20 August - A not so super market
My friend Hugh has several times recently blogged
his opinion of Erith's
Morrison's supermarket and as there is not a lot going on right now and a
big DIY job is going to see my
electricity off for an indeterminate period later today I thought “on a dull Monday
morning, why not?”.
I really do not like the Abbey Wood branch of Sainsbury’s. I used not to use
Sainsbury’s at all because in my younger days there was a Lord Sainsbury who
kept donating money to the Labour party but I must have mellowed over the years
and the Abbey Wood branch is conveniently nearby and is very often nearly empty
and probably that is half the reason for it being a disappointment.
That and it being extremely badly managed.
About three weeks ago I found only one cash till open and as I approached, the
lady supervisor told me it was about to close. There was no alternative but she
told me she was going to phone “for someone to come down”.
When I suggested that a more sensible procedure was to get someone down and then
close the only available till she looked at me as if I was mad.
Fortunately, and unlike Hugh, I have overcome my aversion to
self-service tills but I do object
to them broadcasting what I am buying over their CCTV system.
Over the past fortnight approximately these are the problems that I have
encountered in Abbey Wood Sainsbury’s…
Warburton’s small wholemeal loaves, all but a few two days out of date.
Gluten-free cake weeks out of date.
No one pint semi-skimmed milk available.
No four pint semi-skimmed milk available.
No baskets available. (Twice.)
No small trolleys available.
No travelators working. (Neither up nor down.)
One entrance door not working.
Self-service tills card only. (Many times.)
One item repeatedly refusing to scan eventually causing the machine to (in
Windows terms) 'Blue Screen'.
Self-service cash till brought up an alarm accusing me of tampering with the
change giving mechanism. (As there was no one at all on duty in that area I just
left it and went to the adjacent scanner.)
Three different people claiming to be in the know have
told me that Sainsbury’s Abbey Wood is performing so poorly that it might close.
If that was to be true it would be a nuisance, have you been to Asda in
Belvedere? Now that really is a mad house. Give me a deserted Sainsbury’s any time.