Sainsbury's

The Sainsbury’s in Southend is small for a supermarket but it does have a wide range of food and take away foods. It is the only supermarket located in the town centre and this offers a reasonably priced nice food with mainly helpful and friendly staff. I would recommend going in the morning or evening as it can get very very busy but overall its good!

It might be because I’m a northerner that I found the staff member who served me in here to be somewhat less than friendly. It was a beautiful sunny day, and I had to visit a client down the road so admittedly I just wanted some change for the parking machine. I wandered around for a bit wondering what to by that would give me a good return on the 'change for a tenner’ front and opted for some generic organic smoothie thing. When I asked the till lady for my change in pound coins she sighed, gave me a right nasty look and reluctantly counted out the change, one coin at a time. Even though I was super polite and friendly and cheery and all 'I’m sorry to be a pain, thank you very much please thank you’.

Ah well. Other than that, the shop was well stocked, the car park offered up to 2 hours free parking (not enough for me) for customers, and it was bright and nice enough.

Good selection of fresh sandwiches so great for a quick lunch if you work in town. Much better since the facelift, has a hot food counter (yummy chicken!) and the layout is much better. There is a pharmacy and they also have self checkout tills (not always faster tho!).

Offering free parking for customers, this shop is fairly decent, though it does have some short-comings.

Their prices are cheap, and they’re pretty much always stocked with everything they’ve got, including their special offers, (though the bakery may be sold out of some products during the baking process).

As mentioned, there is an in-store bakery, and there really is nothing like a freshly baked cake in your stomach to make you feel good, so if you get there just right, it can really make your day.

The staff are always polite and helpful, and the store features the self-service tills which are not as tough to operate as people make out them to be, (only had one item fail to scan once, and it re-scanned on the second time properly).

The store also features a pharmacist, though unfortunatly, no petrol facilities.

Although their stock of media-based entertainment is a bit limited, it is fairly comprehensive, stocking the top 10 of all CD’s, DVD’s and games on all formats.

My one gripe is the lighting in the toilets, which is a very weird blue tint; as an Epileptic, certain lighting can cause me to become very dizzy, (even though I’m not photo-sensitive, some Epileptics are), and I feel this is an issue that possibly needs to be addressed, also, there are CCTV cameras in the toilets, which whilst I can understand they’re protecting their property, this is an invasion of privacy; the last thing I want is some security guard looking at my goods, (and I’m not talking about shop-bought goods here), further to this, I can understand if women feel even more vulnurable about this.

The Sainsbury’s in Southend is quite small for a supermarket but it does have a wide range of food. There is a nice salad/fruit bar which is good for lunches. It is also the only supermarket in the town centre so it is convenient to walk to, or to pop in on the way home. It is very busy in the daytime though and I don’t believe it stays open very late.

Not the widest selection available but everything is generally instock and well rotated. Have found it to be overpriced compared with other supermarkets and the special offers don’t generally seem to be anything special (again compared with other supermarkets). The minimum age to work in this store is 15 years and three months and you can tell by the amount of young people they have working there. Parking is awkward and drivers seem to ignore the zebra crossing they have in there. Limited spaces but have another level which is not ideal if your car doesn’t like hills as this one is intense! Staff are nice enough but it is rare that you seem them. The store hasn’t been merchandised very well and can be confusing to new customers.

Good Sainsbury’s. Bigger than you think from the outside. Good selection. Bit of a pain to get to when Southnd is busy as very near Town centre. Can park for free is spend more than a fiver. Often has special offers and Jamie Oliver!

This store is quite a large example of a Sansburys store, and as well as food, stocks a wide range of entertainment and has a slightly smaller home-wears department. Unfortunately it does not stock the popular line of Tu clothing that some of the largest Sainsburys do, nor does it have a cafe which would have been a nice feature. Sainsburys is very conveniently located if you are coming from the high street and want to pick up some snacks to eat a the nearby Odeon! Parking is situated inside, and you need to pay 50p for an hour, but this will be refunded when you spend over £5.

a nice sized supermarket, which is well laid out makin git easy to find what you need.

ample parking facilities, and plenty of trollies which makes life that bit easier when you are shopping on a saturday!

staff are always courteous, well presented and seem happy and friendly, always with a smile on their faces, which makes it seem a nicer place to shop.

good quality foods at reasonable prices, particularly when they have offers and promotions.

i find the staff are friendly and helpful, getting you items you have forgotton when you are queuing at checkouts, and they do their best to open up a new checkout if your queue is quite long too.

a wide range of prducts on offer, with many surpirsing finds that are good value too.

great deals, plenty of room to get around the store, well laid out and the pharmacy is an added bonus.