We shop fairly regularly at Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda, Lidl, Aldi and the Co-op but prefer Tesco even though Sainsbury’s is much nearer. We try
M&S occasionally and very rarely Waitrose because there isn’t one nearby.
So where is Sainsbury/Asda going? To my lowly shopper’s eye
Sainsbury’s does not seem to know what it is supposed to be. For our general requirements it is neither as
cheap as Tesco nor conspicuously middle class in the manner of Waitrose and
M&S. The days when Sainsbury's was definitely middle class seem to have gone. Now it is just another supermarket chain and not a particularly appealing one at that.
Our local Asda is grim. Fairly cheap but not as cheap as it pretends
and with a strong flavour of tabloid values it isn’t a pleasant place to be.
When we visit Asda we know what we want, we buy it and we leave. That’s it.
No doubt retail bods have crawled all over the deal and
pronounced it a Good Thing, but it feels a little desperate to me. Pulling the two supermarkets together while the world changes, while Aldi and Lidl continue to make inroads and Amazon lurks on the horizon. If it is done it needs to be done quickly and well.
5 comments:
"conspicuously middle class in the manner of Waitrose and M&S."
For the "big shop" I go to Waitrose because I like the atmosphere there. It is the least stressful of the big supermarkets, and the fruit and veg is unfailingly fresh. M&S really irritates me, though. Waitrose encourages sauntering, whereas M&S is about bustling.
We live about 100 yards from the village Budgens, and that's surprisingly good. (It's a very affluent village, and they have to cater for the locals). I'm in there most days. The most surprising difference between our "posh" Budgens and Waitrose is the quality of the staff. Waitrose staff are unfailingly helpful and polite. The local yokels working in Budgens push past you, yawn in your face at the till, and often smell bad.
Shopping? What is that? Once upon a time it was the posh what had deliveries now in our democratic age even OAP's like what we are can enjoy the privilege.
We shop at Asda, Tesco, Aldi, Lidl depending which items we like and need. I find Sainsbury's and Morrisons' shops claustrophobic and so avoid them. I like Waitrose but there isn't one near here; I can't stand John Lewis' shops. I usually find Northern shop staff are more friendly; it may be because Northerners speak to them more! Our benchmark for miserable staff has long been Tesco in Wokingham. Mind you, if I had to live in Wokingham on a Tesco salary I probably wouldn't smile much, either . . .
Sainsburys are screwed because the likes of Aldi and Lidl have managed to get ranges of good quality foods at prices far cheaper than Sainsburys, all the time. Sainsburys occasionally compete on price when they do offers, but who wants to have to buy loads of a product just because its on offer and you know next week it'll be back to 50% more (or worse)? Even on exactly like for like brands, Aldi/Lidl are far cheaper - for example I like mature cheddar, Aldi sell Colliers Welsh cheddar for £2, its £3-50 in Sainsburys. Exactly the same product, nearly double the price. Occasionally it'll be on offer at £3 or £2-50, but if you bought it every week you'd be paying over £3 on average. Multiply that sort of extra cost over many
different products and your shopping bill rises drastically.
Sam - we sometimes visit a Budgens when we are on holiday in Norfolk and that one is pretty good too. The staff don't smell bad but I wouldn't call them unfailingly helpful and polite. Indifferent I'd say, much more so than our local Tesco.
Demetrius - we've never tried the delivery option but one day...
DCB - the staff in our local Tesco are friendly but it must be much easier to live round here on a Tesco salary than it is at Wokingham.
Sobers - yes, my first reaction was to think that Sainsbury's are screwed. I assume they know much more about their business than I do, but that first reaction still feels about right. The price differences annoy us too and although it isn't as convenient to go elsewhere, we do - more and more.
Post a Comment