Tesco’s Amesbury branch won this week with 88 points thanks to its excellent stock availability levels.
Our mystery shopper managed to bag all Grocer 33 items and said availability was good throughout the whole store, with the exception of a few gaps that staff were working to replenish.
She also described it as the “tidiest Tesco” she had ever visited. There were lots of promotional offers all presented tidily, while end-of-aisle displays were neat and featured “high-quality produce at a good price”. Our shopper particularly liked the Halloween displays, which looked “cheerful” and well stocked.
Staff were chatty but still got the job done, which gave the store a friendly atmosphere and made our visitor feel welcomed.
Second-place Asda in Rayleigh scored 83 points with perfect availability. However, there were some large gaps in some of the fruit & veg areas.
The shop floor staff were one of the highlights of this visit. There were plenty of colleagues available throughout the store who went out of their way to help our shopper, which made her experience “more enjoyable”. The checkout assistant in particular was “excellent” and made her feel “like a valued customer of Asda”.
Next up was Morrisons’ “very well presented” store in Oswestry, which scored 79 points. Our shopper said this was “by far the best stocked supermarket” she had been to in several weeks.
The end-of-aisle displays were packed and there were few gaps on shelves. However, two items were out of stock – the two-litre bottles of own-label sparkling water and own-label sweet potatoes.
There were lots of shop floor staff available, and they were all helpful and took our shopper to the items she was looking for. Checkout queues were efficiently managed and the till staff were “pleasant”.
Waitrose came fourth with 77 points. Its Weston-super-Mare branch gave off a “feeling of abundance” that suggested it had avoided any supply chain issues (only one of our required groceries was out of stock). However, our shopper noticed some gaps in certain areas such as bottled water and toilet roll.
Several displays caught our shopper’s attention, including one of Essential Waitrose products and another “eye-catching” presentation of wines and baguettes. There were several Halloween and Christmas displays, too.
Sainsbury’s followed with a 10-point difference, largely due to availability and a slow checkout. One item from our G33 list was out of stock and two were not stocked.
There were not many tills open, which resulted in our shopper having to wait longer than average because the cashier was chatting to the elderly customer in front. Despite the wait, our shopper was impressed with how checkout staff maintained good ties with customers.
Our shopper also noted the store felt clean, calm and orderly. The layout was easy to navigate, making it “a very pleasant shop”.
This week’s guest retailer Iceland took the last spot with 58 points. Although its Crawley branch was clean and well presented, it had a small offering of fresh fruit and veg and the overall choice was limited. A total of six items were out of stock.
Our shopper said the layout was “a bit all over the place”. Staff were friendly although a few were too distracted by their own conversations.
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