Sainsbury's

[Diggingmyselfoutthehole]

I don't know if I am been a drama queen if I am I'm sure you won't hesitate to tell me .

Yesterday I went to Sainsbury's with my 5 year old. His dad was at work he's in the forces so a key worker. Before I got inside one of the blokes on the door stopped me and said they are asking for only 1 person per shopping trip. He then went on to say that rather than bringing my child in if I haven't got anybody to look after him, he could wait in the car...

After thinking about it I then messaged Sainsbury's on Facebook to say I didn't think it was an appropriate alternative to leave a young child in the car while I was in the shop and this is the response I got.

The second person is welcome to wait outside the store, at a safe distance, to support once the shop is complete. These measures are to protect as many people as possible. Thanks, Greg

So the question is am I over reacting?

I went to my local Sainsburys at the weekend and saw at least 3 couples of adults in there. Clearly the one adult policy isn't being applied there!

Am I missing something here? When did we have to explain our parenting decisions to shop assistants? Why didn't you just say " I don't need to explain my thinking to you, go get your manager if there's a problem?"

Sainsbury’s are doing really badly

I had an email few weeks back saying they were prioritising disabled people I said (after about an hour trying to get through) how do I register so I email them the letter etc to prove disabilities and I was told ‘well I don’t know any more than you ....why have you called so soon ‘
I said well because you emailed me about it ?
Then I was told ‘well we aren’t set up yet to make the list of prioritised customers so call back another time’ and hung up

There was a security guard being a total idiot in Tescos today. He almost didn't let me in because the oldish guy in front of me in the queue to get in spoke to me, and the guard decided that this meant we knew each other. He was unconvinced when I said no, but he let me in anyway. I felt like a flaming criminal.

Well they are inconsistent as a firm then. DP and I shop together (and at Sainsbury's) because one person can't carry the shopping home for two miles up hill. We need two of us. No one has ever said anything to us. We do go round the store separately though.

@Pseudosudocrem on the other hand our local Tesco don’t seem to give two flying fecks about letting families of 4/5 in. Completely ignoring the fact they have blatantly been queuing together, fake split up going in, and then Whiz around the shop as a pack.

Wholly inconsistent and totally negates the measures being out in place.

OP - Greg (and security guard) is clearly a moron.
If you have your kid under control in the shop I wouldn’t have a problem with that.

Sainsburys aren't very consistent. I had to go in a couple of weeks ago and in front of me in the queue were a family of 5 (a couple with three youngish kids, oldest around 7, all on foot) and they were asked if next time only one goes in and no kids, but then were allowed in and, of course, kids ran around with, by then, irate parents yelling at them to stay with them. It wasn't a particularly hot day, so staying in the car would have been ok. As soon as I saw the kids doing this I left and haven't been back.

I'm a single parent, 2 young primary age children, oldest being assessed for ASC. I work full time as a nurse. I try and go shopping on my way home from work but not always possible due to childcare arrangements. I have taken my children with me to Sainsbury's twice since social distancing started. They've stuck by me and I've done a smash and grab. I dare anyone to tell me I can't bring them in with me. I would be standing my ground and asking for the manager there and then and not budging. Leaving them in the car is a safety and safeguarding issue and they would genuinely be scared.

What a dickheads.
How are single mothers with no help around and little children supposed to cope? If you'd leave the child in the car or at home alone then you would put them in a possibly dangerous situation and on top of that possibly get in trouble with social services. As pp said, people need to use common sense. This kind of thing really pisses me off as it's another example of how shit society often treats young parents and mums in particular.

This is horrendous.

No, I'm you are not being unreasonable.

I go shopping with my baby. Had the virus already, so has my baby. I just pop him in the carrier on my front. No one says anything! Don't have a choice!

Also I go to Tesco.

No choice and no delivery slots! Waitrose hasn't got a free slot till July!!!

I used to get a Sainsbury's delivery every week, £50-£100 each time. As well as buying all school uniform and the occasional bit for the house or kettle etc.

I won't be giving them another penny of my money from now on.

I think their response has been farcical tbh.

They just stopped all deliveries with no warning. No plans to increase their capacity to help with the response, just "we don't want your business anymore".

And it's funny because I don't know a single vulnerable person who's been able to get on the app to book a slot, either. Called the helpline told to go online. Go online told to call the helpline.

The stories of them turning away / quizing single parents was the final nail in the coffin for me. I will shop elsewhere now.

“No one should put a child in a trolley, and no they are not cleaned between uses. A child can stand with the parent surely?“

I didn’t mean actually in the trolley, I meant in the child seat 😁

My youngest sat in one until he was about 7, tall and skinny.

If you have a disability there is a number you can call to get Tesco priority slots 0800 917 7359. Sainsburys are currently not allowing deliveries for anyone not on the vulnerable list even if you speak to them.

There is currently a legal case in process against the supermarkets for the way they are treating the vulnerable and disabled, and the supermarket who have received the most complaints is Sainsburys.

I used to shop with them weekly, but now I’m very much inclined to never do so again.

Hi , Sorry this was the case in store! We are asking colleagues to try and get customers to shop alone if possible however we do understand children will need to come into store when no one can look after them. The suggestion from the colleague was wrong and we expect them to be more understanding in these situations. So I can feed this back to management in store, Could you please confirm the name of the store and also the time you visited? Thanks. Matthew

This is the reply I have from Facebook.

Like @JemNadies i have seen a couple of the Lancaster staff behave badly towards customers.
One staff member shouting at an elderly gentleman because he had been in the day before and demanding to know why he was there again.
Another time a man was walking along minding his own business and a staff member was asking him where he had 'appeared' from and where was he going.
I was transfixed by her interrogation

He was amazingly restrained, she was totally out of order.

These were both outside in the car park .

What you should of said is er no cause he's 5!!
Did you say anything or just leave and complain ?
The complaint is justified but sometimes you need to point out the obvious to some people.

I was just quite taken a back and just said I don't think I will be doing that.

It just caught me off guard.

Apologies chilli

People do though, (put a child inside the basket) so it wasn't an outlandish suggestion - even though (as you may have guessed) I don't like it.

I was in Aldi yesterday and an elderly couple went in together. Nobody said a word to them. Once inside they obviously had a strategy to separate and target products currently in short supply. I'm not sure why this is OK yet Sainsbury's are behaving like this, incredibly irresponsibly. A woman with a child is a much easier target. I was a regular shopper at Sainsbury's before all this but I won't be afterwards. It's wonderful that they are taking care of the old and vulnerable but their screw everyone else attitude will not be forgotten. Besides I've realised how many of their products are crap and overpriced.

I have just had an email from Sainsbury's (a general one, I'm nowt special or owt) Just the usual prioritising the elderly and vulnerable and then loads about screens in store.

If there are no slots politely tell people, between them and Ocado they need a much better communication teams. I'm not sure which is worse the radio silence that you get now or the early passive aggressive communication.

I would stop Sainsbury's, but have the rest of my delivery pass and it is the only supermarket that I pass on my way home from work.

No worries, Greatwave.

I’m quite shocked to read that trolleys aren’t being wiped between customers atm. I’m not going into shops, too risky in our family, but would have thought that was a fairly fundamental protective practice while this is going on. Handles and child seats at least.

Aldi had a little cleaning station outside, they seem a bit more on the ball though.

Sainsbury's are really the worst.

DH is a essential worker and has evidence of such, but isn't NHS, and works 12 hour shifts. I am an essential worker, but WFH but cannot leave children alone...

He asked if he could shop with the NHS allotted times, but was told there were no exceptions.

This simple doesn't make sense - an NHS worker who works office hours would have priority over someone who works 12 hour shifts?