Yet another Sainsbury's

It seems the refurbishment of Friars House in Blackfriars Rd (just started) is to include three retail/restaurant spaces, two of which have already been taken by Sainsbury's and Costa or Pret. What a surprise!

It seems Sainsbury's are planning to close their one opposite Waterloo station now they have The Cut. This is just hearsay, mind.

This is going to devastate the trade of the Pronto cafe and what is known as the "green shop" on the corner of Webber/Blackfriars. A terrible shame but I suppose it was only a matter of time.

The supermarket juggernaut rolls on...

great, more places to not shop/drink coffee in.

Instead of all those small Sainsbury's on every street, which are useless to residents (well, this resident any way) I still regret that one big one that was supposed to be built near Blackfriars. There's an Itsu opening on Southwark Street as well. We are more and more turning into Victoria Street.

The Sainsburys on The Cut is also a bit rubbish and the self service is so surprised by my bag in the bagging area that it needs to call a member of staff everytime I put an item through, who is never around. Yes, we need more of these tiny stores that stock an amazing array of alcohol but not porridge.

the response should be to not shop in them or Tesco. Any store that has a bank of self serve tills and no-one at a counter to serve you clearly has no customer service ethos.

Hang on a minute. I was one of those who protested about the closure of the newsagents/kitchen shop/launderette on the Cut. Very bad news. But neither I nor anyone else could find a way of stopping it. I now fear for Lower Marsh, although more of the shops are owned by the shopowners.

The new Sainsburys on the Cut is a vast improvement on the one opposite Waterloo and as an OAP I can operate the self-service tills.

The problem is the planning laws and ownership, not Sainsburys or Tescos.
If you want to see how to do it, go to Marylebone High Street where a "nasty" landlord controlled access so chains were kept out and shops like Daunts could thrive.Enlightened self-interest, he owns all the flats around.

As with housing the answer has to be community action.

The Waterloo Quarter are now running the market at Lower Marsh and it might be worth giving them feedback on what we'd like to see. However they do seem committed to improving it to help both the market and the shops.

Also, I can work self service! They just don't like me.....

I do wish Lower Marsh wasn't continually referred to as a market. It's really nothing of the sought, just another row of stalls selling cooked food. Lower Marsh used to be a street market until it was gradually destroyed and the original traders forced out one by one. The market used to sell a huge variety of goods apart from food, eg: clothes, shoes, toys, toiletries, fabrics, wool, general household goods, CDs, small electrical items etc etc. There was also a good selection of vegetable stalls and fruit stalls - very useful for those of us who live in the area and who actually like to buy raw ingredients and cook them ourselves. Basically the stallholders are catering for workers and tourists, not residents. Before anyone tells me off(!), I don't have a problem with the cooked food stalls being there, I just wish we could have a proper mix of goods available rather than just food.

eDWaRD WooDWaRD wrote:

Instead of all those small Sainsbury's on every street, which are useless to residents (well, this resident any way) I still regret that one big one that was supposed to be built near Blackfriars. There's an Itsu opening on Southwark Street as well. We are more and more turning into Victoria Street.

Funnily enough, in the last couple of months Victoria Street has lost both its branches Sainsbury's due to redevelopment.

After years on having just the expensive Costcutters whose milk goes off immediately after opening for local shopping, I do welcome all the Sainsbury's. Happy with the one on the Cut, just refusing to use the self-service tills point blank. Hardly ever go to the local Tescos, they are so badly run after such a short time. Messy, dirty and just catering snacks for the students.