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British supermarket chain
the supermarket business

Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company was the largest UK retailer of groceries for most of the 20th century. In 1995, Tesco became the market leader when it overtook Sainsbury's, which has since been ranked second or third: it was overtaken by Asda from 2003 to 2014, and again in 2019. In 2018, a planned merger with Asda was blocked by the Competition and Markets Authority over concerns of increased prices for consumers. The holding company, J Sainsbury plc, is split into three divisions: Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd (including convenience shops), Sainsbury's Bank, and Argos. As of 2021, the largest overall shareholder is the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar, the Qatar Investment Authority, which holds around 15% of the company. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

Sainsbury's was established as a partnership in 1869, when John James Sainsbury and his wife Mary Ann opened a shop at 173 Drury Lane in Covent Garden, London. Sainsbury started as a retailer of fresh foods and later expanded into packaged groceries such as tea and sugar. His trading philosophy, as stated on a sign outside his first shop was: "Quality perfect, prices lower". Shops started to look similar, so a high cast iron 'J. SAINSBURY' sign featured on every London shop so that it could be recognised from a distance, and round the back deliveries started to add extra convenience and not upset rivals due to Sainsbury's popularity. In 1922, J Sainsbury was incorporated as the private company 'J. Sainsbury Limited'. Groceries were introduced in 1903, when John James purchased a grocer's branch at 12 Kingsland High Street, Dalston. Every shop offered home delivery, as there were fewer cars in those days. Sites were carefully chosen, with a central position in a parade selected in preference to a corner shop. This allowed a larger display of products, which could be kept cooler in summer, which was important as there was no refrigeration. By the time John James Sainsbury died in 1928, there were over 128 shops. He was replaced by his eldest son, John Benjamin Sainsbury, who had gone into partnership with his father in 1915. During the 1930s and 1940s, the company continued to refine its product offerings and maintain its leadership in terms of shop design, convenience, and cleanliness. The company acquired the Midlands based Thoroughgood chain in 1936. The founder's grandsons Alan Sainsbury (later Lord Sainsbury of Drury Lane) and Sir Robert Sainsbury became joint managing directors in 1938, after their father, John Benjamin Sainsbury, had a minor heart attack. In the Second World War, many of the men who worked for Sainsbury's were called to perform National Service and were replaced by women. The war was a difficult time for Sainsbury's, as most of its shops were trading in the London area and were bombed or damaged. Turnover fell to half the prewar level. Food was rationed, and one particular shop in East Grinstead was so badly damaged on Friday 9 July 1943 that it had to move to the local church, temporarily, while a new one was built. This shop was not completed until 1951.

In 1956, Alan Sainsbury became chairman after the death of his father, John Benjamin Sainsbury. The first self service branch opened in Croydon in 1950. Sainsbury's was a pioneer in the development of own brand goods; the aim was to offer products that matched the quality of nationally branded goods but at a lower price. It expanded more cautiously than Tesco, shunning acquisitions, and it never offered trading stamps. Until the company went public on 12 July 1973, as J Sainsbury plc, the company was wholly owned by the Sainsbury family. It was at the time the largest ever flotation on the London Stock Exchange; the company rewarded the smaller bids for shares in order to create as many shareholders as possible. A million shares were set aside for staff, which led to many staff members buying shares that shot up in value. Within one minute the list of applications was closed: £495 million had been offered for £14.5 million available shares. The Sainsbury family at the time retained 85% of the firm's shares. Most of the senior positions were held by family members. John Davan Sainsbury (later Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover), a member of the fourth generation of the founding family, took over the chairmanship from his uncle Sir Robert Sainsbury in 1969, who had been chairman for two years from 1967 following Alan Sainsbury's retirement. Sainsbury's started to replace its High Street shops with self service supermarkets above , which were either in out of town locations or in regenerated town centres. Sainsbury's policy was to invest in uniform, well designed shops with a strong emphasis on quality; its slogan was "good food costs less at Sainsbury's". During the 1970s, the average size of Sainsbury's shops rose from to around ; the first edge of town shop, with of selling space, was opened at Coldhams Lane in Cambridge in 1974. The last counter service branch closed in Peckham in 1982. To participate in the hypermarket sector, Sainsbury's formed a joint venture, known as SavaCentre, with British Home Stores. The first SavaCentre shop was opened in Washington, Tyne and Wear, in 1977; nearly half the space, amounting to some , was devoted to textiles, electrical goods and hardware. As the hypermarket format became more mainstream, with rivals such as Asda and Tesco launching ever larger shops, it was decided that a separate brand was no longer needed, and the shops were converted to the regular Sainsbury's supershop format in September 1999. Sainsbury's diversified further in 1979, forming a joint venture with the Belgian retailer, GB Inno BM, to set up a chain of do it yourself shops under the Homebase name. Sainsbury's also trebled the size of its Homebase do it yourself business during 1996, by merging its business with Texas Homecare, which it acquired in January 1995 from Ladbroke for £290 million. Sainsbury's sold the Homebase chain in December 2000, in a twofold deal worth £969 million. Sales of the stores to Schroder Ventures generated £750 million and sale of 28 development sites, which had been earmarked for future Homebase shops, were sold for £219 million to rival B&Q's parent company, Kingfisher plc. During the 1980s, the company invested in new technology: the proportion of sales passing through EPOS scanning checkouts rose from 1% to 90%. In 1985, the chairman reported that over the preceding 10 years profits had grown from £15 million to over £168 million, a compound annual rise of 30.4% – after allowing for inflation a real annual growth rate of 17.6%. Also in 1991, the company raised £489 million, in new equity to fund the expansion of supershops. and the Merry Hill Shopping Centre at Brierley Hill in the West Midlands, which opened in September 1989. Sainsbury's expanded into Scotland in 1992 with a shop in Darnley (the SavaCentre at Cameron Toll in Edinburgh had opened in 1984). In June 1995, Sainsbury's announced its intention to move into the Northern Ireland market, until that point dominated by local companies. Between December 1996 and December 1998, the company opened seven shops. Two others at Sprucefield, Lisburn, and Holywood Exchange, Belfast would not open until 2003, due to protracted legal challenges. While Sainsbury's outlets in Northern Ireland were all new developments, Tesco (apart from one Tesco Metro) instead purchased existing chains from Associated British Foods (see Tesco Ireland).

In 1992, the long time CEO John Davan Sainsbury retired, and was succeeded as chairman and chief executive by his cousin, David Sainsbury (later Lord Sainsbury of Turville); this brought about a change in management style – David was more consensual and less hierarchical, but not in strategy or in corporate beliefs about the company's place in the market. At the end of 1993, it announced price cuts on three hundred of its most popular own label lines. Significantly, this came three months after Tesco had launched its line Tesco Value. Also that year, David Sainsbury dismissed Tesco's clubcard initiative as 'an electronic version of Green Shield Stamps'; the company was soon forced to backtrack, introducing its own Reward Card eighteen months later. For much of the 20th century, Sainsbury's had been the market leader in the supermarket sector in the United Kingdom, but in 1995, it lost this position to Tesco. Some new ventures were successful, notably the launch of a retail bank, Sainsbury's Bank, in partnership with Bank of Scotland. In addition to Shaw's, Sainsbury's bought a minority stake in another supermarket group, Giant Food, based in Washington, DC, although this shareholding was subsequently sold when Ahold of the Netherlands made a full bid for the company. An arrangement in late 1995 with Supermarket Direct made Sainsbury's the first major grocery retailer in the UK to offer a home delivery service. In May 1996, the company reported its first fall in profits for 22 years. David Sainsbury announced management changes, involving the appointment of two chief executives, one in charge of supermarkets within the United Kingdom (Dino Adriano) and the other responsible for Homebase, and the United States (David Bremner). Finally, in 1998, David Sainsbury himself resigned from the company to pursue a career in politics. He was succeeded as non executive chairman by George Bull, who had been chairman of Diageo, and Adriano was promoted to be group chief executive.

At the end of March 2004, Davis was promoted to chairman and was replaced as CEO by Justin King. King joined Sainsbury's from Marks & Spencer where he was a director with responsibility for its food division and Kings Super Markets, Inc. subsidiary in the United States. Schooled in Solihull near Birmingham, and a graduate of the University of Bath, where he took a business administration degree, King was also previously a managing director at Asda with responsibility for hypermarkets. King ordered a direct mail campaign to one million Sainsbury's customers as part of his six month business review, asking them what they wanted from the company and where the company could improve. This reaffirmed the commentary of retail analysts: the group was not ensuring that shelves were fully stocked, due to the failure of the IT systems introduced by Peter Davis. On 19 October 2004, King unveiled the results of the business review and his plans to revive the company's fortunes, in a three year recovery plan entitled 'Making Sainsbury's Great Again'. This was generally well received by both the stock market and the media. Immediate plans included laying off over 750 headquarters staff, and the recruitment of around 3,000 shop floor staff, to improve the quality of service and address the firm's main problem: stock availability. The aim would be to increase sales revenue by £2.5 billion by the financial year ending March 2008. Another significant announcement was the halving of the dividend to increase funds available for price cuts and quality. In 2006, Christensen commented on the four automated depots introduced by Davis, saying "not a single day went by without one, if not all of them, breaking down The systems were flawed. They have to stop for four hours every day for maintenance. But because they were constantly breaking down you would be playing catch up. It was a vicious circle." In 2007, Sainsbury's announced a further £12 million investment in its depots to keep pace with sales growth and the removal of the failed automated systems from its depots. In addition, it did a deal with IBM to upgrade its Electronic Point of Sale systems as a result of increased sales. Sainsbury's sold its subsidiary in America, Shaw's, to Albertsons in March 2004. Also in 2004 Sainsbury's expanded its share of the convenience shop market through acquisitions. After the launch of King's recovery programme, the company reported nineteen consecutive quarters of sales growth, most recently in October 2009. Early sales increases were credited to solving problems with the company's distribution system. Later sales improvements were put down to price cuts and the company's focus on fresh and healthy food.

On 2 February 2007, after months of speculation about a private equity bid, CVC Capital Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) and Blackstone Group announced that they were considering a bid for Sainsbury's. The consortium grew to include Goldman Sachs and Texas Pacific Group. On 6 March 2007, with a formal bid yet to be tabled, the Takeover Panel issued a bid deadline of 13 April. On 4 April, KKR left the consortium to focus on its bid for Alliance Boots. On 5 April, the consortium submitted an "indicative offer" of 562p a share to the company's board. After discussions between Sir Philip Hampton and the two largest Sainsbury family shareholders Lord Sainsbury of Turville and Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover the offer was rejected. Lord Sainsbury of Turville, who then held 7.75% of Sainsbury's, stated that he could see no reason why the Sainsbury's board would even consider opening its books for due diligence for anything less than 600p per share. Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover, with just under 3%, was more extreme than his cousin, and refused to sell at any price. He believed any offer at that stage of Sainsbury's recovery was likely to undervalue the business, He claimed the bid 'brought nothing to the business', and that high levels of debt would significantly weaken the company and its competitive position in the long term, which would have an adverse effect on Sainsbury's stakeholders. On 11 April, the CVC led consortium abandoned its offer, stating that "it became clear the consortium would be unable to make a proposal that would result in a successful offer." On 25 April 2007, Delta Two, a Qatari investment company, bought a 14% stake in Sainsbury's causing its share price to rise 7.17%, and then increased its holding to 17.6%. Their interest in Sainsbury's is thought to centre on its property portfolio. They increased their stake to 25% in June 2007. On 18 July 2007, BBC News reported that Delta Two had tabled a conditional bid proposal. Paul Taylor, the principal of Delta Two, flew David and John Sainsbury to Sardinia to reveal and discuss the potential bid which amounted to 600p per share. The family had reservations about the price of the bid. They were also concerned about the proposed structure, which involved splitting the business into an operating company and a highly leveraged property company. They were additionally concerned about adequacy of funding, both for the bid and for the company's pension scheme. On 5 November 2007, it was announced Delta Two had abandoned its takeover bid due to the "deterioration of credit markets" and concerns about funding the company's pension scheme.

In January 2008, Sainsbury's brought the number of its supermarkets in Northern Ireland to eleven, with the purchase of two Curley's Supermarkets in Dungannon and Belfast. In November 2007, Sainsbury's centralised its HR department, relocating to the 17th and 18th floors of the Manchester Arndale Centre to form a Shared Service Centre, which was initially trialled to deal with Recruitment in Scotland and was later rolled out to the whole of the United Kingdom. July 2009 saw the HR Shared Service Centre in Manchester expand to include most HR Processes in its Colleague Administration Department and Occupational Health enquiries in a dedicated unit. Since April 2012, the centre has begun a gradual relocation to its new offices in the centre of Lincoln, along with a rebrand as Sainsbury's HR Services.

In March 2009, Sainsbury's reached an agreement to buy 24 shops from The Co operative Group, 22 of which were Somerfield shops, which the group were required to sell as a condition of their takeover of Somerfield. A further nine shops were purchased from The Co operative Group in June 2009. These were concentrated in West Wales, the North of England and Scotland, where Sainsbury's market share is low. In May 2010, Sainsbury's confirmed a multimillion pound deal with the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) to be the main sponsor of the 2012 Paralympic Games. Under the deal, Sainsbury's sold Paralympic merchandise and became involved in high profile events, such as the torch relay. It became one of only two sponsors able to take advantage of the limited branding allowed within the Games. The promotional rights did not extend to the Olympics. After the Paralympic Games, the company decided to sponsor the British Paralympic Association through to Rio 2016. On 30 November 2011, Sainsbury's reached the first milestone in its Vision for 2020, by opening its thousandth self service shop in Irvine, Scotland. To celebrate this, Sainsbury's doubled its staff discount to 20% for the first four days of December. In January 2014, Sainsbury's completed the purchase of the 50% share in Sainsbury's Bank, owned by Lloyds Banking Group. In July 2014, the company began powering one of its shops by converting food waste into bio methane gas to generate electricity. The group became the first retailer to come off the National Grid by its own means. In July 2016, Arcus FM extended its facilities management contract with Sainsbury's, securing a ten year renewal. Arcus won the initial contract in 2009, and saw the contract extended in 2011.

After a four month pursuit, in April 2016 Home Retail Group agreed to be taken over by Sainsbury's for £1.4 billion. Sainsbury's completed the acquisition in September 2016. The deal included catalogue chain Argos and furnishing retailer Habitat. As a result, the new Sainsbury's group was organised into four divisions: the core Sainsbury's food retail business; General Merchandising (including Argos) & TU Clothing; Financial Services (Sainsbury's Bank and Argos financial services businesses); and various property investments. Throughout 2016 and 2017 Sainsbury's pursued expansion of its multi channel strategy, increasing the number of groceries Click and Collect points and online fulfilment locations to serve its online delivery network including opening a dark store in Bromley by Bow to serve the London area, increasing geographical coverage of its same day groceries delivery network and integrating concessions into its shops such as Argos, Habitat, Timpson's and Starbucks. In November 2016, Sainsbury's announced its intention to cut £500 million of costs from its business. In March 2017 400 jobs were cut and 4,000 jobs were re organized, mainly affecting employees in night shift and commercial operation (cash office and price control) roles. In August 2017, 1000 jobs were cut throughout all of its Head Office and support centres, affecting a variety of functions. In the same month Sainsbury's announced plans to axe all shop based Human Resource employees, including HR managers, payroll clerks, administration clerks and Learning and Development managers, overall affecting 1400 jobs. Additionally another 600 jobs at its Head Offices were cut. On 1 February 2018, Sainsbury's announced the purchase of Nectar from AIMIA for £60 million; this gave full control of all Nectar data to Sainsbury's. In March 2018, Sainsbury's announced that it would be increasing the base rate of pay for its staff to retain the best workers. It said it would increase pay by 15% in the year, spending an extra £100 million on a plan that would also simplify the number of job roles. In April 2018, Sainsbury's entered talks with Walmart about a proposed merger with Asda, which, if approved, could have formed the largest UK supermarket company. Under the proposal, Walmart would have owned 42% of the group, with day to day operations being led by the chief executive of Sainsbury's at the time, Mike Coupe. The group also outlined plans to open branches of Argos within Asda shops. However, the Competition and Markets Authority (the UK's regulator on anti competitive practices) said in February 2019 that it could block the merger. On 25 April 2019, the Competition and Markets Authority blocked the merger and it was abandoned by Sainsbury's. In November 2020, Sainsbury's stated that up to 3,500 jobs were at risk due to the closure of supermarket counters and the closure of further Argos standalone stores. In March 2021, the group announced further restructuring with the loss of 1150 head office and warehousing roles. Office sites Victoria and Saffron House in London, as well as Walsgrave in Coventry, were closed; office space was reduced at other sites at Milton Keynes, Coventry, London and Manchester. The restructure also included the closure of the company's only online fulfilment centre in Bromley by Bow, London; with online orders instead being fulfilled by nearby stores with online fulfilment capabilities The group reported a £261 million loss in April 2021, citing £485 million of investment in 'additional safety measures' in response to the Coronavirus pandemic, additional staffing costs and additional staff bonuses. The group's financial results included the one off costs of announced restructuring as well as writedowns of its estate valuations and banking assets. The group's new CEO Simon Roberts has started to focus the grocery business on a 'food first strategy'; the company's slogan changed in May 2021 and an advertising campaign followed promoting healthier eating choices and sustainable food, designed to complement the company's partnership of the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference being held in the UK.

On 29 September 2010, Sainsbury's opened one of its largest UK shops, an extension of its existing shop in Crayford, South East London, which now has over of retail space and is its largest supermarket to be built in the UK. Bybrook Superstore in Ashford, Kent, which reopened on 16 November 2011 has over
The refurbished Lincoln, Lincolnshire shop opened on 24 November 2010, making it the UK's second largest Sainsbury's supermarket after Crayford at
Shops in the 'supermarket' category all have similar layouts and operations but may vary in their choice of range to the customer. Most will have a convenience kiosk for cigarette sales and refunds/exchanges, produce, meat, fish, groceries and frozen food, plus staffed and self service checkouts. However depending on the size of the premises, they may also have an in shop bakery, pizza counter, a cafe or Fresh Kitchen, Tu clothing, general merchandise with some stores having an on site Argos and / or petrol station along with an online picking department. Some shops also feature concessions such as a beauty hall, travel agents, Jessops, Patisserie Valerie, Specsavers, Carte D'or and Ben and Jerry's ice cream stands, Zizzi pizza counters, Sushi Gourmet counters, and The Fragrance Shop. Others also feature a "Centre for Dentistry" where dental treatments are offered and/or an "Explore Learning" centre where children are offered extra English and Maths tuition. Some shops also feature a Starbucks café instead of a Sainsbury's branded cafe. In March 2020, due to the declaration of the UK lockdown as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and the panic buying that followed nationwide as a result, Sainsbury's supermarkets allowed shoppers to buy no more than three of each food item, to ensure all visitors have access to the products they need.

Sainsbury's operates a chain of fuel forecourts located at some of its supermarkets selling diesel, petrol and City Diesel. The chain first opened a forecourt in 1974 at its Croydon SavaCentre hypermarket, the forecourts were initially supplied by and marketed as Jet stations. However, from 1980 onwards Sainsbury's operated its own forecourts and sourced its own fuel. In 2004, BP became the supplier of fuel and operated its forecourts at supermarkets where possible. This deal ended in 2009 and operation of all forecourts and fuel sourcing returned to the control of Sainsbury's.

Several shops operate self service cafés, marketed as Sainsbury's Café, of which most are open for the same hours as the supermarket itself.

As well as developing its own sites, Sainsbury's expanded its convenience portfolio through acquisitions of Bell's Stores, Jackson's Stores, JB Beaumont and SL Shaw Ltd. Sainsbury's initially retained the strong Bells, Jacksons and Beaumont branding. For example, refurbished shops were called Sainsbury's at Bells. These were effectively Sainsbury's Local shops with a revised fascia, retaining some features of the former local chain. Unrefurbished shops retained the original brand and logo, but still offered Sainsbury's own brand products, pricing and some point of sale; however they did not accept Nectar cards to collect points. The old websites were also retained with some Sainsbury's branding. However, all of these acquired shops were fully converted to the Sainsbury's Local fascia from 4 May 2007. In July 2013, chief executive Justin King announced plans to focus on expanding its convenience shops.

Sainsbury's operates an internet shopping service branded as "Sainsbury's Online". It offers a wide range of other products, including electronic goods, books and financial services. To use this service customers choose their groceries online, or by phone (which includes a "phone order" fee). Sainsbury's also provide the Sainsbury's Gift Cards and Sainsbury's Business Direct transactional websites that sell gift cards, gift vouchers and food tokens with credit or value that can be spent at any Sainsbury shop. Both products are not valid for buying certain products or services. The Gift Card website promotes the card as an ideal gift due to the large range of products and the number of shops available to spend them in. The Business Direct website, operated by MBL Solutions Ltd, promotes the cards as ideal for rewarding and motivating employees. Sainsbury's started e commerce home delivery operations in 1995 when it introduced ‘Wine Direct' for internet wine sales. In 1996, on Monday 30 December it was announced that Sainsbury's has joined forces with Hewlett Packard for the development of an Internet based supermarket offering a full range of products. The new, digital supermarket was expected to be launched in March 1997. On 22 November 1999, Sainsbury's started e business in partnership with LineOne.

In 1997, Sainsbury's Bank was established – a joint venture between J Sainsbury plc and the Bank of Scotland, later a part of the Lloyds Banking Group. Services offered include car, life, home, pet and travel insurance as well as health cover, loans, credit cards, savings accounts and individual savings accounts. On 8 May 2013, Sainsbury's announced it would buy the 50% share in the business owned by Lloyds Banking Group.

Founded in 2011, Sainsbury's Energy is a virtual utility provider in partnership with nPower who offer gas and electricity. Sainsbury's no longer have face to face salespersons in shop but there are leaflets and posters etc. advertising Sainsbury's Energy in its supermarkets. Sainsbury's Energy was previously supplied by British Gas; the agreement ended in 2019 with nPower commencing supply from February. nPower in November 2019 was acquired by E. On Group as part of the acquisition of Innogy which led to E. On Next being the supplier for Sainsbury's Energy as of July 2020.

The company was founded in 1972 and its Green Shield Stamps catalogue shops were rebranded as Argos beginning in July 1974.

The flagship supermarket in Greenwich, South London, first trialled a modern "Sainsbury's" look, leading to the term 'Greenwich Blue', which was used to describe the signature colour of new identity. After its success most supermarkets were refurbished with dark blue walls, bright orange wall panels and grey shelving, as well as new checkouts. Individual counters also had different, brightly coloured panels behind them. Gradually the format was rolled out across the entire Sainsbury's estate. The 'Greenwich Blue' look has been phased out and new supermarkets now have a fresher look. Old external signage bearing the 'J Sainsbury' name was still to be found in use as recently as summer 2011 in Swindon, Ashbourne in Derbyshire and Blackheath, West Midlands.

Sainsbury's was a founding member of the UK's largest retail loyalty scheme, called 'Nectar', in 2002. The scheme allows customers to earn points on almost everything bought from Sainsbury's as well as from other participating retailers in return for a large range of rewards. For every pound spent the customer earns 1 point a reward equivalent to 0.5% of supermarket purchases. Since 2015 Sainsbury's no longer offers 1 bonus point for every carrier bag the customers reuses. From April 2015, Sainsbury's halved the number of points that customers earned for every pound, to one point per pound. Sainsbury's previously operated Sainsbury's Reward Scheme between 1995 and 2002 where customers used 'Reward Cards' or 'Storecards' to earn and spend points in a similar way, but limited to Sainsbury's businesses. On 1 February 2018, Sainsbury's announced that it had acquired all assets, staff, systems and licences required for the full and independent operation of the Nectar loyalty programme in the UK through the acquisition of the shares of Aimia Inc's UK business for £60 million.

Until 2017, Sainsbury's ran an annual voucher scheme for local organisations to redeem against equipment for sports and other activities. Customers earned vouchers from their shopping which they donated to an organisation of their choice, who then redeemed the vouchers with Sainsbury's, crediting their account with points to spend on items from a catalogue.

In 2011, Sainsbury's introduced brand match which matched the prices of rival supermarke chains. In March 2014, it stopped matching prices with Tesco. In August 2015 it rolled out the match pricing online. In April 2016, it stopped the brand match completely, but still allowed customers to use the vouchers for two weeks after the offer closed. Tesco took Sainsbury's brand match vouchers for two months after the offer finished.

2000–2011: Jamie Oliver was the public face of Sainsbury's, appearing on television and radio advertisements and in shop promotional material. The deal earned him an estimated £1.2 million every year. In the first two years of these advertisements were estimated to have given Sainsbury's an extra £1 billion of sales or £200 million gross profit. 2010–2017: Paralympic swimmer Ellie Simmonds was a Sainsbury's Active Kids ambassador. 2012–2014: Former footballer David Beckham was a Sainsbury's Active Kids ambassador, in a deal that was claimed to be worth over £3.5 million.

When Sainsbury's opened its new supermarket in Kingston upon Thames on part of the site of the former Kingston Power Station in the 2000s, a decision was made to name a new road leading to the supermarket "Sury Basin", a pun on the name of "Surrey" (Kingston's historic county) but in fact an anagram of the company's name.

In 2010, Sainsbury's opened seven food colleges that teach fishmongery, butchery, breadmaking and confectioning. 21,000 staff have been trained at these venues so far. Qualifications can be gained through in house training, and so far 15,400 staff have been awarded City and Guild qualifications.

Prior to 2005, Sainsbury's devised a scheme to avoid VAT by treating a 2.5% card transaction fee as exempt from the tax, although the total charged to the customer remained the same. HMRC used a test case against Debenhams to outlaw the practice in 2005.

In 2006, anti poverty charity War on Want investigated the production of cut flowers to supermarkets, and criticised the conditions faced by workers at Sainsbury's Kenyan suppliers.

In 2007, Sainsbury's was fined £26 million for its involvement in a dairy product cartel.

In 2012, Jel Singh Nagra, a shop keeper from North Tyneside, was threatened with legal action from Sainsbury's after he named his shop Singhsbury's. It complained about his logo design and the name. Nagra changed the shop name to Morrisinghs. Morrisons wished him well. A Singhbury's Local in Aylesbury removed its sign after intervention from Sainsbury's in 2017.

In 2012, Sainsbury's agreed to purchase the Memorial Stadium, a football ground in Bristol, to enable Bristol Rovers F. C. to fund development of the proposed new UWE Stadium. Under the £30 million deal, Sainsbury's would temporarily lease the old stadium back to the football club, and then build a new supermarket on the site. Sainsbury's pulled out of the deal because the terms had not been met. The decision attracted negative commentary in the media. Bristol Rovers unsuccessfully challenged Sainsbury's in the High Court in 2014, and the new stadium project did not proceed.

Complaints were made after a 2014 Twitter post showed a Holborn franchisee's response to antisemitic threats was to remove Sainsbury's kosher products from shelves. They were restored and the staff member who removed them was reprimanded.

In May 2017, the supermarket was criticised by organisations including Oxfam for dropping its Fairtrade label from tea. They queried how Sainsbury's own standards would be higher than those of Divine Chocolate, an ethical trading company part owned by cocoa farmers in Ghana, said Sainsbury's move was tipping the balance back in favour of retailers.

In 2018, customers questioned the need to cover coconuts with plastic film. Sainsbury's then CEO Mike Coupe offered to investigate their concerns.

In 2022 Sainsbury's began to introduce new security arrangements to reduce shoplifting. Customers are held within a barriered area and must scan their printed receipt on an optical scanner to open an automatic gate, before they are permitted to exit the store. The change has been criticised in the media for inconveniencing customers and presuming all customers to be potentially guilty of theft until they are able to prove their innocence. Sainsbury's have stated that the new system was necessary following a 22% increase in shoplifting as a result of the cost of living crisis.

Sainsbury's archive of over 16,000 items relating to the business since its foundation is kept at the Museum of London. The archive contains documents, product packaging and advertising.