Sainsbury’s Local

An average Sainsbury’s. Nothing special, nothing shitty. Best if you’re just looking for something to grab-​and-​go.

Meh. This Sainsbury’s is definitely geared less towards someone doing their weekly shop and more towards the convenient, lunch hour, grab-​a-​salad-​and-​a-​drink for £2 market.
Indeed, you would have a problem doing a big shop here as it is pretty much all self-​service. Arrgh! Excuse me while I take a break to scream at the heavens, take a few deep breaths and have a cup of tea and a sit down…
Thanks. Here we go — I have been in this shop for groceries a good few times now (because it’s right next to my flat) and almost every time I’ve had to serve myself. Now, I wouldn’t mind this if the machine didn’t loudly chastise me every two seconds. I now hear «Please place item in bagging area», followed by «Item removed from bagging area» followed by «Please wait for assistance» every time I close my eyes. I try to explain to the lady who comes over that it wasn’t my fault! That it’s telling me I have removed an item when I actually placed my Kit Kat into the aforementioned «bagging area»! Instead I get a forlorn look as if to say «Yeah, that’s what they all say, computers don’t make mistakes you fool» and a sigh of disdain as she scans her pass to re-​unlock my screen and enable me to get on with my day. So now I feel like I am in the wrong and also that I have inconvenienced an entire queue of people behind me. They can see and hear everything I’m doing so the pressure’s on for the rest of the ordeal. Sweat pouring from me, stinging my eyes, I fill my first carrier bag. I remove it from the «bagging area». There is a moment of silence as I open up another bag. The calm before the storm. The computerised voice screams at me «Items removed from bagging area!» so, fumbling and in a panic I replace my full bag of goods and pray that this computerised Goddess of convenience will accept my offering. Another moment or two of silence. Phew! I breathe a sigh of relief. How naïve of me… «UNEXPECTED ITEM IN BAGGING AREA!» rings out over the whole store followed by a small sigh from someone behind me. I want to slump to my knees, a broken man. «Please wait for assistance». I wait for the lady to come over and I also add a bottle of whiskey to my shop. I get the condescending look again as the pass is scanned and want to leave immediately. I quickly pay for my things, run home, scarred forever and vow to never stray from Tesco ever again.
That said, they do have a good selection of hot food throughout the day for a good price. And the shop is always clean.
2 stars it is then.

I’m probably a bit too keen with reviewing this store because when I was in there last week it still looked half like a building site!
Recently a crop of supermarket mini stores have appeared on St Mary’s Street. There was nothing and now there is Spar, Tesco and Sainsburys all no doubt trying to capture business from all the local workers.
Well this branch seems a bit smaller than the one on Queens Street with less general items and more lunch/​convenience stuff and one of their brilliant salad bars. I’m sure it’ll do well, once it looks like a shop!