Sometimes it does not take much for the impression of a whole organisation to be let down by a single member of staff. Today was such a day.
Whilst we were out and about today, we needed to call to a supermarket for some odds and ends. As we were nearby Sainsbury’s in Denton, Greater Manchester, we decided to pull in and grab the shopping.
Before going in, we thought it would be a good idea to have a quick hot snack at the in-store cafe. It was 3:15pm and the store is open until 4pm but we were reassured by signage that stated the Cafe is open until 3:30pm.
So we grabbed a tray and got a beverage each and headed to the till where you order your food and pay the bill. There was Mrs Fidget, our two boys aged 4 and 8 and myself.
Looking at the menu behing the girl manning the till I carefully read out each option to the boys so they could choose what they wanted.
It took a minute or two for them to make their minds up and the girl at the till waited patiently smiling at us whilst we chose.
So, we all decided on the food we were ordering and when i relayed it to her she replied “I’m sorry, we are not serving food now”.
She had stood there watching and listening to me get the boys to decide what they wanted, knowing full well we would not be able to order it!
The Sainsbury’s website confirms the opening times and there are no warning that food is not available after a certain time – only that it’s only available after 11:30am. I asked for clarification on what time they stop serving food and all she said was “the cafe closes at 3:30pm for everything, we stop serving food earlier.”
We were still expected to pay over £4 for the four drinks we had dispensed with the intention of accompanying the food.
I’ve been a loyal customer of Sainsbury’s for many years and on the whole the service is generally good but today’s experience was really really poor.
