Sainsbury's introduces shopping hour for older customers and limits on all food items
New changes in Sainsbury's stores help customers during coronavirus crisis
18th March 2020 11:55
by Brean Horne from interactive investor
New changes in Sainsbury's stores help customers during coronavirus crisis
Supermarket giant, Sainsbury's, will introduce new measures to support elderly and vulnerable customers during the coronavirus outbreak.
On 19 March, Sainsbury's will reserve the first hour in every store for elderly and vulnerable customers.
Chief executive of the supermarket, Mike Coupe, hopes the change will "help those that need it the most."
Sainsbury's will also close its cafes and pizza counters in addition to its meat and fish counters.
The change aims to free up warehouse and lorry capacity for products that customers really need.
It also hopes to allow store workers to focus on "keeping the shelves as well stocked as possible."
From Monday 23 March, elderly and vulnerable customers will get priority access to online food delivery slots.
Customers eligible for priority access will be contacted in the coming days with more details.
Sainsbury's will also be expanding its "click and collect" across its stores.
Customers will be able to place their order online as usual and pick it up from a collection point in the store car park.
To further ensure that there is enough stock available for all shoppers, Sainsbury's will expand the limit it has put on the number of products an individual could buy.
From 18 March, customers will only be able to buy a maximum of three of any grocery product and a maximum of two of the most popular products.
This includes toilet paper, soap and UHT milk.
"We have enough food coming into the system, but are limiting sales so that it stays on shelves for longer and can be enough by a larger number of customers," says Coupe.
This article was originally published in our sister magazine Moneywise, which ceased publication in August 2020.
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