In a week of tough competition, Morrisons in Eccles has clinched this week’s top store award thanks to 100% availability, well-staffed checkouts and a tidy store. Our shopper was particularly impressed by the neatly displayed fresh produce. He also noted the short queues and good customer service – at the checkout, the cashier greeted our shopper and offered to pack.

Morrisons, which is the second most-suited store to the area, only just pipped Tesco in North Shields to the post. The Tyne and Wear store also produced a full basket and our shopper was impressed by the meat, fish and deli ranges as well as the short queues. But its awkward shape, with tills on the opposite side of the building to the car park, let it down.

It wasn’t easy to find the parent & child and disabled parking spaces at Asda’s Burton upon Trent store. But the store itself was easier to navigate and staff also helped our shopper find the items she needed. 

Sainsbury’s in Cranleigh was bustling but availability was good and staff were helpful. The checkout assistant was polite though a little shy, and offered to pack.

Waitrose in Burgess Hill was pristine and well laid out, allowing a speedy shop. Our shopper was also impressed with signs reminding shoppers to use their own bags and carry-to-car service, but a Community Matters token was not offered at the checkout.


Winner: Paul Finch, store manager, Morrisons, Eccles

What are your best deals at the moment? 
The full Sunday dinner Price Crunch deal where you can buy a large-sized chicken, Birds Eye Garden Peas, McCain Home Roasts, a packet of fresh carrots and a four-pack of large Yorkshire puddings for just £4. The items can also be bought individually at a cheaper price. Our customers have taken to it really well.

When is the store at its busiest?
When Man United are playing because our store is not far from the ground. The store gets packed and the traffic is chaos. We are near a main tram station and people suddenly rush in after the matches. We all deal with it well, though. Our bank of till-trained staff are always well prepared and jump on the tills.

How do you compete with local rival Asda, which offers non-food?
We are the food specialists. You can buy a television and bike from Asda but we can’t be beaten on our huge and impressive range of top-quality fresh produce. We have more than 1,700 prepared fresh food products in store – more than anyone else. We compete very well with other supermarkets and our sales are excellent.

How is your store helping the environment?
We have started giving away bags for life when a family-sized pack of apples is bought to encourage customers to use them. Our Market Street packaging has also undergone a major redesign, which will also save 390 tonnes of packaging a year.

If you could change one thing about your store, what would it be?
I would like to make it bigger because we take a lot of money, considering the size of the store. I would like to see us have more checkouts and have more lines available. At the moment we only carry 90% of the full range that Morrisons has to offer.

What initiatives have been recently introduced to the store?
We have six values that we apply to everything we do – can-do, great shopkeeping, one team, bringing the best out of people, great selling & service, and fresh thinking. This set of values was launched across all the stores in July and is proving most effective to the way we work. I have seen some great improvements taking place.

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