Comment: Sainsbury’s - a runner, not a splurger

Little and often, rather than the store design equivalent of binge drinking, is what has made Sainsbury’s a winner under Justin King.

Reading all of the press last week about the forthcoming departure of King from Sainsbury’s and the anointing of his successor, it was hard not to reflect on what has been a remarkable period of stability as far as the stores are concerned.

This has been a retailer that is not flashy, does not overclaim and certainly is not in the business of touting itself as a value merchant. It is in fact solid, dependable, likable and friendly, if a few adjectives had to be chosen that would denote what shoppers feel about it and, possibly about the stores themselves.

Yet there is always the danger that with reliability and consistency comes a sense of the plodding. This too has been avoided and whether 2103’s new look convenience interior in Cobham or the many point of sale changes made to the bigger stores over the last 12 months are considered, forward movement has been a character trait.

Indeed, while others in the sector faltered somewhat over the last five years only to apply the foot to the design accelerator pedal, Sainsbury’s has been refining, redefining and building upon what it has during the whole of the period.

An outside observer might at this point be inclined to remark that that’s what any decent retailer should do as a matter of course and naturally this would be correct. Yet a quick scan at the major grocery players reveals that the only one that has just kept on keeping on is probably Waitrose and it too has been rewarded by its customers: old and new.

Investing in keeping stores up to scratch is something that should be a given, but all too frequently things are allowed to run along as they are on a kind of make do and mend basis. This works too, for a while, but eventually shoppers begin to taste and feel the difference between the runners and the also-rans.

King has certainly done a lot for Sainsbury’s in his time, but one of the things that ought to be considered is just how good the stores have become, almost by default. The net effect of continuous investment has been far greater than the occasional splurge that some others appear to make their modus operandi.