Billericay Waitrose wins Basildon supermarket mystery shop

Once known as ‘Bas Vegas’ given its abundance of nightlife options, Basildon might have fallen off the clubbing map in recent years, but it remains a focal point for those living in South Essex. The town of Basildon, part of the wider Basildon Borough (which also includes the towns of Billericay and Wickford), is a key economic hub with extensive retail and industry, including more than 200 shops in its busy town centre.

Although famous for its concrete, almost brutalist, architecture, that centre is currently the subject of a multimillion-pound redevelopment plan, along with major regeneration of the surrounding housing estates.

Located just 30 miles east of London, Basildon and its surrounding towns have long been regarded as more affordable commuter hubs, with trains into the city taking as little as 30 minutes. As such, it over-indexes strongly for the demographic Settled Suburbia (17.4% vs a national average of 5.4%), which CACI describes as “families in semi-detached homes living comfortably in the suburbs with good disposable income”.

This week’s winner comes from one of those very commuter towns: the leafier, more affluent Billericay. The 24,169 sq ft Waitrose is located slap bang on the high street and tasted victory by a comfortable 13 points. It stood out on customer service and features & services, with our shopper remarking the “best thing” about her experience was the staff – all of whom “were extremely friendly, polite and helpful”.

She also noted the abundance of staff on concessions and counters, with the sushi concession offering particularly “fresh, appealing produce”. Overall, our shopper praised a “modern and well-run” store that was “tidy and organised and didn’t feel too busy or stressful to shop in”.

There was a tie for second place between Asda and Tesco, both of which registered 70 points. The former is another town centre store, this time located in the Eastgate Shopping Centre in Basildon. Our shopper praised the giant 80,524 sq ft Asda for its staff who “could not do enough to help” and the wide, well-signposted aisles that meant she “made good time” even with “two small boys” in tow.

The main issues were a lack of staffed checkouts, the distance to the car park and the fact it was “very hard to find a trolley”, meaning “we had to carry four bags of shopping back to the car”.

Meanwhile, a 10-minute drive east of Basildon town centre, the even larger 89,066 sq ft Tesco on Station Lane posted this week’s best availability score but still had to settle for joint-second. Our shopper found the space clean, tidy and “nicely laid out”, with shop floor staff that were “helpful and knowledgeable on the products”.

Unfortunately, the checkout experience was “unorganised and anxiety inducing” thanks to “rude and unhelpful staff”, one of whom told frustrated shoppers: “I’m the only one here, so you’re just going to have to deal with it.”

Three miles up the A132 and three points back in fourth was Sainsbury’s in Cricketers Retail Park. Despite coming in at 55,991 sq ft, the store put in this week’s worst performance on availability, with two items out of stock and three not stocked. Its sizeable proportions did, though, lead our shopper to note that “you benefit from the extra space”. She also commented on the “good” facilities, especially the large Costa where it was “lovely” to see elderly customers meeting up, and felt the store “had a nice feel about it”.

However, she “disliked how may self-checkouts there are” and would like to see more staffed tills to “make it less stressful at peak times and add a bit more human interaction”.

Last place this week went to Morrisons, located five miles south of Basildon in the small town of Stanford-Le-Hope. The store excelled on customer service, with our shopper speaking to no fewer than 10 staff members, all of whom were “happy to help” and “knowledgeable”.

Unfortunately, she had to have all her shopping rescanned at a staffed till after her self-checkout froze at the payment stage – the “worst thing” about the shop. Meanwhile, the store’s 12,464 sq ft proportions meant the aisles were narrow and our shopper “spent a lot of time trying to manoeuvre my trolley around other shoppers and cages”. Although she did think the store’s diminutive size helped the staff create a “warm” and “community-focused” atmosphere, which “I’ve not experienced in the larger supermarkets”.