Morrisons' staff

Morrisons Denton achieved one of the highest scores of the year. “A whopper of a store but you get a good feeling” from the “great staff”, said our mystery shopper, though one manager was “most rude” when showing our shopper to the cereal aisle.

Second-placed Waitrose Marlborough was “pleasant to shop and well stocked” and performed strongly in most areas. However, the checkouts scored badly. Even though they were busy, a till had just closed and our shopper had to wait behind two other customers.

Tesco Stoke-on-Trent is quite new, but “not terribly attractive”. With a huge “waste of space” at the entrance, this store felt like a “bit of a barn”. All four members of staff our shopper approached were “very smart, friendly and helpful”.

Benefiting from refurbishment, Sainsbury’s Londonderry was “bright and airy”, while the staff couldn’t be faulted. The “very pleasant shopping experience” was marred only by several mistakes on the till receipt.

Our shopper had to hunt for a member of staff at Aldi Aylesbury, but this was a “nice, fairly spacious” store with a good display of garden items and cut flowers near the door. It also had a good selection of items in the centre aisles, including wetsuits, suitcases, garden equipment and tents.

Asda Worcester was a “large, very bright, very clean store”, but availability was poor and staff service varied. One was chatting to a friend, and another unsuccessfully described where to find the sausage rolls. However, the butcher’s enthusiasm and knowledge won our shopper over.