Sainsbury

Intro: In 1896 two young persons met, married and started a small dairy store in their London home at Drury Lane. Mary Ann Staples then 19 when had grown up in her familys dairy business and John James Sainsbury than 25, who worked for a grocer and a hardware merchant. Their passion for highquality merchandise, order cleanliness and hard work, won the loyalty of the local people. Their standards were in contrast with the insanitary conditions at street vendors stalls and other small family-owned stores. In 1882 the couple opened a branch in Croydon. The store was built with advanced design and elegant materials. The walls, floor and counter front were all tiled. Seating for customers was made of bentwood chairs. The stores design and cleanliness was second to none at the time, which made it an instance success. It helped to attract valuable customers. The Sainsburys headquarters moved to Blackfriars in 1890. This location gave easy access to transportation and wholesale markets. Today, Sainsburys is one of the largest food retailers in the United Kingdom. It owns about 440 stores where some of the larger stores carry up to 23,000 products out of which 40% are Sainsburys own brand. Sainsburys also owns about 170 supermarkets in the United stores which operates under the name shows and Star Markets. Sainburys run an in-store bank which is a joint venture with the Bank of Scotland. Some of the facilities they provide include basic savings, accounts, bonds, personal loans and mortgages (ref.) Problem statement: Sainburys was the first retailer in UK to computerised its distribution. This was in 1961.