Sainsbury’s chief people officer Prerana Issar has defended the grocer’s decision to shut its in-store cafes.

At the end of January, Sainsbury’s unveiled plans to close its remaining cafés, as well as its hot food counters, patisserie, and pizza counters, resulting in 3,000 jobs being cut.

Speaking at the Retail Technology Show 2025 today (1 April) Issar, who is also the grocer’s head of corporate affairs, said it “just didn’t make sense” to keep the cafes.

“Customers who are going to the café are not the customers shopping in our stores. Why are we spending money on a space that doesn’t actually result in customers shopping at Sainsbury’s?” she asked.

The supermarket will use the space to house more of its food ranges.

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Also speaking on the rise in retail crime, Issar said that Sainsbury’s reported 13,000 cases every day during 2023.

She said her experience of donning the supermarket’s maroon fleece during a one-time shift in stores left her shocked at the treatment of store employees from the public.

“I put on the fleece, I put on my badge, and I started stacking [shelves]…people were bumping into me, somebody yelled at me about why the price of coffee was going up.

“I was just so stunned by how, with that fleece, I became invisible. I became dehumanised, and people felt like they could treat me so badly. And this is just one day…it was quite shocking,” she added.