In its continuing attempt to staunch its losses, Sainsbury’s has decided to turn a considerable amount of food space inside its shops into areas selling other goods.
It has selected 1.5 million square feet of space, equivalent to nearly 40 supermarkets, which will no longer be used for grocery items.
As a typical British supermarket has some 40,000 sq ft, the planned changes will represent a significant amount of shop space.
Instead, it will reposition half of these areas to feature its own-brand foods such as kitchen and home products.
The other half, the retailer is hoping to attract others to sublet space and has already agreed deals with Argos and Jessops for concessions.
Sainsbury’s reported a pre-tax loss of £290m in half of this year and warned that sales are likely to continue falling for years. It had previously expressed concern that 25% of its shops were “underutilised”.
Sainsbury’s is also developing a new app to let customers pay on their smartphones and which can direct them to the location of specific items in the stores. The app is in trials and could be available to customers with a “few months”, the company said.
Sainsbury's has more than 1,000 stores in the UK. It, along with Tesco, Asda, and Morrison, is struggling to keep customers who are instead increasingly shopping at convenience stores, discount outlets and online.
