Asda North Hykeham staff ‘friendly, polite, helpful and plentiful’

Asda picked up its second Grocer 33 win since February at its North Hykeham store, which scored an impressive 81 points.

Excellent shop floor service was the strong point at the store, whose availability was dragged down by one out-of-stock and one not-stocked item.

Numerous enquiries were dealt with well by staff, including one who stopped cleaning shelves to help our shopper locate the dishwasher cleaner. Staff were “friendly, polite and helpful, and there were plenty of them available”.

The store also scored highly on checkouts. There were “plenty” of self-checkouts and eight staffed tills, of which six were open. The staff member on the till was “polite and waited for me to get my bags ready before scanning my item”.

Second this week was Tesco in Leicester on 75 points. It had just one item out of stock and, like this week’s winner, performed best on shop floor service. It was generally easy to find staff, and our shopper remarked “all three people I spoke to were a credit to Tesco – very approachable”.

Our shopper also described the store as “very attractive”, with a summer display that “definitely tempted me to look”. She enjoyed the large range of items as well as a football-themed Heineken activation.

Our shopper was disappointed, though, to spot “neglected plants for sale – some actually dying”, as well as some “splintered wood near the handle on the disabled toilet”.

Sainsbury’s in Shrewsbury came third with 68 points, despite picking up the only perfect score for availability. The 89,000 sq ft store also scored well on checkouts, thanks to professional service from a member of staff, though things went less well elsewhere.

The heat was clearly making a nuisance of itself this week. Similarly to Tesco, our Sainsbury’s shopper spotted “plants that could have done with a good water”.

There was also “maybe too much going on” near the entrance as well as a squashed blueberry that had been “smeared across the floor” and “many restocking trolleys abandoned throughout the store”.

Furthermore, there were “very few staff about”, though “the gentleman who helped with the Cheerios was really helpful” even if “it did take me time to find him”.

In fourth and fifth positions this week were Morrisons in Newcastle and Waitrose in Poynton, which tied on 54 points. The former performed slightly better on availability with two out-of-stocks.

However, Morrisons scored an incredibly low three out of 20 for store standards. Our shopper spotted “a broken wine bottle placed on top of a crate of beers” and “lots” of restocking trolleys obstructing the aisles. The store felt “generally run down”, she summed up.

Things didn’t get much better when she enquired about the location of an item and “was told ‘one aisle away’ in quite an abrupt way”. While our shopper did praise the “very good” range, she “wouldn’t choose to go back to this store”.

Store standards were similarly an issue at Waitrose, which had one out-of-stock and three not-stocked items. Our shopper described the store as “small” and “cramped”, while the Mr Kipling cakes were “in a small nook and took ages to find”.

He also had “to walk most of the length of the store to find a member of staff. However, when he did find a staff member, they provided “amazing customer service” that left our shopper feeling “very cared for”.