Sainsbury's

rabidbun

I find it depends very much on what you usually buy. I tend to shop mostly at Sainsburys now, but I stock up on offers when I see them (especially on the more expensive things as another poster has said).

I also find the basics range very good quality for what I've tried so far (whereas I have found the Tesco things that I would buy to be a bit naff for my shop items). Works out around ten or twenty pounds cheaper per shop I would say.

I do check though on the individual supermarkets sites to see what name brands are going for though, as Tesco or Asda can often be a little cheaper for shops with a lot of brands in them depending on current offers.

fluffnutter

Great. Just what this country needs. More cheap food. Who gives a damn about the farmers so long as you can feed a family of four for 50p a day? Food prices should be realistic and reflect the true cost of production, not some game to be played between 'The Big Four'.

QuackQuack_2

fluffnutter wrote: »

Great. Just what this country needs. More cheap food. Who gives a damn about the farmers so long as you can feed a family of four for 50p a day? Food prices should be realistic and reflect the true cost of production, not some game to be played between 'The Big Four'.

That's a really good point and well made.

I'd like to just add that I find it ironic we can buy 'fair trade' items so farmers of coffee, coco and cotton in far off places get a good deal on the one hand, but our supermarkets screw the bottom out of the UK farming industry on the other.

My 3 shopping wishes?

I wish Sainsbury's would get their prices down.

I wish Sainsbury's would hire enough staff to man their checkouts.

I wish Sainsbury's would have enough stock on their shelves.

I would so love to afford to be able to shop at Sainsbury's in my area, but they just can't compete with Asda. They have full shelves (granted the use by dates can be that day), queue busting at the checkouts and low prices. The quality of the goods, food shelf life and atmosphere of the place is usually rubbish - but I don't have the luxury of spending more for the same thing :-( Sainsbury's ain't even in the same ballpark as Tesco or Asda locally for me.

Some of the biggest bargains I find are care of Tesco - but usually the tiny One Stop sized stores.

fluffnutter

QuackQuack wrote: »

I'd like to just add that I find it ironic we can buy 'fair trade' items so farmers of coffee, coco and cotton in far off places get a good deal on the one hand, but our supermarkets screw the bottom out of the UK farming industry on the other.

Absolutely. I was really shocked to discover that, when supermarkets decide to sell, say, strawberries at half price (as they all seemed to be doing this summer), guess who takes the hit on that? The grower.

Say Sainsbury's (or whomever) agreed to pay £1 per punnet to Mr Farmer, then decided at the last minute they were going to reduce the price to the consumer, they'd just pass that on to the grower. Basically they say 'Right, we're going to sell them BOGOF so we're only going to give you 50p a punnet now'.

Mr Farmer who's picked them all (so they're spoiling already) and packed them all up in Sainsbury's branded packaging ain't got much choice frankly and ends up taking the reduced price.

That really peed me off. I refused to buy any supermarket strawberries! Hah! Take that, Sainsbury's!

cheltenham_dude

I have some praise for some of Sainsbury's non-healthy food;

1. Their frozen onion rings are the best tasting that I've had in 6 years (compared against most of the other big supermarket chains in the UK).
2. I really like their 'bakery' cookies (I know its supposed to be exactly the same mix as Tescos, but dammit! They just seem to taste better)/
3. On a (very slightly) more healthy note, they are the one major supermarket in my area that sells my favorite instant coffee, Clipper, in a 500g Jar for £4.99 each - most of the others sell it in 250g jars for £3.99 each.

DCFC79

cheltenham_dude wrote: »

I have some praise for some of Sainsbury's non-healthy food;

1. Their frozen onion rings are the best tasting that I've had in 6 years (compared against most of the other big supermarket chains in the UK).
2. I really like their 'bakery' cookies (I know its supposed to be exactly the same mix as Tescos, but dammit! They just seem to taste better)/
3. On a (very slightly) more healthy note, they are the one major supermarket in my area that sells my favorite instant coffee, Clipper, in a 500g Jar for £4.99 each - most of the others sell it in 250g jars for £3.99 each.

never noticed the clipper tea before, have to try the onion rings then and the cookies i think i would agree with you, tried 1 flavour other week and they were quite nice.

QuackQuack_2

Without doubt Sainsbury's food is better than Asda and I did enjoy my Sainsbury's jam doughnuts - a simple pleasure.

I don't buy the Asda ones from my local store after I once made the mistake of asking if they had any after finding the shelves empty. The lady replied "They've just come out of the microwave and are a bit hot, they'll be out soon." I asked if they had some weird high speed doughnut maker but it was not to be! They apparently arrive frozen and they defrost them in a microwave before bagging them up. I always felt they lacked a certain freshness. Perhaps they do that with their Hovis bread too?

vyle

QuackQuack wrote: »

I'd like to just add that I find it ironic we can buy 'fair trade' items so farmers of coffee, coco and cotton in far off places get a good deal on the one hand, but our supermarkets screw the bottom out of the UK farming industry on the other.

I wish Sainsbury's would get their prices down.

See the irony?

Love_A_Bargain

cheltenham_dude wrote: »

I have some praise for some of Sainsbury's non-healthy food;

1. Their frozen onion rings are the best tasting that I've had in 6 years (compared against most of the other big supermarket chains in the UK).
2. I really like their 'bakery' cookies (I know its supposed to be exactly the same mix as Tescos, but dammit! They just seem to taste better)/
3. On a (very slightly) more healthy note, they are the one major supermarket in my area that sells my favorite instant coffee, Clipper, in a 500g Jar for £4.99 each - most of the others sell it in 250g jars for £3.99 each.

I love their bakery cookies, its simply the best!

Sharon87

I mostly shop in Sainsburys, I never use to have ones local, but since shopping there I find I don't want to shop anywhere else for fresh stuff at least! I have a major Tesco round the corner, but would rather get the bus to the small-ish Sainsburys 1 mile away to get stuff.

I find Tesco/Asda cheap for branded items like jars of sauces and drinks.etc So I would only shop there for branded items. I've never really shopped in Tesco and when I went in there one to get some fruit I was shocked at the quality! It looked horrible, I never bought any in the end. I prefer Asda fresh stuff to Tesco, but still Sainsbury's beats them both in my opinion and their prices aren't that different for the stuff I buy.

I've never had a problem with stock levels in my Sainsburys, think their prices are reasonable and don't have problem with the checkouts (based on 3 stores I've regularly shopped at). But then again other stores can be different/worse/better. I'm using 3 London based Sainsburys.