Asda Gloucester named best supermarket around the Cotswolds

The Cotswolds – an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty featuring stately homes, quintessential villages, rolling countryside and historic market towns – features more farm shops than supermarkets, including the luxurious Daylesford and Jeremy Clarkson’s tiny but rammed Diddly Squat shop.

So shoppers looking to do a full weekly shop – especially on a modest budget – may need to look further afield. And the winner of our latest mystery shop was just outside its borders: the 67,770 sq ft Asda store on Bruton Way in Gloucester.

Read more:

• Asda’s Jason Donoher on running a ‘battleship’ store with a local Gloucester feel

• Asda wins cheapest supermarket – but is just 3p cheaper than Morrisons

• What is The Grocer 33 and how does it work?

It was Asda’s first victory since July, with the store performing best on accessibility and store experience. The produce section was “well stocked, clean and tidy”, the entrance “bright” with festive offers to the fore and the store “fairly easy to navigate” – although aisles were “cluttered, especially at the ends”, and some signage was “incorrect – for example, the juice was not in the aisle labelled ‘juice’”.

Two of our shops took place in Stroud, including the Waitrose on London Road just outside the town centre, which was second. It scored well in most areas. “Clean and presentable” it was “a fairly enjoyable experience… considering it was very busy”, and our shopper felt the meat and fish counters “could be improved” with “fresher stock” but praised the staff’s “genuine” desire to help. The great service continued on the tills, too.

Just two points behind, two stores tied on 72. Also in Stroud, Sainsbury’s in Dudbridge stood out on customer service with a perfect 20. Our shopper found staff “very helpful”.

However, our shopper struggled with the store layout and location of some items, which “were not where I expected them to be”. Overall, this made the experience “not the best, as I had to go backwards and forwards to find products”.

Back in Gloucester, Morrisons can be found on a retail park on Metz Way. The store’s score of 72 featured the best performance on availability this week. Things were less than perfect elsewhere, though, with our shopper noticing ­“random products in the wrong place throughout the store”.

It was also “hard to find a member of staff to ask for help”, which led our shopper to “give up looking” for the Trip drink at one point – though a “very helpful” member of staff later helped her locate it. Despite the issues, our shopper described the store as “quiet and pleasant to shop in”.

Last place this week went to Tesco just outside Cirencester. A poor showing on availability really hobbled the 57,911 sq ft store, as it performed relatively well in most other areas.

The store was “bright and clean with plenty of space to move around”. It had shelves that were “well stocked and organised” with no items poorly located. Unfortunately, one “rude” member of staff flavoured our shopper’s perception and memory of the store with their “blunt tone of voice and plain expression”.