Who we visited

Costcutter, Lodway, Bristol,

One Stop, Station Road, Horsham

Budgens, Tolworth, Surrey

Spar, Amersham Road, Bucks

Tesco Express, Wellingborough Road, Northamptonshire



How they performed

A tempting pre-Christmas special offer on two litre bottles of Coca-Cola meant this item was running low at One Stop's Station Road store in Horsham. Our shopper was able to pick up one of the last bottles priced at £1.74 - or £2.30 for two.

Meanwhile, Tetley tea bags and cans of Stella Artois were not sold in the sizes required by our list, leaving our shopper empty handed. However, she did say each product was available in a different size. Price comparison between the Tesco-owned One Stop store and its Express format reveals interesting differences.

The cheapest 800g branded loaf to be found at both stores was Warburtons, however Tesco's Northamptonshire Express store was charging 6p more for this item than the Horsham One Stop.

As well as catfood, both stores also had identical prices for milk at £1.11, which is also the price in Tesco supermarkets, but once again differed quite considerably when it came to Fairy washing up liquid - 99p at One Stop versus £1.31 at Tesco Express. The Express store was, however, marginally cheaper for a Mars bar.

We were unable to make comparisons between the retailer's bacon prices as Tesco Express only stocks this product in an eight rasher pack.

Budgens and Spar performed admirably in terms of availability this week - both neighbourhood retailers provided our shoppers with full baskets. Budgens also put in a sterling performance in terms of price, providing all ten Top-Up items for just £13.91, helped along by a strong promotional offer.

The Tolworth store had the lowest priced Stella, bread, butter, Fairy, and Coke on our list.