The Talbot Heath branch of Sainsbury’s is among a raft of stores set to be affected by company plans to cut more than 3,000 jobs and to shut all in-store cafés.
Adam Barlow, a retail assistant at Sainsbury’s in Talbot Heath, among those set to be hit according to The Independent, said: “I am a bit shocked; I’ve got lots of friends there.”
Mr Barlow reflected on how some of he’s become closer to some of his colleagues, and they are more than just people he sees at work.
Mr Barlow said he’s worried about losing these relationships at work and “it does come as a bit of a shock”.
The company’s remaining 61 cafés are set to close, as well as its patisseries, hot food and pizza counters.
This comes after Sainsbury’s had one of its biggest ever Christmas trading periods.
Off the back of its bumper Christmas trading, it forecast that profits for the year would be up to £1.06bn and gave employees a 5% pay increase.
But now one in five senior manager jobs are set to be cut as the company undergoes a three-year £1bn cost-cutting scheme.
Retailers across the UK will battle increased costs from April 2025 as a result of higher National Insurance Contributions and National Living Wage, from the Budget.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive officer of the British Retail Consortium, said: “With little hope of covering these costs through higher sales, retailers will likely push up prices and cut investment in stores and jobs, harming our high streets and the communities that rely on them.”
Sainsbury’s employs around 148,000 staff, cut 1,500 jobs last February, in its bakeries, call and distribution centres.
Heathfields way both ways partially blocked