into the self service tills seems worse than serving at a till (I used to work in retail, don't now.) Also are the aisles always blocked because all the unloading has to be done while the shop is open to save costs?

I believe that a few of the bigger supermarkets have done away with the night shift staff for the re stocking.
I’m not blaming the staff ratios, but clearly ( only going by the conversations I heard yesterday ) staff are being exploited and it’s hard on them as they get the brunt of all the moaning by the customers. Can’t be easy.

This is how bad Sainsburys is: I could no longer manage to visit it without being in a wheelchair being pushed by a carer. (I used to be able to manage with just a stick or OH’s arm.)

This is because it is possible to be trapped inside a Sainsburys with no available working exit; there are trip hazards everywhere; the plastic screens make it impossible to get to many of the products; and I would risk a pretty catastrophic episode hitting of the deck if I couldn’t stay upright, which happens to a lot of people with illnesses or disabilities. There are of course no chairs or benches inside the shop.

Luckily, Waitrose is nice. I can manage that on my own because it’s set up well.

Waitrose tends to have bigger aisle ways. It does make a difference ( our one has equal number of self service and tills with a human on them !)
It is a nicer shopping experience, but due to distance and costs I don’t go there much.

Not quite 'Argos' food shopping yet.

How long before it is though?