Sainsbury’s

My local supermarket. Not always the cheapest, and even if I go in for a pint of milk, I end up spending at least £15 on things I *need.
That being said, the service is generally pretty good, and I chat to quite a few of the staff — if the TV show Cheers, was set in a supermarket rather than a bar, it would be this Sainsbury’s, and Ted Danson would play Alun on the butcher counter.

They get a point for the large free car park, and also because it’s impossible to give ‘nil points’, but that’s all I’m willing to concede…
We parked downstairs and decided to be lazy and take the lift up the two floors to the store. That lift took 6 minutes to come back down to get us. It doesn’t sound much, but try waiting that length of time for a lift. 30 seconds feels like a long time. Why didn’t we go up the stairs you ask? Well I wanted to time it by that point to warn others. (So selfless!)
We needed to buy quite a bit, so looked round for a small trolly. Or any kind of trolly… nothing. No trolly of any sort was forthcoming. I asked the only Sainsbury’s employee in sight (the security guard) where the trollies were. He helpfully suggested that we go back downstairs and bring one from the car park up in the lift…
It’s a large store, but they don’t seem to have a good range of anything. I could not find the specific margarine, fish or frozen veg that I was looking for. I tried the meat counter for sausages, only to have the butcher pick them up with his bare hands, put them on a metal weighing tray with no protection and then bag them up for me. I wasn’t keen to take them after that. It turned out that we didn’t need a trolly after all — perhaps they do know what they are doing!
The cherry on the top, so to speak, was that my friend needed the loo. We asked where the customer loos were and followed the arm and index finger of a less than interested checkout person to the loos just outside the store. I am willing to give the company the benefit of the doubt and say that they are council maintained loos, but i would not be sending my customers anywhere near them. They are rank. There is faeces smeared all over the seats and walls, empty beer cans and drug paraphernalia in every disgusting cubicle. They should be closed as a health hazard, and that building is attached to the large store just metres away selling hand touched sausages.

Free car park and bus stop outside the stores.

This Sainsbury’s is quite large given the area where it is situated. I tend to walk there on weekends and browse around the area before doing a bit of shopping. They’ve got a bakery with tonnes of fresh baked goods to enjoy. There is a butchery and a fish monger inside for someone who would like smaller cuts. The meat always goes quickly on weekends and you can still bag a good few bargains. There is one aisle of clothes from TU which is a nice addition. The store has a car park next to it and a bus stop right in front.