Tesco scores highest in our visual impairment mystery shop

There are an estimated 340,000 people registered as blind or partially sighted (BPS) in the UK, and more than two million living with sight loss “severe enough to have a significant impact on their daily lives”, according to the Royal National Institute of Blind People.

This week, for the first time, the Grocer 33 mystery shop was carried out entirely by BPS customers. In conjunction with disability training consultancy Blind Ambition, the criteria and questions were altered to accommodate BPS needs, and similar to The Grocer’s findings in this week’s cover feature on how well supermarkets cater for BPS shoppers, the big issue was and is consistency.

One shopper told The Grocer it was often “pot luck” whether they had a positive or negative experience – even within the same supermarket, let alone across a retailer’s whole estate. And that lack of consistency was evident in this week’s shops, with performance ranging from “empowering” to “abysmal”.

This week’s winner, Tesco on Lewisham Road in London, scored 83 points. Our shopper was met by an assistant “within two minutes” in a store that “felt spacious and calm”. She was effusive in her praise for her assistant, Richard, who “had my complete trust from the beginning” and “made me feel safe”.

Our shopper said it “felt like everyone was geared up to help people like me” and she now thinks “I could shop here more regularly” because “I genuinely think these guys cared”. Overall, the experience “has made me feel empowered to do this more often in the future”. The one downside was having to go outside to be able to book her Uber “as there was no reception inside to do this” – a common complaint for BPS shoppers trying to use apps and accessibility tools inside stores.

Sainsbury’s in Edgware was second with 65 points. Our shopper was helped straight to the helpdesk and given a trolley. His assistant, Yasmin, arrived “in less than five minutes”. Yasmin was “perfect”. She was “considerate from the get go” and “really good” at talking our shopper through different product sizes, special offers and expiry dates. They also had “a lovely conversation as we went round the store”, which helped our shopper feel “totally at ease”. They also had “a lovely conversation as we went round the store” and “from the moment I walked in, everything and everybody was great”, which helped our shopper feel “totally at ease”.

He has just moved closer to this “well-lit, spacious and clutter-free” store and says he “will go again and do so regularly”.

Read more:

• Asda apologises after blind mystery shopper belittled by staff

• How supermarkets are failing blind and visually impaired shoppers

• There are clear lessons to be learned from our visually impaired mystery shop 

Third place went to Morrisons in High Wycombe with 63 points. After a sticky start, when our shopper called the switchboard and was told “they didn’t do that sort of thing”, she was advised to “just turn up on the day to see if I could get help” and customer service “had no idea” what to do. But our shopper’s assistant, Wajid, was “excellent once he got going” – despite an early mishap where “he wasn’t aware of how to guide me, left me alone and I nearly pushed my trolley into a shelf”.

Thankfully, “he didn’t do that again and was very helpful”, to the extent that our shopper sent a commendation to the store for Wajid. Overall, our shopper found “some of the staff really helpful” and was pleased with the cleanliness of the store but was disappointed that some members of staff simply “didn’t speak to me”.

Waitrose in Harrow was in fourth with 55 points. Our shopper was told on the phone to get assistance in store at the helpdesk, but when she got there, staff were “abrasive” and said the information given over the phone was wrong as such services were not available. Our shopper waited 40 minutes before an assistant, Helen, was found.

Helen “did so many good things” like explaining options clearly and offering alternative items, but our shopper felt she “was really pushed for time” thanks to “constraints from above” that meant “she abandoned me at the till as she had to do something else”.Thankfully, the colleague on the checkout was “fab” and “even packed my bags and put them in the trolley”. However, the feeling persisted for our shopper that “you’d only get assistance here if they weren’t busy” and “the store didn’t understand my needs”.

Last place this week went to Asda in Newton Abbot, Devon. It scored just 39 points following a disastrous shop that had to be abandoned after an hour. Following “unclear” advice when calling ahead to book assistance, our shopper was told on arrival  at the store that “everyone was too busy”.

Eventually, our shopper was allocated a car park worker, Joe, as her assistant. She heard a colleague tell Joe: “I’m sorry you have been relegated to help this lady – do you mind?”

He “had no knowledge of the store at all” and “did a great job trying” but was “thrown in at the deep end”.

After a “totally stressful” hour for both of them, the shop was abandoned because “we hadn’t made much progress [she had found less than half the items], and I was really struggling not to lose it”. Despite there being just 10 customers in store “no one offered to help” because “staff were prioritising shelf stacking over customer service”.

Our shopper said the ‘best thing’ about the experience was “getting out of the shop without losing it and not quite being totally overwhelmed by anxiety” and that the attitude and conduct of the staff, especially at the help desk, was “appalling”.