The United Co-op's refurbished store at Wollaton in Nottingham had this week's cheapest basket at £40.05, beating off competition from Somerfield in Norfolk and Safeway in Glasgow. Our shopper found the busy Co-op clean and tidy, with smartly dressed and helpful staff plus a third-off potatoes and 12 x 440ml cans of Stella at £9.99. A cracking deal of 66p for Anchor Spreadable at Somerfield, in Old Catton, where staff were "very friendly" gave a basket price of £42.05 and edged the well run Safeway north of the border into third spot with £42.23. Safeway pulled out all the stops with full baskets for our Grocer 33-plus barbecue shop and for this shop, where it also had specials on 185g tins of own label tuna at 29p, 2-litre Pepsi at 49p and 59p for Pringles, as well as bogofs for fruit and veg and bakery products. If Tesco in Cardiff had not been out of new potatoes, it would have turned in by far the cheapest basket, at £37.03. Meanwhile, the store is being refurbished with a new restaurant and clothing area "opening soon". At Asda in Plymouth our shopper said young children were running around screaming "causing some shoppers distress". Sainsbury in Alton was a very busy store, with lots of stacked lines at the end of aisles. Till queues were long and there was an out of stock on Stella because of a buy two for £7 promo. Bacon was at half price and there was a Müller 3 for 99p deal. Our shopper bought just two but was charged 99p. Somerfield in Bedlington posted the most out of stocks but had alternatives such as small and medium eggs and hoki instead of cod fish fingers. The store was clean but fruit, veg and chilled areas were clogged with packers and trolleys. {{GROCER 33 }}

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