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Nottingham Post
Nottingham Post
National
Jake Brigstock

Mum launches campaign to save Arnold Sainsbury's café

A mum from Mapperley has launched an online petition to save cafés Sainsbury's has announced it will shut, including her beloved Arnold café.

Mum-of-two Marie Spinks, 40, who lives in Mapperley, uses the café in Sainsbury's off Sir John Robinson Way around once every week.

But that Arnold store, along with ones in Mansfield and Kimberley included among around 200 across the country, will soon stop serving hot breakfast, main meals such as fish and chips and cottage pie, and a children's menu.

Following a successful trial of a new food hall format at its Selly Oak store in Birmingham, Sainsbury's announced plans to transform its eat-in and takeaway food and drink offer.

Marie says she always sees the Arnold Sainsbury's café used by a number of shoppers, that it's a safe and large space for mothers to meet with their large prams and enjoy a cup of coffee, breastfeed, and a great meeting place for older people.

But she is worried these spaces for mums and the elderly will be lost once they are shut.

Sainsbury's in Arnold. (Andrew Topping / Nottingham Post)

Marie said: "It's terrible what's happening, it's really annoying that it's going to close and it would be a shame to lose it.

"The changing room and facilities there are really good and this isn't to take away anything from them, but there are a lot of cafés around Arnold you just can't comfortably get a pram around.

"I get the bus into Arnold, and I don't always want to be having to do shopping in one place, and then go to another to be able to have a cup of coffee or breastfeed, especially with a young one.

"If that becomes split up, it becomes a bit of a faff."

Marie set up the petition while having a cup of tea inside the Arnold store, and says it's a good place for mums to breastfeed.

She said: "I've shared the petition with all my mum friends who agree it's a great space to have a cup of coffee and breastfeed.

"There's a lot more space where you're not as bunched in and you're not as conscious about it.

"We need somewhere to go and you can't just do it anywhere, especially with it being cold outside at the moment."

At the time of writing, Marie's petition has been signed by 120 people.

One comment, from a user named Terry A, says: "It's an outing for me to take my elderly mum and my sister who has a brain condition.

"We enjoy having a snack and a coffee before doing some shopping, please do not take this away; it is a lifeline for many pensioners who cannot go further than the estate, please please do not take this enjoyment away from us."

A spokesperson for Sainsbury's said: "We recently shared plans to transform our eat-in, takeaway and home delivery food and drink offer.

"Customer feedback is very important to us and we know that many of our cafés are underperforming and not delivering for our customers.

"Our Starbucks cafés and Restaurant Hub in Selly Oak have been really popular and so we want to expand these partnerships, giving customers a bigger and better range of quality, convenient food and drink to choose from in our stores.

"We know that this process takes time and we're sorry for the inconvenience this may cause."

Sainsbury's have 67 cafés across the country which will remain open while rollout plans are reviewed, in addition to 29 stores which already have a Starbucks in them.

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