Forest Hill Sainsburys going down hill

Anyone else notice that Sainsbury corp seems to have given up on Forest Hill? I’ve seen sieves that protect you more from the rain, less gone off food in skips and more staff in closed businesses

It’s been in decline for a while, see the previous topic: The Deterioration of Bell Green Sainsbury’s

Since then there have been some changes with Argos and the introduction of self-scan, and perhaps competition from Aldi will help?

A merger with Asda was also blocked back in April this year, which may have renewed business perspective.

I think he is talking about the Forest Hill branch.

I popped in on Saturday (I live on Elsinore so don’t often go in) and it was notably under staffed. People in front of me (who I think were tourists or visiting the area) couldn’t believe that ‘ a massive supermarket in London didn’t have people on the tils’

Although the OP was talking about Forest Hill Sainsburys, I think that the decline is endemic across all stores (leastways it’s certainly the case at Bell Green, which is the one I use the most).

More and more often, I’m told that groceries that I regularly buy are “currently out of stock” and fresh fruit on display is increasingly bruised or rotten.

The aisles are permanently littered with trolleys being used to pick orders for home delivery, and the staff seem fewer on the ground every time I visit.

IMHO the Sainsburys corporate strategy is to oversee a managed decline of the large supermarkets in favour of the smaller Local stores and home delivery - fewer staff, cheaper overheads.

I went into the Sainsburys Local in Catford this week and there were no staff visible until one came out of the staff room.

I think since the merger with Asda was kyboshed, the senior managment seem to have run-out of ideas.

The only game in town for these overpaid fat-cats is growth through mergers & aquisitions. They seem to have forgotten how to organically grow businesses as it doesn’t produce enough shareholder value on it’s own.

The new kids on the block; Lidl & Aldi seem to have kept that passion and are hungrier for market share, with fresh angles and ideas.

It depresses me to go into Sainsbury’s these days with all the empty shelves.

This may go some way in answering the question regarding the FH branch:
Dominant Greater London Food Store Investment

Not wishing to be contradictory but my experience with FH Sainsbury’s is quite different. I should say I’m not a weekly user, but each time I’ve gone in they seem to pretty much have everything I need or want. And I’ve always found the staff really helpful… whether it was checking on an item, or at the check-outs. For me, their staff are a heck of lot friendlier than the Coop near by.

That said, I do see a world of difference from that brand to the Bell Green one which I try to avoid.

Other half was in there a week ago and thought how fresh it looked.

I’m assuming the other half was standing under a leak and it reminded her of a fresh summers day by the waterfalls.

I tend to use the Dog Kennel Hill one which is bigger, well stocked and better run (apart from the other Saturday when there was so little fruit and veg in stock I thought a no deal Brexit had happened and I hadn’t realised!)

Interesting read - but that is just the freehold sale, it shouldn’t make any difference to Sainsburys - other than they should be suing for non-repaired externals.
“Extremely limited local competition” I think is the real reason they don’t care. They don’t need to! Shame Morrisons pulled out of the Local market and didn’t move into Peacocks

I think there has been a decline at the Sainsburys FH. I used to think it had the best staff of pretty much any supermarket I had ever been to - so much so that I once wrote to the manager to praise the staff. I particularly loved the fact that they seemed to intentionally employ a lot of older staff on checkout, many of whom I believe were past standard 65 retirment age. They really seemed to make an effort and take pride in their work and it was a pleasure to chat to them at the till. Sadly, once the opened the automated checkout area I assume they significantly reduced human checkout hours and there has been a noticeable increase in queuing time and a decline in the friendly community atmosphere that once existed.

I was at Bell Green last Sunday and had the same thought, re: Brexit deal and fruit and veg availability.

Can we avoid any politics please.

I would assume not. I remember Sainsbury’s FH in 2001 as being a tip. I don’t think it has reverted to that but it may have done since I was there on the 22nd June this year.

I totally agree I adore the older staff members at sainos Janet and David especially.
They make shopping there a really pleasant experience.
Personally I never use the auto checkouts as I feel the more they get used the less jobs we’ll see for unskilled workers in our supermarkets.
I often thought our Sainsburys was pretty good and actually much better than my old local sainsburys Superstore on Ladbroke grove which was rubbish for anything other than Frozen food
However went to our branch yesterday it did seem less well stocked than usual with lots of empty shelves and empty gaps in the fruit and veg
Bell Green I went to once and that was awful !

Not sure what the play is here, either it’s a very long game or it’s not going very well!

any idea what ‘investments in large beauty areas’ are?

Looks like a big bath to me.

Like I said earlier I think they’re out of ideas. Even if you take the one-off costs of the Argos re-alignment out of the equation, profits have fallen 15%.

Working at Sainsbury’s was my first job as a student and I have fond memories of the company and it’s forward thinking culture (at the time).

How can the single-minded vision or ‘moon-shot’ of ‘increasing shareholder value’ really inspire and drive the kind of ideas, passion and culture needed by individuals, in any sector let alone food retail, to make it a success.

Price investment has driven the the operating profit number down. This is to keep pace with the the discounters to effectively match them on price giving customers less reason to want to shop elsewhere. Given that Aldi and Lidl are not ‘required’ to generate any profit in the UK, it makes for a tough challenge for the big four to keep up. Great for consumers but bad for the industry and jobs in the longer term.

Presumably areas in store that sell fragrances, makeup and personal care products (often also suitable for Christmas gifts )

On first reading I was thinking along the lines of ‘areas of natural beauty’ e.g. the Lake District too, if that’s what you were thinking! It’s funny how different industries have different terminology.

A big bath looks about right though.

Presumably areas in store that sell fragrances, makeup and personal care products (often also suitable for Christmas gifts )

Shows where the bigger profits are.

Yep. The big Sainsbury’s on Dog Kennel Hill has recently revamped its cosmetic and beauty aisles to include a lot more high end stuff.

The big Sainsbury’s in East Dulwich has also gone down hill,

There’s a documentary series which goes behind the series at Sainsbury’s called Inside the Supermarket on BBC1 on Thursdays at 8pm. The first episode which is on BBC iPlayer went behind the scenes with the so-called Flower Team who attempted to introduce a high-end Mothers Day bouquet with a vase for £35. It tanked of course.

It also gives us as customers an insight into why the company is so dire at the moment, there are people on the payroll who are there looking at how everything is designed, but no real actual proper retail knowledge, while shop floor staff have poor morale.

What I notice regularly at Bell Green Sainsburys is how often customers are stopped as they leave the store that security guards can rummage through their bags to check for stolen goods. This is not due to customers trying to steal, but instead because the security tag has been left on. This leaves the customer feeling highly embarrassed that passing customers believe her/him to be a suspected thief. Its time this awful state of affairs ended? and it’s interesting that such false stops seldom happen in either Lidl’s or Aldi’s.

As far as I’m aware, Lidl don’t tag high value goods. Sainsbury’s and ASDA do and I’ve been caught at ASDA a couple of times. I could tell you why the alarms go off at Sainsbury’s but that might play into the hands of potential shoplifters so I won’t.

I have scrolled through some of these posts! Some positive, many negative. These supermarkets are going hammer & tongs to deliver standards at the best of their ability. As I see it we’re all in the same boat- sailing without a soar. Don’t vilify supermarkets or their workers. Yes, maybe it’s not the experience you crave for but people are getting put out of jobs daily & you’re concerned that you’re supermarket experience is not great- please gain perspective.

Hashtag my grammar was not great in the last post but felt passionate that we need to support one another- my goodness if we don’t we’ll all fall down

I think little Forest Hill Sainsbury’s had been great in all this. I would prefer it if the minority still not wearing masks were clamped down on but generally it is great

all but one of the posts were written before covid.

To be fair, this topic was started in November 2019, before the pandemic was known about and when the situation was a lot different to the present day.

I so agree! I have two children and to be honest I won’t take them to supermarkets. I’ve not been there for a while but masks should be mandatory-surely? If not then we need to question this

Thank you moderator for flagging that many posts were pre Covid. Fortunately, I have retained my job but just wanted to highlight potential difficulties within the retail/supermarket sector so just want to remain positive

I haven’t been in person to either for a while but my view was always that the FH branch was better run that the Bell Green one. The range is smaller at FH but availability was better and the staff friendlier. Bell green has a bigger range but was not well run in my view. Not been to either recently so things could have changed.

I realised I was responding to older posts and based on my pre covid experience of the two stores.

I 100% agree that the retail workers are heroes of the Covid situation. I used to work for sainsburys (hence my interest in how the stores are run!) and I’m so proud of how all workers have kept going through out.

I remember going to FH sainsburys at the start of the pandemic In the ‘panic but’ time, when customers were stripping the shelves faster than locusts. seeing the staff desperately trying to do a full replen while the store was open , had I not been at the time a key worker who needed to get back to work I honestly would have just asked them to give me a pallet of stuff to get out!

Pretty certain Sainsburys has made it a mandatory requirement now, whereas before, it was optional. I noticed a difference when I was in there yesterday - don’t think I saw a single mask-less person which was a stark difference from the week before.