Tesco is Chester’s best supermarket in seven-way mystery shop

Chester is a charming, small city that wears its ancient history proudly on its sleeve. From the UK’s largest Roman amphitheatre and the plethora of black-and-white timbered buildings to the medieval covered shopping walkways known as The Rows, Chester provides a storybook aesthetic around almost every corner.

In addition to its historic treasures, Chester offers a walkable city centre, a good mix of independent boutiques and high street shops, and excellent connections to nearby Liverpool and Manchester. Many locals commute to those major centres, but Chester does provide an established financial and professional services sector, while the Northgate Phase One scheme has rejuvenated the city centre and helped unlock premium retail, commercial and residential opportunities.

All of this adds up to a safe, touristy and somewhat upmarket feel, particularly in the centre, with CACI pointing out that Chester overindexes most strongly for the commuter-belt wealth demographic (13.1% vs a national average of 9.7%) – “well-off older families and empty nesters living in detached properties within easy reach of major cities”.

Even so, there are more Aldis here than any other supermarket, and this week both discounters were included in a Super Grocer 33. None of them made the podium, however, with Tesco emerging victorious by just one point over Sainsbury’s.

The winning 44,003 sq ft store is located in the centre of Chester just off busy Frodsham Street. The only store this week to record a perfect score on availability, our shopper also praised its “really good range” for a city centre store where space is at a premium and found the staff “pleasant and helpful”. She did note, however, that the entrance in particular feels “rather old and dated” and the lack of natural light “makes browsing less pleasant”.

About two miles east of the city centre, in the leafy suburb of Great Boughton, Sainsbury’s on Caldy Valley Road took second place, with the one out-of-stock item proving a key difference. Nonetheless, our shopper “loved the light and airy feel as I entered the store” and was “impressed with the staff’s helpfulness and friendliness”. Previously a regular here, she changed her shopping routine for “a store nearer work” about 18 months ago but now realises “how much I’ve missed shopping here…I will definitely be going back”.

Back towards the city centre, and third place this week went to Waitrose in Boughton. The 29,655 sq ft store had just one item out of stock, but customer service was where it really excelled. Staff were “working efficiently without causing obstruction” and were all “polite and friendly” when asked for help. Our shopper enjoyed the “bright” and “spacious” store and praised the selection of “different, interesting products”.

A couple of miles west, on the other side of Chester, Asda on Sealand Road took fourth place with 77 points. Our shopper found the store to be “generally tidy” and said staff “seemed present in every section of the store” while displaying “a positive, relaxed attitude”. However, they twice blocked an aisle “completely” with stocking cages and “did not make an effort to make way for customers”. Our shopper’s biggest gripe, however, was the presence of a mezzanine level, which meant he “struggled to work out where products were”.

Just a two-minute walk across Sealand Road lies a “clean and tidy” Lidl that took fifth place. Despite being this week’s smallest store at just 12,000 sq ft, it was “well stocked and organised”, especially the “appealing” fruit & veg section. Our shopper’s abiding memory of the store will be the “really friendly and helpful” staff member who assisted him on the shop floor and then served him on the till, too. However, he bemoaned a lack of self-checkouts and of proactivity from staff in taking action to reduce queues.

Four points back in sixth, Aldi matched its discounter rival for availability with one item out of stock and one not stocked. Our shopper said the store was “clean, tidy and organised” in general, although stock or cages were sometimes left in aisles, “forming bottlenecks and making it uncomfortable to browse in adjacent bays”. The best thing about the shop was the staff, who “offered warm, personalised service” and “stopped what they were doing and gave me their focus”.

With just 41 points last-place Morrisons on the High Street in Saltney scored 30 points less than its nearest rival. Located 2.5 miles west of the city centre, this 33,755 sq ft store had eight items out of stock and didn’t perform much better elsewhere. Several areas were “untidy”, including two instances of opened crisp packets “left on the floor”, leading our shopper to note “the contrast between the friendly and helpful attitude of most staff and the less-consistent shop-floor standards throughout the visit”.