ED saisburys is shut till thursday (it's now open again)

[Louisa]

Asset are you on a crusade today? :)

[Asset]

Or are you?

[Louisa]

I asked first :)

[sgp]

I think it depends on which areas you shop in - agree that the Forest Hill and Sydenham Sainsburys are nothing in comparison to the DKH one. Also, Asda on the Old Kent Road is terrible - very limited selection.

And Tescos on the Old Kent Road, though better than Asda, still doesn't have the range of products that DKH sainsburys has. Though, being forced to shop there on Saturday, I was delighted to see they sold Starbucks coffee in packets and have a better selection of bottled beers. Cost me ?20 more though for my weekly shop.

I bet if a big tescos opened up in East Dulwich, it would probably give our DKH sainsburys a run for their money. But then, our store is about to have a trump card in Starbucks. Excellent.

[SimonM]

>>However Sainsburys are a smaller operation and are struggling against the might of Tesco and Asda. Knowing that they have no real point of difference they have rebranded themselves as the middle-class supermarket.<<

Sainsbury's have always been the "middle class" grocers, compared to the people like Tesco and Fine Fare (anyone remember them?), long before the term "rebranding" became used outside episodes of "Rawhide". Later as the smaller shops became economcially unviable they had to move to larger sites and become the (sort of) "middle class" supermarket instead. Now this latter position is occupied by Waitrose/Ocado. And they always had a reputation for quality - in the old days you could go into the shop and ask a guy in a white coat behind the cheese counter for 5 ounces of cheddar and he'd cut you the exact-sized piece - none of this "is 8 ounces ok sir?" nonsense. Obviosuly times have changed but remnants of these days do I think still linger on in the modern stores. They've never been pile-it-high-and-sell-it-cheap merchants as both Tesco and ASDA were in the beginning.

As for quality now well...I always prefer either the Farmers' Market (only once a month locally) or Pretty's for most fruit and veg, but the fact remains Sainsbury's do offer more variety and the quality tends to be more constant. The Dog Kennel Hill branch though is certainly something of a flagship branch, and far superior as regards choice to either the Forest Hill or Upper Norwood branches (the latter once a Morrisons and before that a Safeway)

[Louisa]

Sainsbury's have tried over the supermarket years (from the mid 1970's to present in the UK), to concentrate a large number of stores in the south-east of England, and London in particular, to exploit the "middle-class grocers" label for all it's worth. However, with the onset of Waitrose in towns like Sevenoaks, Maidstone and Bromley, and M&S recovering with an outstanding range of high quality goods, Sainsbury's has been forced to branch out, and so though they clearly do not have the variety and quality across the board like Waitrose and M&S, they like to foll people in the posh parts of town by opening up these so called "flagship stores", where they sell a larger range of goods and charge extraordinary prices for all goods across the range throughout store, even though other stores in poorer areas are selling these products for much less. It's a complete travesty, and it makes me wonder why on earth Waitrose dont just setup store on DKH instead. At least thats genuine quality for higher prices! :)

[SimonM]

>>and it makes me wonder why on earth Waitrose dont just setup store on DKH instead. At least thats genuine quality for >>higher prices! :D

[BarryRoad]

oh no... Scummerfield for me tonight...

[ratty]

Cannot wait for Thursday ffs! I am having to go miles to get me shoppoing when I live next door to the damn store!

[ClareC]

Huge ques in somerfield last night...... When Sainsbury's reopens will it be the finished store?

[MadWorld74]

yes and apparantly they will be selling excellent value desinger(ish)clothes!! (see article in Observer magazine)

[macroban]

> they will be selling excellent value desinger(ish)clothes!!

White Stuff out of business before they open?

[Dulwichmudlark]

its the tu range its ok on a primark level of quality

[Michael Palaeologus]

Oy - Sainsburys-Bod.

Why didnt you ask our beloved Dulwich Mum to open the Starbucks? She is a celeb AND positively apostolic when it comes to her fave coffee emporium - especially in the face of the usual tirades about globalisation/neo-colonialism and lack of parking from the nihilist eco-class warriors of the parish.

[SimonM]

....and also from us weirdos who merely like a good espresso! :))

[Keef]

For those who say Sydenham Sainsburys has nothing on DKH... Are you insane?!?!?!!?!? It's twice the bloody size of it!

We are talking about the same shop aren't we?

[lofty]

Yes I agree, it's bl**dy massive.

[Louisa]

Sydneham Sainsbury's was a SaverCentre at one point, but is now just a very large standard store. It sells electrical,large dvd and music section, cooking items, a very large frozen food section.

[Keef]

Thats the fella! Only realised last week that it was now "Sainsburys" instead of SaverCentre.

[Asset]

Savacentre is Sainsbury's under another guise I believe.

Only a few hours to go now until the grand reopening - are they having a special do with free drinks for the first hundred customers etc? Anyone know? If they are I may go tomorrow.

[Jimbo]

Has anyone been to the new improved Sainsbury's yet?

Is it any good? give us the low down.....

[SimonM]

Been there today. Much bigger, gratifyingly wider aisles, and what looked like an wider range of food goods, as well as clothes and electricals. expanded DVD/CD sections etc. The meat counter is attractively laid out but the beef - all cuts -is more expensive than William Rose and my guess still inferior quality. Bakery/cakes also a lot more spacious. The self-service check-out is amrvellous if you only have a basket-full (as I did), although you do need to remember to feed in yoru Nectar card first (as I failed to do)

Also (strictly in the interests of consumer research :))) gave the Starbucks a whirl. It is about twice the size of before - more tables and chairs but they are mostly too close together, given that so many customers want to negotiate a full shoppin trolley in with them. They still serve espresso in a paper cup and the blueberry cheesecake was expensive and inferior in every way to the version sold on Northcross Road market....

[the-e-dealer]

Savacenter(sic) Sydenham is EVEN BETTER !

[BarryRoad]

Are we having a forum meet there tonight? We could do supermarket sweep. First one to the Sainsbury's brand tortillas wins! (Actually everyone who gets those is a winner)

[mumra]

We went this morning and can't say mini-mumra was impressed as decided to projectile vomit in the bread aisle. There was a lovely lady called Sharon who was very helpful though and we did get given a ferrero rocher (they're really spoiling us) at the door so not all bad. Starbucks have put their prices up I observed, but that is probably a countrywide thing. Overall, before our incident in the bread aisle, I have to say I was quite impressed. Much bigger fruit and veg aisles for a start and although car park was nearly full I did not have to queue at the checkout, and I found a mother and baby carpark space, which is often a rarity.