Sainsbury?s dog kennel hill

[Penguin68]

There is a real risk of contamination if you reuse them.

They can easily be turned inside out, shaken and rinsed through to remove any dirt etc.

[Spartacus]

If only someone would invent a bag that's not made from plastic and you could put fruit and veg into them and they are made from natural products.

Maybe, and this is a bit out there, something like brown paper bags !

[nxjen]

What I don?t understand is why plain paper bags for fruit and veg like we had until the 1970s(?) can?t be reintroduced. These can be easily recycled or am I missing something?

[Penguin68]

I think Sainsbury's are (1) reducing stocking levels and (2) ordering less fresh produce so that it's mainly all sold. So going to the store late/ after work means that fresh items (and others) are often not in stock. This is clearly economically sensible, if annoying, to late shoppers. Reducing waste of fresh produce is probably a good thing. Turning inventory over quickly (so less on shelves/ in stock rooms at then end of the trading day) makes good economic sense.

They clearly haven't yet got the balance right.

I haven't found the check-out etc. staff quite so glum as others, but obviously their numbers are falling as Sainsbury's tries to get us to do their jobs, unpaid.

[Penguin68]

What I don?t understand is why plain paper bags for fruit and veg like we had until the 1970s (?) can?t be reintroduced. These can be easily recycled or am I missing something?

Brown paper bags have the problem of opacity - what's in them and what's been scanned as in them may not align. And check-out people don't want to have to open up each bag to check either. Brown paper bags were what sellers (and some still do) put items in, they know what they are.

[nxjen]

Sainsburys now have the system whereby customers weigh their own fruit and veg and print out a bar code. Check out staff would just have to scan this bar code without examining contents.

[Penguin68]

So I'll scan some onions and pack some avocados in my opaque brown paper bag. (And there's some evidence this is already happening.)

[nxjen]

There?s a lot of evidence this is already happening, particularly on self check out tills, and a lot of people have confessed to doing this!

It will not be any hardship, or take more than a couple of seconds, for the check out staff to peek inside a bag to see contents and label tally. This is not a good enough reason for paper bags not to be reintroduced.

[TheArtfulDogger]

Of course it's going to happen that people incorrectly put stuff in bags to cheat the system, it's the same mentality that was in place with the bendy buses, if no one sees you not paying then it's not a crime and the risk of getting checked is so low that people will do it.

Seems that the self scan and pay concept is not something that the honest amongst us is going to not misuse 🤔 Sadly that's human nature

Years ago there were local grocers everywhere that used brown paper bags or newspaper to put customers fruit and veg into before putting them into the customers own bags and then came supermarkets who pushed them, the milkman, butchers and fishmongers into a virtual state of non existence , all for the sake of convenience and in so doing increased the amount of plastic waste we all had (plastic bottles rather than glass, veg pre packed in plastic and so on)

Maybe we need to turn back the clock, use local businesses rather than the multinationals. It may not be convienient (paying in different stores, not getting everything under one roof...) but there are advantages

1. Keeping more of your spend in the local community

2. A sense of community rather than a faceless organisation

3. Businesses who know and love their products and who can advise on how to use it

4. The ability to reduce plastic use

5. Potential for less food miles (if it isn't in season then you may not get it )

6. Less driving to large shops outside of the town centres (less pollution too)

7. Local employment guaranteed rather than centralised distribution centre employment possibly out of the area

8. Less food waste (no more perfect fruit and veg that the supermarkets think sells and return to misshapen fruit and veg full of flavour)

I know it's a dystopian dream and yes it harks back to the good old days of the pre 90s and more local businesses will have to reopen as a result but if people are not satisfied with the likes of sainsburys, Tescos and so on then don't whinge on forums like this but create a ground swell grass roots movement and go back to shopping in local smaller businesses, use a milkman again, demand will be met if it's there

Ps in the 60's to 90's all milkmen drove electric floats ... With the use of glass , home delivery and electric floats, where they ahead of the game and environmentally friendly only to be virtually wiped out by supermarkets greed !

[se22cat]

We used to get milk & juice from the milkman for years then switched to getting them from International (now Co-op) when my mum realized he was regularly trying to overcharge us for his own profit. Never did buy from any of the greengrocers that had stalls on on LL as the thought of produce exposed to traffic pollution is disgusting. The food hygiene practice of the local butchers & fishmongers was also highly questionable in the 80s; they were not halcyon days of value & quality in ED by any stretch.

[Pugwash]

We tend to go to Sainsbury's - admittedly at times shelves are empty. Although I have considered on line shopping - I would only order non perishables as feel that staff do not look at sell by/use by dates on fresh produce. My deceased mother in law frequently had delivered meat/dairy products with a 2 day life span. I also like to pick out my own loose fruit and veg.

I feel that the increase use of on line shopping has resulted in too many closures of high streets including supermarkets. Whilst we shop at Roses, Farmers and tend to use ED restaurants and cafes, some of the prices charged are excessive (we are both pensioners) but understand that with the high costs of rent, many establishments have no choice.

Lidl is a good alternative to the usual supermarkets in terms of quality and price. Went into co op a couple of weeks ago and the majority of their prices were higher than of Sainsbury's.

[SpringTime]

twinhunters Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Is it just me or has this store gone downhill .new

> management maybe

HAsn't it always been pretty slack?

The wine selection is worse than Morrisons and Asda. Same goes for the beer. The fresh herbs section is underwhelming. The cold/mechanically pressed oils are lacking. The fish counter is dull. The meat counter gives you what you can buy from the shelf and not much more. The fish shelves are boring. The staff are always talking very publicly about their next breaks and when they're knocking off. And the carpark is dirty. For further disappointment visit the Starbucks.

Supermarkets are bloody awful places really!

[Sue]

SpringTime Wrote:

------------------------------------------------------- The fresh herbs

> section is underwhelming.

Bit surprised you say that.

I got a good sized pot of healthy Thai Basil there some time ago, and it's still going strong.

Never seen Thai Basil anywhere else in East Dulwich.

[hammerman]

Sainsburys milk and bread prices have recently increased by 5-10p. Also for the past few months they never seem to have any sourdough bread in the tiny section they usually have it. It's getting like that for other sections in the Dog Kennel Hill branch for other foods and you would think they could keep these foods in stock. I now go to the co-op in Camberwell for sourdough bread.

[macutd]

yes I can't get sourdough there either!!

[Townleygreen]

the Co Op has great bread!

[Bic Basher]

Sainsbury's has gone down since Argos opened. They've reduced stock lines, the magazine section is now tiny with a random selection of titles that nobody wants except the tv mags.

Deliveries seem to be random with lines not being restocked for days.

[dbboy]

Surely lack of stock is down to poor re-ordering, not getting shelves replenished over night, lines not being available either due to supply issues or lack of stock coming into the distribution warehouse, or just poor local management.

Either way, customers leave frustrated and either accept it or eventually shop elsewhere. My shopping includes currently going to the bakers in Nunhead, the butcher on Peckham Pk rd, possibly either Morrisons or Asda or Tesco either for specific items not available in other super markets or for specific brands or deals, and the inevitable trips every few weeks to Lidl again for specific items.

[hammerman]

There were no cucumbers in the store today around 4.

[Zig-Zag]

I had to go there about 7.30pm last night. It was a total scruffy, empty-shelved, dispiriting shambles and I could only get 50% of what I needed. Vegetables virtually all run out, empty boxes all over the floor and hardly any staff replenishing stock.

Several other customers commented on the state of the shop and were making calls home to say they couldn't buy what they where looking for and asking their "other half" what to buy instead!

I've made a complaint online today.

[suecharlie@btinterne]

I was in Sainsbury's in Dog Kennel Hill on Saturday evening about 6.30. Not a cucumber in sight.No mushrooms either.

[snoopy17]

Went to Sainsbury on Thursday 11am. One of the staff members absolutely stank, I have never smelt a smell like it, I can't understand how they werw allowed to work with food when they clearly smelt like they haven't washed in a month. I was actually shocked.

[Zig-Zag]

Please send an online complaint as well. The more feedback they get the more likely they are to act.

[JohnL]

Has the management changed recently ?

I notice the manager on the website is Mike Miller.

[ed26]

I complained a few years ago about empty shelves, coupled with items on the wrong shelves (or maybe the right shelves with the wrong prices on). I emailed a load of photos with my complaint and received calls and emails within 24 hours. The manager called to say that they had used the photos in a training session and invited me in for a "guided shop." He was very helpful and said that they are aware of the problems and taking steps to rectify them.

That was about 5 years ago, and things never improved. It's got even worse. (Attached photo from a few months back).

Last week, I popped in for some fresh fruit at around 4pm and was told that the day's delivery had already sold out and the next delivery would come overnight. I guess that the ED store is constantly busy and they can't hold enough stock to get through the day. I wish they'd get rid of the tat section and dedicate the space to more display or warehouse space for food. I'm sure most shoppers would welcome the better food supply, even if it meant having to go elsewhere to get a saucepan or broken toy.

What forks me off most though, is that the loose fruit / veg is empty but they often have plenty of prepacked fruit and veg. This is a bit hypocritical, when Sainsbury's claims to have removed single-use plastic bags for the benefits of the environment. The manager told me that they would allow customers to break into prepacked goods when the loose shelves were empty, but I've never tried it.

It's not a new thing either - I've found this article from 2004 - sorry it's a subscriber article, but you get the gist from the first few paragraphs - https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sainsburys-crisis-is-laid-bare-2f7d2rcs2dg