This week’s top two was a real David vs Goliath battle as Tesco’s 64,000 sq ft behemoth edged out 18,000 sq ft Waitrose by just three points. The former’s store in Dundee picked up an impressive 84 points to make it three wins in a row for Tesco.
The store’s high score was aided by just one out-of-stock item, though it also performed well on store standards and tills & checkouts. Our shopper did not have to queue at all and noted that the assistant “waited patiently” while she loaded items on to the belt. Our shopper appreciated not feeling rushed and found the assistant “very polite and welcoming”.
She said the store had “very high standards” with discounts well marked and offering “excellent value”. The shelves were “generally very full”, the layout was “intuitive” and staff members were “easy to find”.
Pushed into second this week on 81 was Waitrose in High Wycombe, which outperformed Tesco on availability – with just one not-stocked item – despite being less than a quarter of the size. The store performed well in all other areas apart from store standards, with our shopper saying the entrance area inside and out was “looking a little tired” and “untidy in places”.
However, she added there was plenty of space and the store was quiet, making for a “calm and enjoyable” experience. Special praise was reserved for Rose at the checkout, who was “chatty and kind” to two men in the queue who had been to a funeral. “These little things make all the difference,” our shopper noted.
There were also lots of staff around who were “polite and keen to help” and – not long after Morrisons hit the headlines for cutting its café and counter offer – our shopper was particularly taken by the “lovely deli counter” with “lots of delicious-looking pies, olives, etc”, the “amazing” cheese counter and the “quality” sushi counter.
The vertiginous drop to third place was more than 30 points, with Asda in Basingstoke picking up just 50. It posted three out-of-stocks and had two items not stocked, and it didn’t fare much better elsewhere. Our shopper noted the fruit & veg section was “particularly poorly stocked” and the fresh meats were “quite untidy”, though most other areas seemed “reasonably well stocked”.
Our shopper noted that no staff members “went out of their way to check stock” but found them all “friendly and polite – and helpful to some extent”.
Our final two stores this week dropped off again, with Sainsbury’s in Torquay taking fourth place with just 39 points. Five out-of-stocks led to a zero score for availability, while the store also scored just three out of 20 for shop floor service. Our shopper said “it pains me to rate the staff service so low, but I honestly could not find any staff for the majority of my shop”.
She said the signage was good and items were found “easily enough”, though there was no music and it was “very cold”, which “makes the shop unpleasant and means I don’t linger in the chilled aisles”.
Last of all came Morrisons in Holloway, London, on 34 points. The store had two out-of-stocks and three not-stocked items and did not register double figures in any of our categories. Two out of 20 for shop floor service was the nadir, with “hardly any staff on the shop floor” and those our shopper did find making “no effort to actually take me to the location of the product”.
Lack of staff also led to her leaving without the leg of lamb and the wine, while she was “really shocked” by the number of boxes left on the shop floor.
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