MESSAGE FROM SAINSBURY'S
Dear Mr Blunt,
I am getting in touch to share the steps we are taking to support our customers and colleagues through these challenging times. I also wanted to use this opportunity to convey to you how extremely hard our colleagues in stores, depots, logistics and online deliveries are working to do their best to feed the nation in unprecedented circumstances.
This is an incredibly fast-moving situation and we are keeping all of our policies under review, but outlined in this email are the steps we have already taken. I have also included answers to some of the frequently asked questions that we are receiving from our customers which I encourage you to review and share with your constituents. We have received a number of queries from your parliamentary colleagues as well and I hope this information can help you serve your constituents through this difficult time.
Keeping our colleagues and customers safe
In line with guidance from Public Health England we are focused on protecting our colleagues and customers and have recently updated our social distancing measures. This includes limiting the number of people allowed in our stores and at our ATMs at any one time; queuing systems in place outside stores where we are asking customers to queue at a safe distance of two metres; and reminding people in stores to keep a safe distance from other customers and from our colleagues.
We will also be reducing the number of checkouts we open in supermarkets, convenience stores and petrol filling stations to help our colleagues and customers keep a safe distance from each other. We are introducing safety screens at every manned checkout to help keep our colleagues safe when serving customers and will be asking customers buying petrol to pay at the pump where they can. We are regularly sanitising our stores and equipment, including chip and pin machines, baskets and trolleys.
We are also encouraging payments by card where possible and the use of both self-scan tills and our SmartShop app which allows customers to scan and put products straight in their bag before paying at a special till. This means less interaction with other customers and colleagues and less time queuing to pay.
Supporting elderly and vulnerable customers
Over the last week we have introduced measures to support vulnerable, elderly and disabled customers and their carers with priority access to essential items in our stores. This includes dedicated shopping hours for these customers, reserved online delivery slots (where possible) and an expanded ‘click and collect’ service in our car parks. We have also taken the decision to give priority access to NHS and social care workers to shop in our supermarkets before they open to the general public each day as we think it is extremely important that we are able to offer shopping to all the NHS staff across the country who are working so hard to keep us safe.
A large number of MPs have written to us reporting elderly or vulnerable customers who are struggling to book online delivery slots. We are doing our absolute best to offer them online delivery slots and they are being given priority. However, it is important to note we are dealing with unprecedented demand: our customer Careline has been inundated with requests from elderly and vulnerable customers and we have had one year’s worth of contacts in just two weeks.
We have proactively contacted 270,000 customers who had already given us information that meant we could identify them as being in these groups. Our customer Careline is working at full capacity to help other customers within these groups and we are able to give an additional 8,000 customers a day access to delivery slots over the phone. We have already booked in slots for 115,000 elderly, disabled and vulnerable customers this week and this number is growing every day.
However, I must advise you that though we are working hard to increase our online capacity and we are adding more slots in every day, it is simply not possible for us to create enough slots to meet the current level of demand. Other options need to be explored in delivering food direct to peoples’ homes.
The Government is giving us access to a database that identifies the most vulnerable people. We will prioritise this group so they can access home delivery slots. I would encourage your constituents who are extremely vulnerable and not able to get through to Sainsbury’s to register at the following website if they live in England: https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus-extremely-vulnerable.
We are also working closely with devolved governments in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and expect there to be a government database for vulnerable people living in these parts of the country to register with imminently. We also continue to prioritise elderly, vulnerable and disabled customers living throughout the UK for online delivery slots through our customer Careline.
Supporting our colleagues
The dedication and commitment of our store, depot and customer service colleagues has been extraordinary and appreciated by so many of our customers. As a thank you for all their efforts, we will be giving colleagues a bonus payment of 10% of the hours they have worked since March 8th. This will be awarded to them in May.
We have also set out our policy towards vulnerable colleagues and those that need to self-isolate for the recommended 12 weeks will receive their basic pay in full, alongside those that are required to self-isolate for the recommended 14 days as per Government guidance.
Yours sincerely,
Richard Casofsky | Head of Public Affairs