Sainsbury's can be found at the corner of the High Street and Palmerstone Road, where the latter is called Willow Walk. There has been a sainsbury's in walthamstow for at least a hundred years - in 1910 they were sited where the Windmill restaurant is now.

Those who have read my other blogs on this site will have noticed that I do not rate this store as highly as people might expect. This is not just because they have been known to engage in criminal activities like price rigging, because there are other local retailers like ASDA which do the same.

I do not wish to appear a hypocrite so must admit that I shop here regularly, but I do so selectively. I am quite clear when I do so that they do not always represent good value for money.

In a statement to the stock exchange on 8 October 2008, they tried to spin themselves as the consumer's friend:

Justin King, chief executive, said: ".. given the current environment shows how the strength and broad appeal of the Sainsbury's brand has improved substantially during the past four years. Like-for-like sales growth, excluding fuel, of 4.3 per cent over the summer quarter and 3.9 per cent for the first half, demonstrates that Sainsbury's universal offer is meeting our customers' expectations for great quality and excellent value. We continue to drive improvements throughout the business and our service measures demonstrate that we continue to do a great job for our customers.

"During the quarter we continued to develop our offer to help customers manage tighter budgets without the need to sacrifice food quality. Customers have responded well and transaction numbers continue to grow. We have continued to expand our own label 'basics' range, which has grown to 550 products, and we now offer a wider range of these products in more stores across the estate. We have also refocused our promotional offers with simple and effective deals and updated the look and feel of our stores with new point-of-sale materials which highlight key offers and promotions. Customers are cooking more for themselves and our successful 'Feed your Family for a Fiver' advertising campaign helps customers find great value, whilst maintaining food quality. Demand for our tip cards featuring meal ideas is currently up by 30 per cent and sales of simple meal ingredients have also shown strong growth.

"Customers are increasingly turning to own brand products and Sainsbury's product range has huge brand equity (1) with a long tradition and emphasis on quality and value for money. We regularly test our own brand products to ensure they match or beat the leading brand. Our recently introduced 'Switch and Save' campaign helps customers identify savings of at least 20 per cent by choosing the Sainsbury's equivalent own brand product.

"Our non-food ranges continue to drive strong sales growth. We now have nine flagship non-food stores with a wide range of Tu home and Tu clothing. During the quarter we extended 11 supermarkets and opened two new stores in Flint and Dartmouth, the UK's greenest store. We also opened five new convenience stores while completing the planned disposal of a further 26 of the 57 convenience stores announced for closure earlier in the year (2). Sales from our online operation grew by over 25 per cent in the quarter and it now operates from 165 stores.

"The economic environment remains particularly challenging and we expect this to continue throughout the second half, but we have developed the Sainsbury's offer to perform in these conditions. Sainsbury's is a robust business with a wide customer base and universal appeal and we are well positioned as we approach the important Christmas trading period."

The company also have some expert psychological techniques being employed to ensure the maximum spend they can from their customers. Despite the spin, (Sainsbury's Fresh Ideas Spring 2008 magazine had an article on page 92 suggesting shoppers should 'spend time researching prices on the High Street' ) they do not really believe in competition or passing on value to their customers. If they did, they would be either a lot, lot cheaper or they would have a much wider range of products to choose from. This is particularly so up the quality range. Preferably they could manage both. As Fresh Ideas says - 'Its a competitive market out there, and you can make significant savings'.

Instead, they only pretend to be truly competitive on price, while actually really only trying to match Tescos (the nearest one of any substance is miles away; their closest rival from the big four chains is ASDA), and since their refurbishment they seem to have fewer goods to chose from: Their delicatessen, meat and fish offers compare poorly when local alternatives such as Parson's, Terry's, High Quality Halal Meat, N&A Fishmongers, HMS Bazaar or even ASDA is considered. Where East and South East Asian foods are concerned, the offers are frankly an embarrassment compared to the riches of Orientex.

Where they are impressive is in their bakery, which the local ASDA is nothing like as good as. Here the range is impressive. But even this is not a place which can't be beaten on price and quality by competitors like the Turkish Shop, and niche bakeries, like Yildrim Bakery and Goldring's, opposite their entrance.

In the fruit and vegetable department, almost anybody can beat them on the market. The market nationally, appears to me to have been distorted by some of the activities of Sainsbury's staff, who have allegedly also enriched themselves by exploiting opportunities made possible by their business practices. In our local shop, the vegetable department was moved away from the entrance (the shopping psychologists thus trying to dissociate buying these items in their shop from the genuinely competitive 'market' experience outside). They hide the rotten nature of their deals by quoting their prices of otherwise similar items variably in imperial and metric measure or packaged to make it hard to make or recall a clear price comparison. They are most regularly exposed as failing to offer value by the Turkish shop, so a few comparisons I researched on March 2008:

                                                                        Turkish Shop             Sainsbury's

3 straight cucumbers,                                    ₤1                               ₤2.04 (++Up 9.7%)

tomatoes (on the vine)                    59p per lb (++Up 20%)                ₤7.16 per kilo (++Up 4%)

clementines                                        49p per lb (++Up 8%)                Was 90p per lb.

These are now sold by Sainsburys at 189p per  bag (18.6p per fruit) or, 249p per bag   (31.1p per fruit, buy one get one free).+     
                                                                                                   
3 iceberg lettuces                                          100p                              180p

*1 Kilo = 2.2046lb, 1lb = 0.4556 Kilos.
++Comparison with 16 Nov 2007 prices, recorded by Technomist.
+ Price comparison impossible without a Phd in mathematics and knowing how much an individual clementine weighed in Nov 2007.

The refurbished shop has expanded into household accessories, adult and kid's clothes, electrical, DIY, books, DVDs and even TVs.

Opinion is divided as to whether their poorly kept secret desires to move away to a site on the other site of the railway line from St James's Street to Walthamstow Central would be a good or a bad thing. At one level, I can see how they might want to move: they could have a bigger site away from the High Street. This would enable them to pretend to compete with ASDA and Tesco without their inability to compete on price or choice with the local market and shops being so obvious.

Sainsbury's could then rely on a combination of changed parking arrangements, sophisticated marketing, the psychological manipulation of people through their shops, consumer ignorance and inertia to keep their business going instead of improving their offers to the people of Walthamstow. The effect of such a move, unless regeneration plans are carried through very carefully, could gradually mean that footfall on the High Street would drop and many successful local businesses would suffer, as, ultimately, would consumers. The Council seem to like Sainsbury's,as they are a place people can be cajoled into paying their council tax.

[Updated 8 October 2008]