sainsbury's

Sainsbury’s is now only three wins ahead of nearest rival Waitrose, which won again this week. Its Bath store was busy but spacious, clean and tidy. There were attractive displays and overhead signage made it easy to locate items. Staff were also easy to find - one, who was asked to help with the McCain chips, couldn’t find anyone in that section so brought a pack to our shopper herself instead.

Sainsbury’s Barnwood was just a point behind. The car park was well laid out and clean and in store was bright, spacious and well ordered, with cheese samples served by an enthusiastic assistant. But shop-floor presence was minimal, not all checked the stockroom for products not displayed there was a small queue and no help was offered with packing.

Morrisons High Wycombe was fairly quiet but there were a few trolleys left around the store. Just one item was enquired about but no offer was made to check for it in the stockroom. There was a queue of three minutes and lots of offers were seen around the store.

Staff knew their stock well in the fresh produce station at Tesco Shettleston. It was uncluttered and in-store sampling of grapes and strawberries was taking place, but the stand appeared “hidden” in a corner. A high number of products weren’t ranged by the store, which meant it lost points in this section.

Layout didn’t seem entirely logical at Asda Accrington, with similar products at opposite ends of the store, but overhead signage was helpful. Staff gave mixed service: one team member was “exemplary” and asked a more senior colleague about the milk not on display, while another hadn’t even heard what product our shopper was asking about before saying all stock was out. Availability was also poor with three out of stock and three not stocked products this week.