Sainsbury’s boss Simon Roberts has said that short-on-time shoppers have turned their back on the discounters and are opting to shop with larger range retailers so they can do their grocery shop in one fell swoop.
In an interview with the Telegraph, Roberts said: ““[During the pandemic] customers would have come to us for some products and they might have gone to one of the limited-choice discounters for others. Now there’s a lot more on for people. There’s been this return to the office and, especially around Christmas, we’re all short of time.”
Shoppers are “busy trying to manage a family, get to work, get the kids from school, get back in time,” he added.
The grocer has a muc larger range than the limited-choice discounters, with Sainsbury’s stocking 40,000 products in comparison to Aldi’s 2,000.
“We’re seeing customers doing trolleys with more products in more regularly. That’s quite a shift from where we were three years ago,” said Roberts.
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Last month, Sainsbury’s delivered its strongest growth in market share in a decade, growing by 0.4 percentage points to 15.6%, driven by a 10.2% increase in sales.
Roberts attributed much of this growth to its Nectar loyalty card scheme, which was relaunched earlier this year – now rivalling Tesco’s Clubcard prices.
He added that the scheme had increased by 20% since its overhaul in April, with 3m new users, taking its total to 18m members.
“They want to be able to access the best deals. It’s all about giving customers the best value.”
In response to recent surveys from consumer good Which? about the prices of Sainsbury’s products, Roberts added: “[it is not right] to look at this through the lens of, what about the people that don’t spend with Nectar Prices? Because, the vast majority do – they can see the value”.
