Tesco delivers best Online Grocer 33 mystery shop in Ilkeston

The small market town of Ilkeston lies between Nottingham and Derby. While recently reconnected to cities near and far by a railway station opened in 2017, supermarket choices are restricted.

Ilkeston’s 94,000-strong population has a Tesco Extra, Morrisons and Aldi on its doorstep, which are well suited to the ‘steadfast community’ and ‘stretched society’ demographics that overindex in the town, according to CACI analytics. For other options shoppers would have to venture four or five miles to Derby or Nottingham to visit Asda or Sainsbury’s and 25 miles down the M1 to Mountsorrel in Leicestershire for a full-sized Waitrose.

So for towns like Ilkeston, online shopping has greatly broadened choice, especially for wealthier shoppers – although deliveries from Amazon are no longer available.

The winning shop in our Online Grocer 33 was a delivery from Tesco Extra in Toton, the nearest store to Ilkeston to fulfil online orders.

For the first time in an online Grocer 33, our mystery shoppers were in the same location, as well as requesting delivery within the same time window, creating a truly level playing field for service and availability.

With a score of 86, Tesco’s website was “excellent” and “attractive” said our shopper. Tesco even sent an email later in the day suggesting recipes using items on our shopping list. The only slight struggle was working out that they needed to log in as a Clubcard customer at the beginning to get the best prices. Babybels were unavailable to order but the other 32 items arrived on time with no substitutions.

Our shopper more regularly places online orders with Asda but said they would switch as they found Tesco’s delivery driver to have a “more caring attitude” after a “prompt and friendly” delivery from Euan, who checked if everything was in order.

Just one point behind, Waitrose’s driver was “quick and professional”. They offered to unpack the bags and brought them into our shopper’s kitchen. Cavolo nero was reasonably substituted for kale but promptly refunded when rejected by our shopper. Waitrose’s website was straightforward but felt “a little old-fashioned” versus others.

Morrisons’ basket was “quick and easy” to build and it made reasonable suggestions when the Babybels were unavailable to order, and for other items our shopper might like. “The website is bright and looks simple but does the job well,” our shopper said. All the 10am slots had been taken, but the driver arrived within the 11-12am slot booked. They were “polite and friendly” and checked nothing was damaged before they left.

Ocado’s website offered helpful and appealing offers, including enticing vouchers and codes for first-time shoppers. Its driver “seemed happy to help” and also offered to bring the shopping through to the kitchen. Our shopper felt there were too many bags, however, and would have preferred an option to ask for no bags. Points were lost as the sea bass, Babybels and Cif cleaner were unavailable to order.

Asda’s website was easy to use and made suitable suggestions when the shower gel and teabags were unavailable to order. But the delivery arrived late and without notice, The driver seemed “very hurried” and did not mention the five substitutions provided or check they were acceptable to our shopper. “The lateness of the delivery was very frustrating and to receive no notification was very disappointing,” our shopper added. 

Sainsbury’s website was straightforward to order from after initial confusion with Nectar prices and log-ins prompting multiple password resets. But the driver arrived 15 minutes early without warning. Items were handed over in crates without offer of assistance from the driver who “seemed in a hurry” and the salmon tin and aubergine were dented.

As to Amazon Fresh, since the online giant shuttered its operations in Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle, Glasgow and Portsmouth last summer, options for online shoppers are much more limited. It instead points shoppers to Morrisons or Co-op, and more recently Iceland, via its Amazon.co.uk storefront, when its own groceries are not available.