London Waitrose is best in ‘student special’ uni shop

Rumours of Gen Z’s party-pooping sobriety have been greatly exaggerated, according to new survey data from IWSR, which found that youngsters of legal drinking age are actually now more likely to drink alcohol than baby boomers.

Therefore, this month’s Freshers celebrations promise to bring the usual mix of cheap booze and bad choices to universities up and down the country. Well over half a million new students will be starting uni and moving into halls in the coming weeks, many of them having to fend and cook for themselves for the first time. As such, this week’s Grocer 33 is a student special, with mystery shoppers hitting supermarkets close to university campuses and halls of residence.

Our winner was Waitrose on Gloucester Road in southwest London, just a jolly quick dash past the Science and V&A Museums from Imperial College London. It will come as no surprise to anyone that this area over-indexes most notably with the Luxury Lifestyles demographic (44.3% vs a national average of 3.3%), according to CACI.

Comfortably the smallest store this week at 16,334 sq ft, Waitrose posted three not-stocked items but still managed the joint-best availability performance. Our shopper praised the “exquisite” presentation at a store that “feels grand and luxurious while still welcoming”.

He also praised the “attractive” seasonal offers but said the best thing was the staff. They were “professional”, “hardworking” and “extremely well presented”, but most importantly it “felt like they genuinely wanted to help”. Our shopper found there was “nothing I particularly disliked” about the store, though there were “quite a few empty spots” in the fruit and veg section.

Eight points back and just over 100 miles away in the university town of Loughborough in the East Midlands, Tesco in The Rushes took second place this week with 81 points. The 43,794 sq ft store excelled on customer service and tills & checkouts, with our shopper praising the “excellent and friendly” staff as well as the “very attentive” colleague on the self-scan checkout. However, he did feel the store was a bit “dated” and thought some items “were not logically placed”.

Two stores, located about 130 miles from one another, tied for third place this week on 77 points. The first, Morrisons on Goose Street in Newcastle-under-Lyme, serves students of nearby Keele University and put in this week’s worst performance on availability with two items out of stock and two not stocked.

Our shopper, who usually goes in for doughnuts “as they’re better than [those in] the regular store I go to”, noted that the store “has been there as long as I’ve been alive”. It provided a “calm and relaxed shopping experience” with “nothing negative that stands out”. Best, though, were the “helpfulness of the staff” and the “ease of finding items I don’t usually look for in this store”.

Also on 77 was Sainsbury’s on Green Park Road in Bath. Our shopper praised the appearance of recently refurbished sections of the store, which were so “modern and impressive” that they “would encourage me to return and shop there again”. She also loved the customer service from team members who “came across as happy to stop and help when I approached them”. Unfortunately, she did find some aisles “difficult to navigate due to the amount of restocking taking place during a busy Saturday morning shop” and said that “the amount of litter on the floor across the store left a poor impression”.

Last place this week went to Asda on Hessle Road in Hull, even though it achieved a perfectly decent score of 71. Our shopper said the best part of the shop was the customer service, but pointed out issues including “messy displays”, confusing placement of products and trollies carrying rubbish “being left in the aisles, creating an obstruction”. Overall, this was “a store which cares deeply for its customers but is also a place which takes up a lot of my time shopping”.