Sainsbury's at New Cross must be the worst planning disaster in inner London. It is basically an off-the-shelf exurban "shopping centre" layout, designed for cars, plonked down in what is perhaps the district in the whole of England with the lowest car use per head, next to a road that was then jammed for some hours on a normal working day (though the congestion charge may have saved their bacon on that one - despite being well outside the zone our roads are now much clearer than they were then)
You have to walk nearly a quarter of a mile to get to the shop from the station next door, over 250 yards from the bus stop, across a huge echoing car-park that is perhaps 50% full on a Saturday afternoon and 10% most other times. If they had taken the whole thing and simply turned it round it would nave been better.
According to some friends of mine at Lewisham Council who were involved with the Town Centre management plans, the takings at the smaller Sainsbury's at Molesworth Street actually went up when the new one was opened, although the company had intended to close it. I was told that the new shop did about 60% of its projected business in the first year. It has been closed and reopened for large-scale refurbishment twice already. It is far less crowded than the Tesco's down the road, and unlike Tesco's they haven't even bothered to go to 24-hour opening, presumably not having the customers. I hope and assume that the people responsible for it at Sainsbury's were sacked.
If, heaven forfend, a meteorite were to strike the middle of the shop tonight and demolished the building, would anyone in their right mind suggest rebuilding it the same way? As it is, I imagine someone could make a profit by buying half the useless car park and sticking posh flats on it. A huge profit. Maybe that was the point? Not really a shop at all, just a stalking horse for another development?
And they want to let the same cowboys loose on Brighton Station!