Waitrose completed a hat-trick of victories as yet another of its small London stores triumphed, albeit in a fairly low-scoring week. The store in East Sheen picked up just 65 points, a total that was impacted by one out-of-stock and two not-stocked items.
Its scores were not exactly stellar in other areas either, apart from tills & checkouts, where our shopper was impressed to see things “flowing with no big queues” despite the store being busy. She also reserved praise for the checkout assistant who was “charming and left a good impression”.
The meat and fish counters were also “lovely” and the cheese counter “looked great”, but our shopper “didn’t get a sense of customer focus on the shop floor”, mainly due to only finding “one member of staff to ask for help in my whole shop” – even if he was “brilliant”.
Just four points back was Tesco in Seaton – and what a different result it would have been but for a terrible showing on availability, with three out-of-stocks and five not-stocked items landing the store a score of zero in that category.
In contrast to the winning store, our shopper here found it “very easy” to find staff “whenever I needed”. They were “all very helpful” and “made my shopping pleasant”. It was a similar story on the tills, where there were “many” manned checkouts open and the staff member was not only “very friendly” but also “considerate” with their scanning speed.
However, our shopper did feel the entrance to the store was too crowded and “not welcoming”. There were olive jars on the floor in front of the display and “quite a few” empty cardboard trays in the dogfood area.
Third this week on 58 points was Sainsbury’s in Bournemouth, which had one item out of stock and four not stocked. Nonetheless, our shopper here did praise the range of products, wide aisles and the cleanliness of the store.
However, there were not enough staff on the shop floor, she said, which meant her shop took almost 90 minutes “when I can usually do a mystery shop in just over an hour”. That being said, despite being “not a Sainsbury’s fan” who “certainly prefers smaller stores” our shopper said she “would go back again”.
Just one point further back on 57 was Morrisons in Leeds which, again, could have seen a very different result were it not for a zero on availability. Four out-of-stocks and four items not stocked was far from a positive starting point, with our shopper saying: “The place looked like it had been ransacked and they’d tried to cover it up!”
It was “a mediocre experience”, she added, “made more bearable by a lovely checkout lady” called Joanne, who was “friendly, chatty and smiley”.
Bottom of the pile on 50 points was Asda in Glasgow – a disappointing result considering the store boasted the best performance on availability this week, with just one out-of-stock. Unfortunately, the scores elsewhere were not strong, with the store layout described as “OK” and the bakery, fishmonger and deli counters “average”.
Worst of all, though, were the tills, where none of the seven manned checkouts were open, despite there being six members of staff for the self-service area. Our shopper said she could not report on customer service at the till “as I had no interaction”, though she did notice an elderly lady being told she was in the wrong self-service queue. “There should always be at least one manned till for customers that cannot use self-service,” our shopper commented.
No comments yet