Sainsbury is "pushing back the boundaries on elements of convenience" at its new store in Hazel Grove, Manchester, which opened this week. Assistant managing director Sara Weller said: "This store is another strand of Sainsbury's focus on innovation, satisfying different shopping missions and backed up by technology." She said elements of the new store, rather than the entire mix, will be rolled out after three to six months of trials. Ideas being showcased at the 40,000 sq ft store include personal shoppers at £5 a throw, an easy checkout service at £2.50 a time, a Kids Zone, and an internet cafe and chill-out zone for bored co-shoppers. The store has a separate entrance to a convenience style Quick Shop which carries convenience foods and has a 20-minute express parking area. There is also a minibus sized vending machine with 150 lines, from milk to batteries, for customers who run out of essentials when the store is closed. Sainsbury to You shoppers will be able to have their shopping loaded into their cars at a designated pick-up point in the store's car park at a pre-arranged time, instead of waiting at home for a two-hour delivery slot. Sainsbury staff will monitor priority parking spaces for mothers and toddlers and disabled customers, and meet and assist them. The supermarket used 20 shoppers' views of what an ideal store would be to design Hazel Grove, identifying four shopper missions: professionals on a quick trip, wives taking reluctant husbands shopping, queue-haters, and mothers with young children. {{NEWS }}

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