Morrisons is east London’s best for early Sunday shop

East London is hard to pin down. It is diverse, fast-changing and extremely multicultural, home to trendy neighbourhoods flecked with hipster cafés and trendy microbreweries, as well as more suburban areas inhabited by communities from South Asia, the Caribbean and across the world.

Areas such as Shoreditch and Hackney are renowned for street art, independent businesses and nightlife. But green space abounds, too, with Victoria Park and Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park usually packed with families and groups of friends on hazy summer weekends.

The relatively less-wealthy boroughs of Newham and Tower Hamlets account for a whopping 700,000 people between them, but even they have been afflicted by East London’s increasingly stratospheric house prices and rents.

So, is East London all sourdough pizza, Lucy & Yak dungarees and pale ale? Or is it cheap fried chicken, council blocks and deprivation? It’s both, with some of England’s poorest neighbourhoods nestled side by side with extremely affluent areas. That plays out clearly in data from CACI, too, which identifies that East London over-indexes most dramatically for the demographic Cash-Strapped Families (23.7% vs a national average of 7.6%), while Up-and-Coming Urbanites (12.5% vs 2.8%) and Prosperous Professionals (8.2% vs 3.4%) are also well above baseline.

All of our shops this week took place on a Sunday morning, which was reflected in lower availability across the board, and our winner was no exception. Located in Canning Town, one of the true hearts of traditional East London, Morrisons on Silvertown Way was one of this week’s weaker performers on availability with three items out of stock and one not stocked, but its excellent performance in all other areas carried it to victory with 78 points.

Our shopper felt the 25,015 sq ft store “made a very positive first impression with a bright, clean and well-organised layout that was easy to navigate”. There were “attractive offers that immediately caught my attention” and no significant gaps on shelves. They also praised the shop floor staff, who were easy to find and “friendly, approachable and professional”. Overall, “the shopping environment was organised and welcoming, with no notable issues”.

About three miles north, or two stops on the Jubilee line from Canning Town to Stratford, Waitrose was edged into second place by just one point. The 21,536 sq ft store in East London’s shrine to consumerism, Westfield shopping centre, was another to lose big points on availability thanks to two items out of stock and two not stocked.

Our shopper reserved particular praise for the staff who were “knowledgeable”, “very pleasant” and “did an excellent job” that made him feel “welcomed and valued as a customer”. In addition, the layout “made sense”, there were “no obstructions” and them eat and seafood section looked “fresh” and “tempting”. However, due to the store’s relatively modest proportions, our shopper noted it “gets crowded quickly, especially on busy days”.

Just over four miles east, in the more suburban enclave of Beckton, Asda on Tollgate Road finished just two points further back in third. Once again, customer service stood out, with our shopper noting their abiding memory of the store would be the staff, two of whom were “fantastic, friendly, approachable and extremely helpful”. Other than that, “there was nothing in particular that stood out, either positively or negatively”, though the store was “clean, well organised and pleasant to shop in” – apart from the toilets, which were “not well maintained and had a very unpleasant smell”.

A full six miles westwards, back towards the centre of London in the highly multicultural area of Whitechapel, Sainsbury’s on Cambridge Heath Road finished a full 14 points further back on 61. The store looked “modern and new” and was “very clean and tidy”, said our shopper, who also found the advertising and promotions on offer “very appealing”. However, he felt that the layout of some sections was “not in order” and the shop was “too busy” with shop floor staff “very hard to locate”. He also noted he “would like more halal items to be sold in the chilled section”.

Last place this week went to Tesco, located back in Beckton on the huge Gallions Reach shopping park. Despite coming in at 75,570 sq ft, the store fared no better than its competitors on availability, with three items out of stock. Our shopper praised the “large selection of items” as the best thing about their visit but found some of the staff “unhelpful”. However, the worst aspect of the shop was the insufficient number of checkouts, which led to a “long” wait time, with staff “a mix of being abrupt and helpful”.