Hoping that Sainsbury’s Bell Green will sort out their queue so that it doesn’t take over the pavement and run right through all the people waiting at bus stops. Wonder why with weeks to observe this happening they haven’t organised it into their own massive car park.
Long term Sainsbury’s needs a pedestrian exit from the car park to the further bus stop. Many’s a time I’ve missed the 356 when laden with heavy shopping and trying to clamber over the railings in a hurry. When it’s the only bus home and only every half an hour that’s more than annoying. That’s defrosted ice cream. Plus sadly my knees tell me that my railing climbing days are numbered.
I was hoping that the competition from Aldi would focus their minds. But if this far into lock down they can’t even sort out a thoughtful and safe queuing system, not much chance.
Go to Aldi instead across the road, shorter queues, lower prices and a pretty decent range
Perhaps one answer is to give people a number as they arrive. There could be a big screen to display the next number to enter. Then everyone could disperse around until getting near the front of the queue.
Or just close off part of the car park to cars and mark out that car free section with floor tape or something to show where to stand. Then one route into store and one route out.
I’m shielding, so I’ve not been out lately. Maybe they’re already doing that and maybe the people by the bus stop are an overflow?
How is Aldi doing things?
It might help if half - if not all - of those queuing weren’t glued to their smart phones, thus rendering them completely unaware of what’s going on around them and how close they are to others.
They don’t seem to pro actively manage the queue. I’ve seen it inside the car park sometimes and by the bus stop other times. I’ve seen it circle around the car park sometimes, but today it double backed on itself. I think it’s decided by wherever the next person stands.
Once someone about 5 people on front of me somehow let a 50m gap open up as we were being admitted - the ‘bouncer’ didn’t even notice and let several people queue jump before he realised.
How can you allow a 50 metre gap grow in front of you? Let me guess: They were glued to their phone.
I wondered that, there was a quite slow paced elderly gent in front of the gap, but he wasn’t so slow that he wouldn’t have been able to keep up with the flow. Perhaps the person who was in front of him was engrossed in their phone, woke up and then sprinted to catch up leaving him in that position.
During the first week (maybe second) of the restrictions they did have staff monitoring the queue; ensuring people were staying 2 metres apart, and reminding families/couples/flatmates that it was only one person allowed thus giving them time to decide on who to send in, etc etc. They mapped out the queue so that it was in the car park not the bus station. It worked perfectly well, staff did a fabulous job.
Never encountered that beyond then and it’s been a shambles ever since. So many people have complained to head office about Sydenham Sainsbury’s, myself included. Nothing changes, except it gets worse. Security are beyond useless. I’ve seen them happily let a couple in, then turn away another couple in the same queue. During my last visit, security was so engrossed in talking to his pal he forgot he had a job to do. A member of the management team came out to see why there were no more shoppers coming in. He panicked, letting a ‘crowd’ in.
I’ve gone back to Forest Hill Sainsbury’s for my main shop (in conjunction with the smaller independent shops), only going to Bell Green if absolutely necessary. It’s better managed and the staff are pleasant. I incorrectly assumed that Bell Green being the larger of the two would have a better system in place.
Queuing at FH Sainsbury’s has been paradise in comparison to Sydenham and Dulwich. The latter at least is in the car park, then onto the road outside, avoiding bus stops.
FH has been the highlight of the lockdown, plenty in stock and at times products that I need have been there instead of the two nearby superstores. Staff are also polite and managing the queues well.
I agree. Before this we usually used the larger Sainsbury’s at Dog Kennel Hill (easier for us than Bell Green) but we have stuck to Forest Hill since lockdown. The queues are well managed, staff are friendly and well organised and they are doing well to keep the shelves stocked.
I hope all the staff get they appreciation the deserve.
Not sure of this helps but I had a click and collect from Sainsbury’s Bell Green this morning at around 10am. There was as far as I could see virtually no queue. I’m not sure if that was related to the freezing wind, or if it is more often less busy on Monday mornings but it might be a good time to try for those whose best place to go is Bell Green, and who can go on Mondays.
Edit to be clear I’m referring to the normal queue to get into Sainsburys as opposed to the click and collect queue.
I walked straight into Sainsbury’s FH this afternoon. Almost like a normal shop bar the social distancing for the tills.
I went to Sainsburys Bell Green today. No queue which i was initially delighted about but inside it was very busy inside with no social distancing or one way system. The queue for the check outs were along the aisles which meant you had to squeeze past people to get to the shelves - still poorly stocked as well. It was a shambles and it felt like people and staff seem to believe the virus has magically disappeared.
I went to Dulwich Dog Kennel Hill Sainsbury’s this afternoon. They’re still enforcing the queuing system, but only waited 15 mins.
Distance queuing outside Sainsbury FH today lunchtime. Glad to see they were taking into account number of customers in store.