I read somewhere this week that Sainsbury's had been bumped from its number two position amongst Britain's supermarkets. I am not surprised.
I started regular shopping in our local Sainsbury's nearly twenty years ago - when it was the undisputed number one - and have done our main family shopping there nearly every week since: that must be getting on for a thousand visits! Over the years I have seen it improve and then gradually decline - I think as much through indifference than anything else.
Like most families we tend to buy much the same things over time, broadening our tastes a bit with each new trend, but generally behaving predictably from one month to the next (I have every till slip stashed away somewhere: these will be a goldmine for some future aspiring sociologist or market historian!). What attracted me to Sainsbury's back in the 1980s - and kept me going there even after Tesco's had overtaken it and opened a much bigger store a a mile closer to us, was it's wide range of continental foodstuffs, the general high quality of its fresh produce, but above all, its reliability. It was rare in those days for anything to be out of stock.
Now it is different: I can no longer rely on Sainsbury's. There has not been a shopping trip in the last year or two from which I have not returned short of between one and five items on my list, and sometimes more. Sure, sometimes these are specialty items (but why should they be different), and sometimes I am chasing items which may have been withdrawn altogether. Mostly, though, it is a failure of stock control and logistics. One only has to look around the store at the chaotic way in which the aisles are cluttered with pallets of stock waiting to replenish the shelves to recognise that this retail operation is nowhere near as slick as it used to be.
Another disappointment is that the company seems to do little to find out what its customers think. In all this time I have never seen a market survey in progress in the store, let alone been asked to participate. Nor have I ever been sent a questionnaire. There used to be a suggestions book 'instore', prominently displayed and frequently used, but that disppeared years ago. The Customer Service desk, when manned, usually has a queue of customers trying to exchange something or other, and is not very user friendly.
To be fair, much has changed for the better over the years. Long queues at the checkout - whilst beginning to creep back - are not the scourge they used to be (and still are on the Continent). The store layout is no longer regularly changed: things are generally where they usually are (assuming they are there at all). Overall, the range of foodstuffs is still impressive, though there is plenty room for improvement: just compare the frozen fish cabinets with those in France, Spain or Italy.
I am saddened that Sainsbury's is not doing so well. It may be that it has coasted for too long on its ability to retain the loyalty of its customers.
