Sainsbury's target premises in Balsall Common village centre

I agree, it wouldn't be fair to the staff...it's the management that's the problem...so please lobby them on our behalf and get them to order enough of things we want, actually put them on the shelves and at a reasonable price!

Last time I was in there were three staff all filling the one section from one trolley having a great time chatting away - call me a miserable old ex superstore manager if you like, but I found it was more efficient to have three staff filling three different sections and getting on with the job of filling the shelves!

I am sure that good staff would be taken on by the next retailer in that location should the co-op close...it won't stay empty

raven2901 wrote:

alot of people seem quite thrilled by the idea tht the co op may close due to sainsbury's opening but what about the co op's employees i dont want to lose my job and i dont think its fair to hoping tht sainsbury's open and co op closes.

If the Co-op is really so good for its adovates then it will survive.

Everything should be done to help Sainsbury's land in Balsall Common. The Co-op evaluated on the basis of price, quality and service is just not up to mainline supermarket standards.

If you are even half way decent you will get a job in sainsburys anyway. In my experience the staff at the coop are sadly lacking in any sort of "customer care" skills and would rather chat to their mates. Easy money I reckon. If you want job satisfaction and recognition for your job, work at it. Good customer skills are VITAL in retail. You either look at it as a job -wage packet at the end of the week with no responsibility - or a career--with the hopeof advancement, being well thought of by your customers and colleagues --you make the choice.

covkimbo wrote:

If you are even half way decent you will get a job in sainsburys anyway. In my experience the staff at the coop are sadly lacking in any sort of "customer care" skills and would rather chat to their mates. Easy money I reckon. If you want job satisfaction and recognition for your job, work at it. Good customer skills are VITAL in retail. You either look at it as a job -wage packet at the end of the week with no responsibility - or a career--with the hopeof advancement, being well thought of by your customers and colleagues --you make the choice.

The Co-op ought to be training their staff. There has been no substantial improvement in years.

They may teach them the following:

- great your customers
- learn to converse - say please and thank you
- clean-up spillage and dirty quickly
- wear clean clothing - there is one man who stinks
- offer to help with packing
- don't do stupid things like ride up and down the isles on trollies
- help customers find stock immediately
- move aside when a customer wants to buy something

This is the worst shop for customer experience in the universe. It's like a Fawlty Towers of shops. No wonder they fear Sainsbury's.

[NeilC]

A bit harsh! that's not the coop i know.

How often do you go in? It certainly rings true to me. They're a right shower

[NeilC]

Still no building. there must some law about leaving buildings derilict in prime locations?

[CraigyB]

Just to keep folk in the picture ...

Solihull Council approved plans for the demolition of the existing building to be replaced by a 3 storey building comprising ground floor supermarket plus 14 private apartments (including residential parking to the rear):

http://www.solihull.gov.uk/planning/dc/ ... 56G455FG8R

The permission (granted 14 August 2008) states that development work must commence within 3 years of the date of the permission. So we could be looking those beutiful empty buildings for a while yet.

Hooray!