General public relations correspondence and other papers

Series comprises market reports and research. See SA/PR/3 [update reference, home economists] for customer feedback reports.

Papers relating to Sainsbury's Home Economics Speakers Service (previously called the Sainsbury Counsellors). Home economists were employed to promote Sainsbury's to the shopping public by giving talks and demonstrations on subjects such as quality control, freshness, value of own label products and topical issues relating to food and cooking. The service was introduced in 1970 as the Sainsbury Counsellors as part of the Publicity Department (later becoming part of the Public Relations Department) with each of the five counsellors mainly working on a freelance basis and each covering a particular area of the country. The service was later extended to give talks to teachers and students and by 1996 there were 15 home economics speakers. The service had been managed by the Consumer Public Relations section of the Public Relations Department (by 1986) and later (mid-late 1990s) by the Local Public Relations section of the PR Department.