Sunday, March 16, 2008

Secret Sainsbury's - and a petty whinge about signage

Problem with the Sainsbury's fuel prices?

Secret Sainsbury's at Holywood Exchange (the store that nearly closed waiting for Ikea to arrive) has been undergoing a refit over the last month or so. Lots of shuffling around of shelves and freezers, adding more clothes and electrical items, and changing the in-store and uniform branding from blue/orange to purple/orange.

It's had its ups and downs.

The cafe closed for a week - without anyone changing the what's-being-done-this-week sign outside the store - cue tears from a disappointed three year old whose brand loyalty to Sainsbury's is far above that of Tesco).

Dust under sofa in Sainsbury's cafe

The cafe's now reopened, though the sofas have been moved away from the quiet corner, and the pictures from the Shorts Camera Club have been removed. They closed the cafe at 5pm today - despite the cafe's opening hours sign saying 6pm for Sundays. And the builders didn't quite clear away all their dust before they moved offsite.

Sainsbury's Plastic Bag Tree

Belfast Lough's foreshore is windy, and the branches of trees soon fill up with plastic bags.

Sainsbury's Plastic Bag Tree

Driving around the car park is a visual nightmare. There are now so many lines and pictograms marked on the tarmac, that it's quite distracting. They've also shuffled the Disabled and With-Small-Children parking spaces around, taking down a lot of the upright (easy-to-see signs) and leaving drivers looking down to squint at the markings in the actual spaces. An accident waiting to happen. And there seem to be a fewer Child spaces than before.

Sainsbury's Fuel Sign problems

The petrol forecourt got a makeover too ... though on Saturday, the Chancellor had either had a massive impact on the price of fuel, or Sainsbury's were having a few problems with the new digital display!

6 comments:

Stephen Barnes said...

Could it be that someone was hankering after their childhood by trying to make words appear on a huge calculator display.

I think 71077345 wouldn't go down too well, but maybe 5318008 will appear for a laugh.

Alan in Belfast (Alan Meban) said...

The wonders of calculator writing ...

Ruth Strong said...

I love that Laura has loyalty to Sainsburys!!! I only wish I had discovered the joys of Sainsburys sooner.

Shame they've not kept to their good standards during the revamp.....

... I was in getting petrol one day during it all and had forgot my card and had no cash, so was given a form and told to come back within a week. I said I'm not in the area very often what with living in Dromore and all that so would Wednesday or Thursday be OK. The MANAGER OF THE GARAGE said it was fine and that he looked forward to seeing me again (well duh!).
I went up on Wednesday to find the garage shut down, I went into the store and was left waiting for half an hour while the staff tried to find this guy. When he did turn up he saw me and said "oh yes the garage is closed!!! I should have told you!" Hmmmmmmm Grrrrrrrrrrrr. I should have got that petrol for free for all that! lol

Anonymous said...

I have no complaints about the Secret Sainsbury's filling station staff. Last week when I was at Esporta, one of the trainers came up to me and told me that my wife had rung and was stuck at Sainsbury's as she was locked out of her car. I drove across (still in gym gear) and found that she had been taken in by the filling station staff who had let her wait in the back of the shop and ring me, her mum and her car dealer to try to sort it out.

Curiously, the reason she was locked out was because the remote locking wouldn't work: the battery on the key must have died. I suggested, not without sarcasm, that she could always just put the key in the lock and open the door that way ... but it turns out her 2007 Nissan Micra has no keyholes in the doors or boot! I was flabbergasted. Can there be any reason for this other than rampant cost-cutting?

Alan in Belfast (Alan Meban) said...

Ruth - and the Sainsbury's Chief Executive has just traded in his car for a Lexus hybrid. (Tokenism, but consistent with his brand's message.)

Anonymous said...

The guys were testing the sign with random numbers on the keypad to make sure no LEDs were out and that all digits could be displayed. Best time is when they put 1111 2222 on the display and some old dude comes in thinking that diesel is two quid!