Who we visited

Spar Kirkintilloch, Scotland

The Co-operative group Ifield, Crawley

Budgens Amersham, Bucks

Nisa Yardley, Birmingham

Tesco express Harrogate, North Yorkshire



How they performed

Nisa and Spar provided a full shop this week, with Nisa offering fully stocked shelves that were neat and well-presented. The Nisa store was clean and tidy and our mystery shopper said it was easy to navigate her way around the store thanks to good merchandising. It offered a two-for-£1 deal on tins of Heinz Baked Beanz and gave 100%-extra Tetley teabags free.

Meanwhile, Tesco Express offered a clean and tidy store and staff offered help with packing our shopper's bags. The aisles were clear, meaning our shopper had a clear run of the store, which offered two 2-litre bottles of Coca-Cola for £2.50. It was also offering six Mars bars for £1.30. The store only stocked an eight-pack of unsmoked bacon, rather than the six-pack specified on our shopper's list.

Our mystery shopper at Budgens also had a successful trip, noting that the store was both clean and tidy with helpful and polite staff. The products were easy to find, but no help was offered with packing bags. Spar impressed our shopper with good levels of customer service and it also provided a full basket and offered help with packing the goods. Our shopper said the store was clean and tidy and also free of shelf-stackers.

The Co-operative Group offered a wide variety of offers but could not provide a full basket and stocked an 8-pack of bacon instead of the 6-pack specified on our shopper's list. Despite offering a wide range of cereals there was no Weetabix on the shelves, although it did offer the Co-op's own-label version. Our shopper thought the interior of the store was a bit shabby and needed some modernising.