Stockport’s top supermarket Tesco impresses Grocer 33 mystery shopper

Stockport would likely be described by estate agents as “up and coming”. Located in Greater Manchester, to the south of the city, the town is increasingly popular with young professionals and families who have been priced out of Manchester city centre.

It’s blessed with excellent transport links – Stockport Station is on the mainline to Manchester (10 mins) and London (2 hrs) – and regeneration projects are revitalising the town centre, such as Redrock leisure complex and the £250m Stockport 8, one of the largest town centre regenerations currently underway in the UK.

The area shopped this week, designated South Manchester and Stockport, is no minor concern population-wise, either, with a similar number of people as a major city such as Sheffield. According to CACI, the area is (just) above the national average for those in the ‘Stretched Society’ group, but it also overindexes with the ‘Luxury Lifestyles’ demographic. Cheadle Hulme, for example, where this week’s Waitrose store is located, is a leafy, family-oriented suburb with an upper-middle-class feel.

This week’s winner, though, sits almost slap bang in the town centre, just 10 minutes’ walk from Stockport’s main artery Wellington Road North. The 68,073 sq ft Tesco on Tiviot Way picked up 84 points despite a moderate showing on availability, with one item out of stock and one not stocked.

It picked up perfect scores for both store experience and features & services, with our shopper frequently praising the store for being “well laid out and easy to navigate”. He also noted the “attractive” counters and was impressed by the “great range” of clothing.

The only real gripe about the store was that it was “a little hard” to find a member of staff on the shop floor, though once found, they were helpful and gave “accurate information”.

Read more:

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• What is The Grocer 33 and how does it work?

Second this week, but a full 10 points off the pace, was Waitrose in Station Road. Unsurprisingly, given its location in leafy Cheadle Hulme, this store has the most affluent catchment of this week’s stores. It was also by far the smallest, at 23,153 sq ft, yet it still matched our winner’s performance on availability.

Our shopper usually shops at more “cost-effective” retailers and said that if paying more she would expect a “wow experience” – but in this case “the store lacks a great atmosphere; there’s no music and no exceptional, cheerful staff, even though they do work diligently”.

There was better news in accessibility, with our shopper saying she “loved” the three hours of free parking, while her favourite thing about the store was “the small shopping trolleys not needing a coin” – although that, perhaps, tells its own story.

Third place this week went to Morrisons on Edgeley Road with 72 points – but it could have been so different were it not for a catastrophic performance on availability. The store performed relatively well elsewhere, particularly tills & checkouts, where there were “short queue times”.

Our shopper also commented on how the cashier “considerately slowed down to allow me enough time to pack my shopping” and said he “enjoyed the friendly till service, which made me feel valued as a customer”. However, the staff in general could have been “a little more engaged with customers”.

Three points back in fourth was Asda on Warren Street, which is even more centrally located than Tesco and just a seven-minute walk from our winner. Somehow performing even worse than Morrisons on availability with a zero score, the store would have been in the running otherwise.

It performed well in various other areas, with our shopper finding things “well displayed and tidy” with few gaps, except in Fruit and veg. Staff were plentiful and “generally helpful”, although occasionally their stocking trolleys obstructed shelves “and staff did not move them out of the way”.

More than 20 points back on 48, last place this week went to Sainsbury’s on London Road, about three miles to the south of central Stockport. Interestingly, the store posted this week’s best availability score, with just two not-stocked items, but performed badly everywhere else.

Our shopper “used to shop here more regularly” but now prefers other stores. This is mainly due to a recent refurb and new layout, which has made it “very disorienting”, with other shoppers also commenting that “they didn’t like the new layout”. This led to our shopper spending 2.5 hours completing her shop – compare this to 36 minutes in Tesco.

Furthermore, “most staff seemed disinterested and didn’t make room for customers going up and down aisles”, some items were damaged and aisles were “cluttered”.