Asda Huyton Liverpool wins best inner-city supermarket in Grocer 33

Inner city locations tend to feature smaller, local-format stores targeting urban dwellers who value convenience and accessibility – and who shop more often with smaller baskets. But there are still numerous inner-city areas around the UK boasting larger-format stores – and this week’s Grocer 33 pitted some against one another – from a giant Waitrose in London’s business and residential hub in Canary Wharf to a Morrisons in Small Heath, an inner-city area in southeast Birmingham.

The winner was Asda in Huyton, Liverpool, located in an urban enclave to the east of the city, neighbouring numerous high street staples such as Wetherspoon and Domino’s, along with local businesses like Huyton Village Fish & Chips. Huyton is not a wealthy area: the 76,504 sq ft store overindexes massively with the demographic ‘cash-strapped families’, according to CACI – 27% versus a UK average of 7.6%.

Read more:

• Asda cheapest supermarket but rivals keep pace with tight margins

• Asda GSM Lee Keeling on turning round its Huyton inner city store

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

This makes Asda Huyton’s victory over the likes of Canary Wharf’s high-end Waitrose all the more impressive, as it’s fought off high crime levels and overcome poor store standards in the past that led to the store being fined for selling out-of-stock items.

The store romped home with 92 points. Our shopper “felt very relaxed and calm” and “honestly has nothing bad to say about this store”. She found the layout “straightforward” with “good signage” and was pleased that, given she stands at 5ft tall, “shelving wasn’t too high for smaller people”.

She “actually preferred it to my own store” and “would be happy to come back”. And the only real blot on its virtually flawless copybook was the one item out of stock.

About 35 miles to the east along the M62 lies the 75,006 sq ft Sainsbury’s on Heaton Park Road in Manchester – spitting distance from the recent homecoming gigs by Oasis, which coincided with our shopper’s visit. Despite taking second place this week, staff won’t be feeling Supersonic when they realise the store finished a full 21 points behind its local city rivals.

Major points were shed on availability and tills & checkouts – our shopper found the service on the staffed checkout “very slow”, although she pointed out it was because the member of staff was “fully engaged with each customer”.

Things were much better on customer service, where the store picked up a perfect score of 20, thanks to staff that “all seemed approachable, patient, and happy to help”. Overall, our shopper found this store was “run efficiently, with customers a priority” and said it was “a pleasure” to see such well-stocked shelves.

Next up to Glasgow, where the Tesco on Barrhead Road was our largest store of the week. Located next to the Silverburn Shopping Centre to the southwest of the city centre, t The store’s best performance by a long shot was on accessibility, where our shopper was pleased to find that even on a busy Saturday afternoon, “it was possible to drive straight into a space without queueing”.

The news was less positive on store experience, with our shopper finding some promotional product displays “looked quite empty and untidy”. She also came up against a full seven members of staff either restocking or picking orders in the Fruit & veg section, which meant “this aisle was very frustrating to try to navigate”. Standards were “quite poor” across the store, she added.

In Canary Wharf, London, nestled in an upscale shopping mall among the likes of Hotel Chocolat, Sushi Daily and even an outpost of The Ivy restaurant, is an unusually huge Waitrose. Despite coming in at more than 71,000 sq ft, it still  provided three not-stocked items for our shopper and picked up middling scores across the board. Serving hungry, and presumably wealthy, city workers, the store was “in good condition” and provided “a pleasant experience”, according to our shopper. But her interactions with staff were “inconsistent”, though they were “generally helpful”, and she would like to see the store “increase and improve its signage”.

Finally, last place went to Morrisons on Coventry Road in Birmingham, with just 52 points. The smallest store this week, it performed worst on availability with two out-of-stocks and four items not stocked.

Our shopper also bemoaned the amount of litter outside and a “very dated” store that’s “definitely in need of a refurb”. Despite the staff being “so friendly”, our shopper “wouldn’t say it was a pleasant experience”.