Questions about the collection
My family member worked at Sainsbury’s. What employment records does the archive hold?
I have material relating to Sainsbury’s at home. Can I donate it?
I have found an old item made by Sainsbury’s. Can you tell me when it is from?
I am looking for a specific recipe published by Sainsbury’s.
I remember working/shopping in a branch that you have photos of!
I have come across some objectionable content in the archive.
The archive includes a photo I have copyright of.
I am a journalist/author and would like to use photos from the archive in my work.
I am a member of a local history group and would like to share photos from the archive.
Do you have any educational materials available?
Can I watch clips of old Sainsbury’s TV adverts?
I would like to buy something from you.
My family member worked at Sainsbury’s. What employment records does the archive hold?
Some staff registers from the 1890s to the 1920s have been digitised and can be found here. However, the records are incomplete and particularly from the 1940s onwards are very limited.
The staff magazine ‘JS Journal’, first published in 1946, records promotions, retirements, long-service awards and occasionally marriages between members of staff - it is fully searchable, please see below for details.
I have material relating to Sainsbury’s at home. Can I donate it?
We are happy to receive donations of material that we don’t already have and that is relevant to the collection. Please get in touch with us to discuss what you would like to donate. We are unable to accept anything that has not been previously agreed.
I have found an old item made by Sainsbury’s. Can you tell me when it is from?
If we have the same item in the archive you can check the catalogue as most entries will include a date. You can also compare the design of similar products.
The current Sainsbury's logo was introduced in 1999, although some items could still have an old design of packaging for a few years after this. The company name on the address is also a clue. Before March 1982 it was J Sainsbury Ltd, afterwards it was J Sainsbury plc. At some point the name on packaging changed again to Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd.
Other things to look out for are prices (decimalisation happened in February 1971, so items with prices in shillings and old pence predate this) and barcodes (which were not common until the early 1980s). On items after about 1989 there is generally a design date code which shows when the packaging design was made or last modified. It's usually next to the barcode.
I am looking for a specific recipe published by Sainsbury’s.
If we have digitised a recipe you should be able to find it by searching the for its name in the catalogue.
If you would like to browse instead, most of them can be found in one of the following series: Recipe Cards, Customer Promotional Material and Family Circle Recipe Cards. [NB the latter two will be available in late 2020.]
Recipes that were published in ‘Sainsbury’s The Magazine’ are not available on the website but the archive team may be able to find them for you.
I remember working/shopping in a branch that you have photos of!
We hope that many of our digitised images will bring back memories for people. You can share them with us and other users of the website by using the ‘Share Your Memories’ button underneath each image.
I have come across some objectionable content in the archive.
Sainsbury Archive has digitised and made available a large amount of material in the collection. The content of these items reflects the attitudes of their time, which in some instances includes aspects we recognise as offensive or demeaning. Whilst the Sainsbury Archive has retained this content as part of a complete record, since altering it would compromise the Archive’s historical integrity and context, The Sainsbury Archive and J Sainsbury Plc do not endorse any offensive or discriminatory views that are explicitly or implicitly expressed within these historic materials.
The archive includes a photo I have copyright of.
We have attempted to establish the copyright of every image published on the website. If you believe that your content has been used in a way that infringes your copyright please contact us at sainsburyarchive@londonmuseum.org.uk. Please also see details of our Copyright and Reproducing Content Policy.
I am a journalist/author and would like to use photos from the archive in my work.
We are happy to help with such requests. Please email us with details of the specific images you would like to use (include the reference number or link to that image on our website). We can then check whether it is possible for us to licence the image to you. For reasons of copyright there may be some images we are unable to licence.
Please also provide us with the full details of where you wish to publish the image (name of publications, websites and social media services) and date of publication. We require the archive to be credited and will supply details for this.
If required for printing we may be able to provide higher resolution images - please contact us to discuss.
I am a member of a local history group and would like to share photos from the archive.
You are welcome to share any image that has a Creative Commons licence as long as it is for non-commercial purposes. You can also share items on social media using the Facebook and Twitter buttons on each item our website.
For any items that do not have a Creative Commons licence or for other purposes, please email us - the same procedures as for authors and journalists (see above) will apply.
Do you have any educational materials available?
We have printable learning resources on food, shopping and working life that are available for free on our website. They were developed by Interference Art together with the Sainsbury Archive and veteran Sainsbury’s staff in memory of Dino Adriano.
In addition, veterans’ stories are featured in short videos which are designed to prompt conversation. They can be watched here.
Can I watch clips of old Sainsbury’s TV adverts?
We currently do not have any adverts available for viewing online. However, a number of Sainsbury’s adverts can be watched on the website of the History of Advertising Trust, or please get in touch with the archive to visit in person to watch in our reading room.
I would like to buy something from you.
We do not sell anything held by the archive.