Basingstoke Sainsbury’s almost beats all-time Grocer 33 record mystery shop score

Rightly or wrongly, Basingstoke has become a cultural shorthand for everyday middle England. But its reputation for being safe and functional, not to mention its fast transport links to London, has likely played a part in its growth as something of a corporate hub outside of the capital. The area has attracted numerous global firms, including Sony, Lenovo and even the sports tech player Hawk-Eye.

In town, various big-name food and drink brands can be found in Basingstoke’s central hub, the Festival Place shopping centre, while picturesque areas just outside of town such as Old Basing provide a classic village feel.

The service-led economy means much white-collar work is on offer locally and, as such, it’s little surprise to see Basingstoke over-index on the CACI demographics Established Affluence and Thriving Neighbourhoods while under-indexing significantly on Low Income Living. Indeed, according to CACI, “Basingstoke is a town defined by its commuter-belt families, aspirational homeowners and a significant renting population”.

It’s also home to the supermarket that achieved the second-highest score in the history of the Grocer 33 mystery shop, as Sainsbury’s on Wallop Drive picked up 99 points. Located about four miles southwest of the town centre, the 64,816 sq ft store turned in perfect scores in every category except store experience, where it dropped a solitary point.

The culprit appears to be “a large vinyl advertising Sushi Gourmet, which was peeling away from the window”, but elsewhere our shopper praised the “excellent” standards of cleanliness, “neatly arranged” displays and “clear” signage, which made it “easy for me to find the products”.

He also rated the service as “excellent”, especially at the checkout where “the colleague served me efficiently but took time to chat and attempted to build a rapport with me”, creating a “great lasting impression as I was leaving the store”.

Rather unfortunate to finish second this week with a commendable 89, Waitrose in Basing View also scored a perfect 20 on availability. Found in central Basingstoke, though slightly removed from the main shopping area, the 31,144 sq ft store “looked inviting” and “cleanliness was good”.

Our shopper said the best aspect of his visit was “the helpfulness of the staff” who all “offered to take me to the exact location” of products. However, the main area that let the store down was the checkout queues. There were “not enough tills open to deal with the level of business, and no action was taken to open any additional checkouts”, although once our shopper was served, the colleague doing so was “very friendly”.

Two miles further northeast of town, and just three points back in third, was Tesco in the District Shopping Centre. Our shopper said the store is in “fairly good condition” and praised the “warm and friendly” staff who “made me feel that nothing was too much trouble”. However, he took issue with the “standards of cleanliness”, particularly outside the store, and felt that staff should “ensure that all spillages are cleaned up promptly”.  

Located about a mile west of the centre of Basingstoke, Morrisons on Worting Road took fourth this week. Our shopper praised the “very good” layout that provided “plenty of space for customers” and found the “prices and quality of the fresh food” to be “excellent” – apart from the basil, which “was not possible to buy as it was in such poor condition”. He was also “very impressed” with the staff, who were “friendly and keen to help me” and “stopped what they were doing and gave me their full attention”.

About two miles south sits Asda on Brighton Way, which came last this week. The 42,548 sq ft store struggled massively on availability, with almost a third of the shopping list out of stock or not stocked. This meant “there were quite a few items I had to ask about”, but thankfully all six staff members were “very happy to help me” and our shopper enjoyed “a lovely chat with the worker when I couldn’t locate the jam tarts”. Overall, the store was “welcoming and bright” with “pleasant” music, such as Alicia Keys, that was “not too loud”.