Sad about sainsburys

[melonribena]

I think it's very sad that sainsburys sell lots of food suitable for people with all kinds of allergies in their store but when I went into the cafe (a big cafe because its a big sainsburys) I was told there was literally nothing they could do - other than a plain jacket spud - for my milk allergic ds.

The cafe and shop are dealt with as entirely separate entities...

Send in a letter to head office, they might do something about it

That's a good idea. The staff were brilliant and did lots of looking up for me. They were also very apologetic. I just want ds to be able to eat out like everyone else I suppose

I think Head Office is definitely a good idea. I find Sainsburys to be far the most allergy aware supermarket and they seem to have the best customer service. I would imagine its something they would take seriously. Its perfectly reasonable to expect your ds to be able to eat out and hopefully if people do constantly bring the situation to their attention, things will change. Good luck. :)

I've had that problem with Sainsburys too. They do dairy-free spreads and free-from chocolate etc. so we took a trip there before Christmas to buy tree chocolate, but when we went to the cafe there was nothing DS could eat. I thought at the time I should get in touch with head office, but never got round to it and we have never been back.

Perhaps if a few of us let them know about our experiences, they might have a think about this

I've had this with lactose intolerant DS and the staff were massively apologetic and said that I could buy something in the shop and he could eat it in the cafe, which I did. It did kind of limit him to having a bread roll, some slices of salami and a free from cereal bar but it was better nor nowt.

It is crap, though. My local museum cafe has three kinds of gluten free cake option but nothing that doesn't contain dairy and they have no plans to widen their range.

And my lovely local cafe that always has a vegan option has just shut.

Mind you, we found out recently that Starbucks has a dairy free chocolate brownie, but if you're allergic rather than intolerant you need to ask for a wrapped slice rather than the one on display in case it's been next to something buttery.

The research we do, eh?

I'm having the same discussion with Sainsburys at the moment with regard to nut-free products in the cafe; there is nothing DS can eat that is sweet apart from fruit.

I went through online customer service initially who were pretty useless and told me that "as a responsible retailer, we do not provide foods for allergic or intolerant customers"! I printed the reply out and sent it to the Head Office address and got a very apologetic phone call back and the information that they are currently reviewing both the cafe menus and the list of products that cafe managers can take from the shop floor to sell in the cafes, and they would take my comments on board.

I keep thinking I should try to engineer a more organised approach but don't get round to doing anything about it: maybe this thread will galvanise me into action

How interesting that many of us have had the same experience. I agree that gluten free food seems more widely available. My coeliac friend is very pleased but it doesnt help ds. I am still working on my email but I will send it and let you know their response.

Hi, just thought you might be interested in the response I had from Sainsburys re offering nut-free products in their cafe:

"Thank you for your letter. I am sorry the situation regarding our restaurants stocking products which are not suitable for nut allergy sufferers still has not changed. I can understand your disappointment as when you visit our restaurant you still have to take your own food for your son.
After checking our internal database, I can see the buyer for the restaurant advised this is something that would be reviewed for the summer or winter menu launch and would depend on availability and suitability of product.
I have logged your further comments onto our internal database. They will be made available to the buyer and she will take your comments into careful consideration at the next review meeting. We will also continue to monitor all feedback regarding suitable products for nut allergy sufferers in our stores."

Sainsbury's are shit imo compared to tesco for food labelling. I can't shop there for ds who has a nut allergy.

Ours has dairy free browns by the cafe till - it's not a meal though!

brownies

Go early and get a bacon (or ham) roll with no butter from the breakfast stuff. That's what we usually do for DS. It works for most cafes.
Otherwise, a bread roll and an individual Jam portion works as a pudding substitute.

We had this problem in M&S and they let us buy things in the store and then take them into the cafe to eat them as long as the rest of us were buying things from the cafe. It was quite limiting because it meant no proper meals as such but at least it meant there was something safe to eat.

I know this an old thread, but have always found something dd4 could have in there. Ok, not the greatest meals, but unless they have changed their food, she could have the fish finger, chips, beans piece of fruit and juice. We haven't been in for a while though.