Is there a point to Sainsburys ?

[BrummieRemainer]

Just gone to do the fortnightly shop, and the parade of out of stock items seems to be longer and longer

Sainsbury's Anchovy Fillets in Olive Oil 50g (30g*)
Sainsbury's Tuna Chunks in Olive Oil 3x80g
Milton Sterilising Tablets x28
Persil Bio Washing Laundry Detergent Powder 42 Washes 2.1 kg
McVitie's Milk Chocolate Digestives Biscuits Twin Pack 2x316g
Dairylea Cheese Slices Family Pack Multipack 16 x 18.75g
Sainsbury's Dishwasher Rinse Aid Lemon 400ml
Sainsbury's All Purpose Cleaner, Citrus 1L
Highland Game Smoky Venison Burgers 340g
Whole Earth Drizzler Salted Caramel Peanut Butter 320g
John West Sardines in Sunflower Oil, Boneless 95g (67g*)
Dettol 750ml Antibacterial Multi Surface Cleaning Spray
Simple Bar Soap 4x100g
Sainsbury's Anchovy Fillets in Olive Oil 100g (60g*)
Hilltoppers Spreadable Sweet & Salty Honey 225g

I've also discovered that if you don't have an item saved as a fave, the website just hides it from you. Meaning you can go crazy looking for it.

As with most retailers now, there is no route to complain, except a phone number, which isn't great with my disability.

I was going to whinge last shop when 13 items off my list were out of stock.

I'm not brave enough to be told I'm unreasonable, but in the pursuit of chat, is this just Sainsbos, or would I have the same issue with other online supermarkets.

Try Ocado. Hardly ever have anything missing and can usually get a slot the next day. They price match Tesco (on branded items I assume).

The point of Sainsbury’s is Tu.

I love sainsburys. Not tacky like Asda or Tesco. Not insanely priced like MnS

Any supply chain that relies on "just in time" will always be at risk of disruption, but it allows suppliers and retailers to be more reactive to demand. On-line retailers should know if an item is in stock, or when it will be in stock and can allocate as orders are made, so they should never not be able to fulfill an order, obviously it is only "should" because the item may be damaged, misplaced or a simple data entry problem in the stock control system could mean that the item has been misidentified. In theory this should also apply to Morrisons and Ocado who fulfill from warehouses, (and Tesco from it's "dark stores"), the problem will be that I could be ordering something that has limited shelf life for delivery in the future. For normal Sainsbury and Tesco deliveries, that are picked in-store, it is harder to predict availability, because they have no idea what the other customers are going to select or what has been stolen.

Oh dear that sounds very annoying, but I’d suggest that it might just be your store or your area.

I order online every week and haven’t had any issues with out of stock issues or short shelf lives.

I have all the major super markets locally and have any tried them all for online deliveries, Sainsburys is my favourite.

They have a bigger range of organic products than any supermarket other than Waitrose, but are cheaper than Waitrose. Waitrose is currently my nearest supermarket but even when I lived 5 mins walk from Lidl and 10 from a massive Tesco I still went for Sainsbury’s over them. That Lidl was particularly poor in terms of regularly finding out of date food in the fridges, on top of the limited range they all have.

Had my Sainsbury’s delivery this morning, one substitution which was one brand of lemonade for another which is fine. Nothing else missing.

I’d be fine with that as I don’t think a bad picpoul de pinet exists. And I’m doing a Sainsburys shop this weekend and now I want a few bottles. Is it on offer?

The Bambi burgers are on offer at the moment, which is why they are out off stock I expect. I was substituted Bambi steaks this morning which was perhaps a win as they are much more expensive.

According to Stephen Fry the point of Sainsbury’s is to keep the scum out of Waitrose 😂

Except that Ocado don’t deliver here. Neither do Waitrose. And the nearest Sainsbury’s is 11 miles away. So you’re stuck with what you can get.

It's my nearest supermarket (4 miles round trip). Lidl is 20, Aldi the same, Tesco nearer 30. Morrisons 24 but shite. I drop in twice a week and rarely find things out of stock. If I lived near Tesco I would use that. Their customer service by 'phone is fine.

I remember that one. He was quoting his wife when she heard the news about a new Sainsbury's in Cricklewood. I shopped in that area.

I often attempt an online delivery with Sainsbury’s only to find a lack of available slots compared to Tesco, Ocado, Asda. So they lose out on my business. A shame because generally it’s my preferred one.

I do think they are struggling to know where they sit in the marketplace - too nice to compete with Aldi, Lidl and Tesco (no shade, I’m happy to use all of those) but not bougie enough to rival Waitrose and M&S…..I think they will only continue to decline in market share….

A shame - because I do love a bit of Tu clothing, that does tempt me into a big store if I can be bothered to schlep to one….

I have got Sainsbury’s delivery most weeks for the last couple of years, and usually there’s very few substitutions and the food has good dates. Sometimes the fruit and vegetables are not great quality, but then it looks the same in-store in a variety of different supermarkets. I was surprised that there’s no bio washing powder this week though, that’s inconvenient.

The Sainsbury’s TTD one is on a Nectar offer. Enjoy

I use Sainsburys for home delivery. They rarely have more than one out of stock item. I wonder if it depends on the size and stock of your nearest large stores?

Tesco delivers from distribution centres, rather than shops so stock should be better. I no longer use Tesco as they have less delivery slots available and were running very late when they moved my deliveries to a distribution centre much further away from me.

The list in my OP was only available as I have those items saved as favourites, so the website is forced to show them with an "Out of stock" sticker over the picture.

Things that aren't in stock and not on favourites simply won't show or be found by searching. Some of the items in that list haven't been in stock for a few shops now.

Had a lovely chat with the driver this morning (there were 3 more items that were out of stock). Apparently our address can be served by anyone of the 3 large stores near us (advantages of living towards the edge of the city, I guess). Today he came from Selly Oak, but both Northfield and Longbridge deliver here too. (He said sometimes he has served Solihull, despite the Shirley branch being closer).

I’ve shopped online with Sainsbury’s for over 15 years and it’s very rare that things aren’t available in ours.

Smells a bit fishy to me

Only Ocado can predict stock as they pick from warehouses - all the other delivery services pick from a shop floor so although they can be pretty confident your item will be available if they have lots of that item in stock they can never be certain it will still be there.

I find if you re-checkout as close to the cut off point (11pm the day before with Sainsbury’s) then you can essentially pick your own substitutions as it will tell
you if something is out of stock by then.

On Sainsbury’s if they repackage something or change the ingredients slightly they make the old version out of stock and create a new listing for the new item - research for the item and you will find the new version. It is unlikely they have been out of stock just had a packaging/recipe change.

I second this... Have been using them just over a year and have a weekly shop once a week. Over that time I've probably had around 4 missing or substitute items

They don’t have as good coverage as many of the supermarkets though, I live in a major city and they don’t cover us.

Whereas I find completely the opposite. Sainsbury's is far better than the other supermarkets, IMO.

Asda and Morrison's are properly grim to visit, and I find Tesco to be dearer and worse quality than Sainsbury's.

The store here is less than two years old as well, and it's a far more pleasant experience all round to visit than others. Same as the newer Aldi is far superior to the older one, though I still find it a bit compact / hard to move around due to other shoppers.

Sainsbury's is very much my supermarket of choice as I don't have the funds to shop at Booths all the time.

And contrary to PP, I don't find it to be overly dearer than the other supermarkets. But I think it depends what you usually buy. Most of what I buy is Aldi price matched (or there are general / personal Nectar prices bringing the price down).