Lidl on Obelisk Road is best supermarket in our Southampton mystery shopping survey

The port city of Southampton is first and foremost a travel destination, perhaps most famous as the place from which the Titanic departed on its ill-fated maiden voyage in 1912. Today, it remains one of the UK’s busiest passenger ports, with huge cruise liners frequently docked in the city, while the bustling Ocean Village Marina hosts high-end yachts along with shops, bars and restaurants.

But the two universities means its median age of 34 years skews notably younger than England’s average of 39, with ‘tenant living’ – a group typically aged 18 to 34, privately renting, and likely to be students or young professionals – is the most popular CACI shopper profile classification, and Southampton overindexes on what it calls ‘stretched society’.

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Perhaps that’s why the city features six Lidls – more than any chain. And this week’s Grocer 33 mystery shop was won by the Lidl we shopped: the 16,695 sq ft Lidl on Obelisk Road, though the store lies to the east of the city and over-indexes on degree-educated couples and young families. The store picked up 84 points, just edging out Sainsbury’s and Waitrose, partly thanks to perfect availability.

It also garnered praise for its “spacious” car park, while staff were present in each aisle stocking shelves so were “easy to find” and “friendly”, although “many looked slightly scruffy”.

Overall, though, our shopper found this “a very easy store to shop in”, where “everything was efficient and quick” with a “modern” look, wide aisles and fully stocked displays.

In second place the 63,011 sq ft Sainsbury’s on Tollbay Way made a “strong first impression” thanks to the store’s “fresh, clean and well-maintained” look. Specialist counters were also “brimming with appealing choices”. However, two lost points due to having one not stocked item proved crucial. And the layout “could benefit from some improvement”, with the placement of some products not placed in “logical or expected sections, which made shopping more time-consuming and at times frustrating”, said our shopper.

Similarly availability proved crucial for the third place recorded by the Waitrose in Centre Way. It lost four valuable points due to two items not being stocked. Our shopper “greatly enjoyed” the on-site café and the fact the store “never feels overwhelmingly busy and staff are always extremely friendly”.

However, she did note that though open for an hour already, “some areas were still not quite ready for customers”, citing some items on the fish counter that were still frozen and a few crates that had not been properly unpacked yet.

The Tesco on Tebourba Way is located to the west of the city and draws on a more affluent catchment. The store picked up a perfect 20 score this week for customer service. Our shopper found it “extremely easy” to find the “amazing” staff and said the seven she interacted with “immediately stopped what they were doing to help”.

She rated this “the friendliest Tesco store I have ever visited”, but a number of pickers with trolleys “had to be navigated”, even though they were “careful not to be obtrusive”.

Asda in The Marlands took fifth place, posting this week’s worst performance on availability with three items out of stock. Our shopper praised the “kind, friendly” staff and was enticed by the “good bargains” in clothing.

Our shopper said the car park was not well signposted and “the smell in the car park” was the worst thing about her experience.

Aldi scored 63, with relatively low scores in most areas apart from availability. On one occasion, our shopper needed to search across four aisles to find a member of staff, and the person replenishing the salad and fruit sections “was not treating the stock with care”.

In last place the Morrisons on Spruce Drive was notable for its “untidy aisles”, with “items on the floor, abandoned cages” and “quite a lot of empty boxes” on shelves. The store had “already run out of basics such as standard quarter pounder burgers” despite it being “early on a hot Saturday morning”, he added.