Two retailers offered strong availability this week, but Morrisons' Chapel-en-le-Frith store pipped Asda's Dundonald store to the post thanks to superior customer service and a clutter-free store.

Our shopper said staff did "a grand job" of helping him locate several items around the store and that the checkout assistant at the queue-free till was polite and packed his bags.

Asda's staff were also helpful and the checkout assistant greeted our shopper and packed his bags. However, several packing trolleys cluttered the aisles and the bananas and courgettes had different prices on the shelf and the receipt.

One out-of-stock item let Sainsbury's in Banbury down. However, the store was tidy, plenty of tills were open and staff were helpful around the aisles. The checkout assistant was also polite and packed our shopper's bags.

Waitrose in Eastbourne had one out-of-stock item and the cashier seemed distant. However, staff helped our shopper find the Hula Hoops and Batchelors Super Noodles. Plenty of tills were open and an assistant was managing the queues to ensure none were too long.

Flat-packed boxes cluttered the aisle ends at Tesco in Stowmarket and the checkout queue was long, although the assistant was friendly. A staff member tried to help locate the Toblerone in the right size, but it was not stocked.


Winner: Neil Swift, store manager, Morrisons, Chapel-en-le-Frith

Your branch has netted our top store award twice in two years. How do you do it? By achieving the company cornerstones, which include full availability, great selling and service and providing the freshest products possible. I feel it is my duty to support and encourage personal progression and I like to praise success and recognise hard work. When my colleagues achieve something, such as a promotion, I really make a fuss.

What kind of shoppers do you attract? We see a lot of tourists on camping trips at this time of year, so we often attract new customers. They usually come in and stock up on camping essentials such as bread, long-life milk and baked beans. We do our best to impress them so that when they go back home they shop at their local Morrisons and perhaps even become a converted shopper. We have another store five miles from here, which aims to do the same.

If you could change one thing about your store, what would it be? There's not a lot I would change, but if anything I would probably make it bigger and stock larger ranges as well as more non-food. However, we are a small store in the heart of the community and I like it that way.

Have you had any refurbishments recently? Yes. We have upgraded our café, which has proved very successful so far. The menu has stayed the same, but we have new decor and a few more tables and seats. It has attracted lots of new customers and some of our dinner deals and cream teas are going down particularly well at the moment.

Tell me about the local competition. We only have the one competitor near us, which is a large Tesco store located about three miles away. I think we compete very well against it and we definitely hold our own. I am sure we are drawing in some of its customers who are attracted to our fresh offer, too.

What changes have you made to the running of the store in the past year? One of the biggest factors is stability in staff turnover. In the past 12 months we have really focused on recognising staff who have the potential to become supervisors and trained them up.

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