Sainsbury’s

I know its really boring to review a supermarket, but sometimes one needs to be boring. Why? Because.
so this is my local supermarket. Tadaa! Nothing spectacular. i would even go so far and say its not great. They layout is strange. the way the organised their aisles has no real logic behind it. the frozen food is not even near the chilled products. the buscuits are not near the coffee and tea is … I don’t know … around the corner.
Also they are horrible in stocking up items. There is always something missing whenever I go there.

I give this store 5 stars now after the complete refurb in July 2010. Clean well organised store with plenty of tills and staff on hand.

You may wonder why I’m choosing to review a supermarket that everyone takes very much for granted — you rock up, get your groceries and are enticed into buying some special offer or other that you didn’t really want but stump up the cash anyway because there is a deal on!
Bread, milk, cheese, eggs, flour, meat, veggies… it’s all here, along with the less than essentials like the Irish Racing Post and CD’s of Girls Aloud.
So why the big deal? Staff!
Sainsbury’s in Balham has quite possibly the largest range of Jekyll and Hyde employees ever seen outside of any American service industry staff! Some phenomenally polite and helpful, others who couldn’t give less of a crap if you spontaneously combusted over the fish counter.
I love people that are genuine and honestly don’t mind helping if you ask. I’m not so keen on people that are employed to work with the public on a daily basis not bothering with the following
— Saying hello and goodbye
— Saying thankyou
— Acting in a remotely genuine manner
Or some of these classic moments that have occurred during my (usually daily) trips to the store:
— Kissing teeth when asked about anything
— Asked if I can’t read the price that’s advertised
— Asked if I can’t cook my own food at home when I wanted my pizza cooked in store
— The security guard asking why I was bothering him to tell him there was a guy smoking a huge spliff on the bench outside the door.
So you see, Sainsbury’s is one of those very convenient, yet far from perfect commodities that could be oh so much better.
And for the record, bloody Jamie Oliver doesn’t sway my shopping preferences either!

Having Sainsbury’s in Streatham as my local supermarket I found the Balham branch a little disappointing. First thing that you notice is the smaller car park, then once in the supermarket its very cramped and can be quite difficult to get round when its busy. They have tried to get a lot of different aisles of products into the store which does make it cramped.
Having said all that given the space they have you can find everything you need there. Across the road is an M&S and just a few yards past that is a big Waitrose, so plenty of options. However in the times of the credit crunch this is the best option.