Small Sainsbury’s wins best supermarket in Worcester

There’s little doubt about Worcester’s main claim to fame. When pharmacists John Wheeley Lea and William Perrins invented their eponymous sauce in the 1830s, even they wouldn’t have believed that Worcester would still be producing 150,000 bottles a day almost 200 years later.

But there’s much more to this historic city than its spicy, fermented sauce. Cobbled streets abound, while Worcester Cathedral is a key draw, nestled alongside Britain’s longest river, the Severn. But it’s also embracing modern mores, with many of Worcester’s historic buildings now housing bars, restaurants and independent shops. It also offers sound digital infrastructure that’s attracting the tech industry, a reasonable cost of living and excellent road and rail links, with Birmingham just 40 minutes away by train.

It’s also a university city, with students making up one in 10 of the local population. That makes it no surprise when CACI notes that Worcester over-indexes most strongly for the demographic Tenant Living (10.9% vs a national average of 6.9%), closely followed by Traditional Homeowners (10% vs 5.8%), secure older adults in semi-detached homes who are largely retired.

The village-like St John’s neighbourhood lies just west of the city centre and is popular with those young renters. It’s also now home to the best supermarket in Worcester, Sainsbury’s on Swanpool Walk, which picked up 83 points despite being this week’s smallest at 26,976 sq ft.

The store excelled on customer service, with our shopper praising the “well-presented and very helpful” staff, one of whom checked “out the back” for milk and “returned about two minutes later with a cage full of four-pint bottles, which I was grateful for”. She also praised the “fresh and appetising” produce in the fruit & veg aisles and the “great clothing section”. Overall, she “enjoyed my time shopping in this store” but felt “it would be good if a team member could check items that have fallen on the floor, as there were two fresh bread rolls on the floor next to the bakery”.

Two points back and two miles east, located on London Road, Waitrose took second place this week with 81. The store is in “excellent condition” and was “clean and tidy throughout”, while staff were “polite, friendly and excellent store representatives” who were “able to direct me to the locations of products but didn’t take me to them”. However, our shopper felt “the layout of the store did not seem logical” with some items “hard to locate and not necessarily where expected”.

Third place this week went to Morrisons on Roman Way in the affluent and picturesque spa town of Malvern, about six miles south west of Worcester. Our shopper thought “it would be nice if the store could have a little revamp” as it is “relatively old and could do with some updating”. Nonetheless, she does shop here occasionally because “it has a very good free-from section”. She also liked the “great choice” in the deli section and noted the “good pricing and offers” along with “helpful, pleasant and friendly” staff.

Back in Worcester, this week’s most centrally located store took fourth place. The 40,336 sq ft Asda on Silver Street is just minutes from the city centre, and it picked up a perfect score on customer service thanks to the “polite and friendly” staff. Our shopper “particularly liked the excellent range of products and logical layout” but said the “worst thing about this shop” was the car park, which was “quite tight and awkward to drive around”.

About two miles east but almost 20 points back in last place was Tesco on Mill Wood Drive. Despite being this week’s largest store at 42,075 sq ft, it posted the worst performance on availability, with two items out of stock and four not stocked. Our shopper praised the staff, who were “happy to help and made me feel valued as a customer”, but he felt there were too many pickers “out on the floor at the same time”, which “made the visit much less calm, aisles harder to navigate and felt at times chaotic”. He also “found the layout quite confusing” and noted “a lot of gaps in all departments”. Overall, the store was “busy, crowded, with too many gaps on the shelves”.