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[Ronski]

Update from Sainsbury's Chief Executive Mike Coupe
Dear Ron,

I’ve written to you regularly over the past few weeks as we adapt the way we work to keep our shelves full while keeping you and our colleagues safe. We continue to make changes in line with government guidelines and in response to feedback from you and our colleagues. I am writing today to tell you about measures we are taking to protect our customers and colleagues and to update you on our product availability and on how we continue to support our elderly and vulnerable customers.

Keeping our customers and colleagues safe

Keeping you and our colleagues safe is our number one priority. This week we have brought in further measures to help you keep a safe distance from other customers and from our colleagues when you are visiting our stores.

We have queuing systems in place outside stores and ask you to please queue at a safe distance of two metres apart. Please also try to keep a safe distance from other customers and from our colleagues when you are doing your shop. We have placed clear markings on shop floors to help you know what a safe distance is.

From today, we are asking everyone to please only send one adult per household to our shops. This helps us keep people a safe distance apart and also helps to reduce queues to get into stores. Our store teams will be asking groups with more than one adult to choose one adult to shop and will ask other adults to wait. Children are of course welcome if they are not able to stay at home.

To help keep our colleagues safe while serving customers, we now have screens at most manned checkouts. In the next few days we will have finished installing the screens across all manned checkouts in every supermarket, convenience store and Argos collection point.

Feeding the nation

We have been working hard with our suppliers to improve our product availability. Most people are now just buying what they need for themselves and their families. This means we now often have stock on the shelves all day and at the end of the day.

People have been queuing to get into our stores when they open in the mornings, but customers are now finding they can shop at any time of the day and feel confident in finding most of what they need.

As stock continues to build, we have been reviewing whether we still need to limit the number of items people buy. I am pleased to tell you that we will start to remove limits from Sunday. Limits will remain in place on the most popular items which include UHT milk, pasta and tinned tomatoes.

We have removed limits from Easter eggs immediately as we know families often want to buy more than three and we have plenty of these in all stores and online.

Supporting elderly and vulnerable customers

We are continuing to prioritise elderly and vulnerable customers for online delivery slots and our customer Careline has helped 170,000 customers, who will now get priority access to online delivery. In total, we have offered priority booking to more than 450,000 elderly or vulnerable customers. I apologise to customers who have been struggling to get through to our online team. The team is working at full capacity and we are doing our very best to get to people as quickly as possible.

We are expanding our groceries online service as much and as quickly as we can. Two weeks ago we had 370,000 online grocery slots available. By the end of next week we will have increased this to 600,000 across home delivery and click and collect and we will continue to add more capacity over the coming weeks.

Supporting our colleagues

Our colleagues really are doing a remarkable job. I have been into a number of stores over the past few days and have been struck by their dedication and their determination to do the best job for our customers. These are very uncertain times and our colleagues really are on the frontline.

We are doing everything we can to keep our colleagues safe and this includes supporting them if they need to self-isolate. Where colleagues are considered vulnerable, we are paying them in full for the recommended 12 weeks self-isolation, including colleagues who live with extremely vulnerable family members who the government has asked to shield for 12 weeks. I am personally committed to ensuring the safety of our colleagues and we will continue to do the right thing to protect them throughout this time.

I have been delighted to see that customers have told us they think colleague friendliness is at an all-time high at the moment. I think this is real testament both to the hard work of our colleagues and also the fantastic recognition they are getting for the vital role they are playing throughout this crisis. Thank you for treating our colleagues with the respect and kindness they deserve. They really are doing their best to serve our customers well in these challenging times.

Best wishes

Mike

[Alex Atkin UK]

We are continuing to prioritise elderly and vulnerable customers for online delivery slots and our customer Careline has helped 170,000 customers

Good for them, mum has tried many times to register as vulnerable with Sainsburys and the careline every single time has said "we're too busy, call back later". 

We haven't been able to get another food delivery booked until the 8th and that was Ocado.

[sevenlayermuddle]

Good for them, mum has tried many times to register as vulnerable with Sainsburys and the careline every single time has said "we're too busy, call back later". 

We haven't been able to get another food delivery booked until the 8th and that was Ocado.

Waitrose have been doing the same, they've actually been allowed to access Govt databases of the officially vulnerable, and only those people on the database get delivery slots.  But it seems flawed to me, as people who are sick may not be elderly and vulnerable, yet it is even more important for them to fully isolate when you are sick,  and definitely avoid shopping.

We did have one further delivery from Waitrose, which was ordered before the cutoff.  I asked the driver what I should do if I became sick, to obtain further deliveries.  His best answer was that I should 'call customer service'.   Fat chance of that getting us anywhere, with call centres overwhelmed and hours of queuing. 

[roseway]

It seems that "officially vulnerable" means everyone over 70 as well as those with serious medical conditions. I'm not in the "shielding" category but I am over 70 (it was my 75th birthday yesterday) and a whole lot of new slots have just become available at Waitrose.

[sevenlayermuddle]

No Waitrose slots showing for me, but I’ll wait and watch.

I’ve a Tesco delivery tomorrow, then another in nearly three weeks.   It’s a challenge, but I think if I’m plan carefully I probably can order enough to last three weeks and, just as challenging, to not let anything go to waste.

If I it works then in three weeks I can do it again, seeing me through til early May, by which time - who knows - we might be relaxing a little.

[Bowdon]

It seems that "officially vulnerable" means everyone over 70 as well as those with serious medical conditions. I'm not in the "shielding" category but I am over 70 (it was my 75th birthday yesterday) and a whole lot of new slots have just become available at Waitrose.

https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus-extremely-vulnerable

Please go to that website and fill out the form.

I'm in the vulnerable group, got the letter a couple of weeks ago. I still had to go to that site to fill out the form.

[vic0239]

I’ve a Tesco delivery tomorrow, then another in nearly three weeks.

I sat up until midnight logged onto Tesco refreshing the book a slot page. Just before midnight, I joined a queue. 20 minutes later the screen refreshed and low the slots for 23rd April became available. None were available when I checked in the morning.

[vic0239]

https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus-extremely-vulnerable

Please go to that website and fill out the form.

I'm in the vulnerable group, got the letter a couple of weeks ago. I still had to go to that site to fill out the form.

Just for England though. An elderly friend just out of hospital and in the most vulnerable group tried to register and only at the end of the process was informed “no’! Can’t see how the supermarkets can fairly allocate slots on that basis.

[roseway]

@Bowden: Thank you for your advice, but I don't qualify for (or need) that support. There are lots of other people who do need it.

[sevenlayermuddle]

Another problem with prioritising  elderly is, and this is fact not ageism...   not all, but many, are insufficiently computer literate to benefit from it.

I just called our neighbours, aged 80 something and 90 something, the latter not long out of hospital.   Pleased to say they accepted my offer to add quite a few things to my own delivery basket for tomorrow.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Another problem with prioritising  elderly is, and this is fact not ageism...   not all, but many, are insufficiently computer literate to benefit from it.

I just called our neighbours, aged 80 something and 90 something, the latter not long out of hospital.   Pleased to say they accepted my offer to add quite a few things to my own delivery basket for tomorrow.

Not just that, my mums ex has had prostate cancer and a heart attack so clearly at risk, but he is also completely adverse to using computers.

Its not necessarily that he can't, he just outright refuses to as he sees people getting obsessed with being online and doesn't want to "be like them".

It wouldn't even cost him anything, I already beam my WiFi across there and could easily donate him a computer, but he won't even use iPlayer built-into his TV.

[sevenlayermuddle]

I just called our neighbours, aged 80 something and 90 something, the latter not long out of hospital.   Pleased to say they accepted my offer to add quite a few things to my own delivery basket for tomorrow.

And this really cheers me up, they just rang back, with more requests for tomorrow’s basket.   They have a daughter in the next village but she is a care worker with her own issues, great to feel that we might be helping out.

Tesco have an overall limit of 80 items but that’s fine, we’re not even close.

[g3uiss]

(it was my 75th birthday yesterday)

So great happy birthday. I’m over 70, but no other problems.

[sevenlayermuddle]

it was my 75th birthday yesterday

Sorry Eric, missed that in my earlier reply.  I hope you were able to find sources of cheerfulness, hard as that may be.

I’ll share an amusing anecdote of my own, also yesterday.  A large white van manoeuvred into the driveway.  It was painted with “medical logistics” on the sides.   He was delivering beer.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Sorry Eric, missed that in my earlier reply.  I hope you were able to find sources of cheerfulness, hard as that may be.

I’ll share an amusing anecdote of my own, also yesterday.  A large white van manoeuvred into the driveway.  It was painted with “medical logistics” on the sides.   He was delivering beer.

One of the few things my mum DID manage to get delivered was a bottle of Whisky. 

So not all essentials are out of stock.