Sainsburys

A useful, centrally located supermarket. It’s been facing a lot of competition from the Tesco next door, but has lowered its prices and streamlined service with self-​service checkout machines to compete.

This is the smaller of the two Sainsbury’s stores in central Oxford. Being a little bit more central than the Westgate store, and with longer opening hours, it is naturally busier. The range of products is not as good as that in the Westgate and the prices are higher — a tub of houmous might be 5p more expensive here. It’s not the place to do your weekly shop, but is convenient for little things that you might have forgotten to buy.
Queues are long but fast moving at peak times. One thing that does put me off is that most of the fresh fruit and veg is pre-​packaged, which means that a) you can’t pick out exactly what you want, and b) you can’t have smaller amounts than are in the bags.

Sainsbury’s Local has a fairly good range of foods, with all the essentials and is usually well-​stocked despite its popularity. It’s quite hard to get into through the flow of pedestrians and queues for the bus on Magdalen Street, but it’s well worth it. There are no surprises, and it’s not really the height of luxury, but there’s a good selection of fruit juices and a section of bakery goods and lunch time snacks/​meals. Because it’s only Sainsbury’s Local, as opposed to the main shop, you don’t really get the good Sainsbury’s Basics deals or the more unusual foods, but there’s usually a suitable alternative available. The queue often snakes around the shop and is very offputting, but it moves surprisingly quickly; they’ve got a very efficient system going, so don’t be put off because of that. The most frustrating thing is trying to fit everything into a bag on the tiny counter, as the shop assistants work very quickly! Some are friendly, some aren’t so, but you’ll get your food for a reasonable price, so it doesn’t really matter.