Tesco gets home advantage with Welwyn Hatfield win

Welwyn Hatfield is a borough in Hertfordshire that contains both Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield – two towns that are close to one another yet have distinctly different characters.

Welwyn Garden City is a leafy, well-kept and relatively affluent town, while neighbouring Hatfield is a busier place that feels more urban and offers a more diverse population. The area in general is a prosperous commuter hub, with CACI showing it over-indexes on the three most affluent demographics while hugely under-indexing on low income living (3.4% vs a national average of 13.3%).

The two towns are also notable in the grocery world, with Tesco HQ located in Welwyn Garden City and Waitrose HQ in Hatfield. And it was the former that made home advantage count the most this week as Tesco took the win.

The Great North Road store set the tone with this week’s only perfect score on availability, but it also stood out on customer service, with “lots of members of staff in all areas” who displayed a “friendly manner”. Our shopper also praised the layout and was particularly taken by the number of trolleys that were “nice and clean”, as well as the “enticing” offers.

Just two miles north, second-placed Sainsbury’s on Church Road is located in the centre of Welwyn Garden City. Indeed, our shopper commented it was “refreshing to see such a prominent, well-kept store in the centre” of town. She also said the staff went “above and beyond”, and their “kindness in assisting me will not be forgotten”. Overall, this was “an extremely pleasant trip”, though she was not impressed by the “state” of the toilets.

Just across the town centre, Waitrose on Bridge Road finished two points further back. This “lovely store” stood out on customer service, because “all staff I interacted with were friendly, helpful, and eager to assist”. The “only downsides” were the “limited” stock “due to the size of the store” and that “parking hours are relatively short compared to other places”.

The standards on offer throughout Welwyn Hatfield are evidenced by even fourth place picking up a very solid 80 points – enough to have tasted victory some weeks. Asda in Hatfield town centre was in “good condition” with “attentive” staff at the checkout and a “helpful and friendly” shelf stacker who “stopped what they were doing” to walk our shopper to the houmous. Unfortunately, there were “unattended crates in the middle of the aisles, making it hard to navigate with a trolley”.

Way back in last place on 62 points, Morrisons on Black Fan Road in Welwyn Garden City posted this week’s worst performance on availability. Our shopper did find “a lot of good offers”, although there were “a lot of items in the wrong place on shelves”. Worse still, she “felt a security guard was following me, which was intimidating”, and when a member of staff was unable to help, “they did not offer to find a staff member who could”.