Sainsbury's abandons prescription service

The giant supermarket told optician of its decision last week, and blamed lack of interest for the service among its shoppers. A Sainsbury's spokeswoman said: 'There wasn't the demand we wanted so we decided to discontinue the offer from April.' She confirmed that at one time 20 branches had offered the service after its 1997 launch. 'I cannot comment on whether we found it didn't fit into the profile of a Sainsbury's shopper, but it was still in its trial stage.' The move will come as welcome news to those who feared the introduction of prescription spectacles in supermarkets may lead to deregulation. Nevertheless, another supermarket, Tesco, which launched its prescription service in 1997 at about the same time as Sainsbury's, will evaluate its enlarged optical service this month. In March Tesco began to offer eye examinations at its Tesco 'Extra' superstore near Peterborough (News, March 12). The Sainsbury's offer was first reported in optician in 1997 (News, May 23), and it was expanded at the start of 1998. The prescription spectacles were publicised as 'ready within 48 hours', and shoppers were able to chose from a range of more than 50 Foster Grant designer frames from &\#163;19.99. The service included single-vision, bifocal and hard-coated lenses. Prescription sunglasses were also included. Sainsbury's began scaling down the offer earlier this year. - As optician went to press, the company announced 1,100 job cuts as it aims to cut costs of &\#163;160m over three years.