Massive Tesco in Pollok is Glasgow’s top supermarket

Glasgow is the biggest city in Scotland, with a personality to match. It’s famed for its vibrant arts scene, legendary music venues and creative food and drink options that won’t break the bank. The city is also renowned for its warm welcome and chatty locals, regularly topping lists of the UK’s friendliest cities.

With more than 90 parks and gardens, Glasgow certainly lives up to its name, which means ‘dear green place’ in Gaelic, while its relatively compact dimensions make it easy to explore the historic east end, buzzy city centre and the more bohemian west end with its cafés, bookshops and indie boutiques.

Glasgow was once synonymous with shipbuilding and other heavy industry but has transitioned to a modern, service-based economy, with the public sector, finance & business services and the creative industries key employers. Thanks to the presence of several universities, the city is home to a large student population, who live side by side with professionals, creatives and a sizeable working-class community.

This plays out in data from CACI, which shows that Glasgow over-indexes most dramatically for the demographic Challenging Circumstances (18.2% vs a national average of 3.4%), while Up-and-Coming Urbanites also “sits well above baseline” (6.9% vs 2.8%), “adding a layer of younger, more mobile residents privately renting in urban areas with high outgoings relative to income”.

Found about five miles southwest of the city centre, Pollok is a largely residential area rich in housing estates with our winning store located on Barrhead Road. The giant 89,039 sq ft Tesco turned in this week’s best performance on availability, with just one item out of stock, on its way to a winning total of 87 points.

Our shopper said the store was in “great” condition with a “clean and tidy” entrance, “generally logical” layout and a huge array of concessions, from Yo and Decathlon to Max Spielmann photos. However, he was most impressed by the “friendliness” of the staff and their “eagerness” to “add value by making me aware of cost-effective options and preventing me from missing out on additional Clubcard points”.

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The fact the main thing our shopper could think of to improve the store was “put the toilet paper in the actual toilet paper holder (rather than on top of it)” tells its own story.

About three miles back towards the city, and located just 15 minutes’ walk from Glasgow Rangers’ Ibrox Stadium, Asda on Helen Street took second place with 79 points. The store picked up a perfect 20 for customer service, but our shopper rated “the variety of products available and the speed at the checkout” as the best things about her shop. She also praised the “good” layout and signage and could not think of “anything bad or negative about my experience, apart from couple of products being out of stock”.

About two miles north west, alongside the likes of Ikea and Currys on a busy retail park, Sainsbury’s on Kings Inch Drive came third with 75 points. The 60,619 sq ft store was in “fairly good condition, apart from the toilet facilities”, which were “rather tired and had maintenance issues like broken toilet roll holders” and “a rogue toilet roll unravelled on the floor”.

He was, however, very happy with the choice on offer, which was “far greater” than his local store thanks to a “great world food section” and an “extensive” fruit & veg selection. He also praised the “highly attentive” staff who “appeared to be genuinely interested in helping me”.

Six points back in fourth, located on Byres Road in the heart of Glasgow’s west end, the 16,083 sq ft Waitrose was by far the smallest store this week, and it posted the worst availability score thanks to three out-of-stocks and three items not stocked at all. That hit its position badly, as it performed well in most other areas. Our shopper praised the “excellent” staff, who were “very easy to find” and “generally very careful not to obstruct customers as they were replenishing shelves”. She also liked “the wide range of exciting and interesting products” even though “the stock levels overall” were the worst thing about the experience.

Last place this week went to Morrisons on Crow Road, a 40-minute walk from Waitrose along Great Western Road. The 52,401 sq ft store was “a little tired-looking”, with maintenance issues including cracked tiles in fruit & veg and “leaks on the shop floor”. Indeed, our shopper’s abiding memory will be “the spillage and mess in the milk area, and the sheer lack of desire by team members to sort out the situation and protect customers from possibly slipping”. However he did like “the general helpfulness of the team” who were “generally friendly and attentive”.