The Role of Voluntary Codes of Conduct and Regulation — a Retailer’s View

During 1997–8, a team at Sainsbury’s developed a Code of Practice for Socially Responsible Trading (see Appendix, pages 228–34) for the J. Sainsbury group — which incorporates Sainsbury’s Supermarkets, Homebase, Savacentre and the wholly owned subsidiary in the US — Shaw’s, a chain of supermarkets on the east coast of the USA. The code was developed because Sainsbury’s has long recognized a social responsibility to improve employment conditions. Furthermore, we wanted to address concerns about ethical accountability raised by interested parties such as consumers, NGOs and staff. In addition, drawing up a code enabled us to set out the principles by which we want to underpin our trading relationships with our own-label suppliers. These will be strengthened through the code and will enable us to work with those suppliers who share the same values and who are committed to being socially responsible.