Waitrose continued its recent domination of service and availability with a fourth store of the week crown in the past five weeks.
Its Altrincham store also notched up the upmarket retailer’s second full basket in that period, helping it to an impressive 88 points.
Availability appeared strong throughout the store, with only a couple of noticeable gaps.
The well-presented and neatly groomed staff were excellent throughout our shopper’s visit. He sought help on three occasions, with one member helping to search for an item, another walking him to the product and a third retrieving the cocktail sausages from a secondary fixture.
His visit ended well as he was directed to a new till that was just about to open, which made him “feel valued and that the staff here were very customer-focused”. The checkout operator was also warm and friendly and handled his shopping with care.
Out of the six stores in our Friday evening mystery shop only two performed well. The other was Tesco in Bracknell with 79 points. The store lost points for availability as there was one out-of-stock and two not-stocked items. However, the out-of-stock was the particular size of the Birds Eye peas, while smaller and larger packs were still available. There were also other sizes on the shelf for the not-stocked Galaxy bar.
The store was easy to navigate, with clear and helpful overhead signage. Staff were sometimes difficult to find. However, when our shopper did engage them they proved friendly and knowledgeable about the product range. Overall, this was “quite an enjoyable trip” for our shopper.
There was a big drop to third-placed Sainsbury’s in Kensington, which scored 53 points. The store was well stocked; our shopper managed to take home 30 items, with one out-of-stock and two not-stocked items. She found the store clean and tidy and easy to navigate, though there were several buckets on the floor around the store to catch leaks.
Service was the biggest issue that prevented the store scoring better. There were not enough staff on hand when our shopper needed assistance and she was directed to an aisle rather than escorted to a product.
Morrisons in Shrewsbury and Iceland in Port Talbot tied on 50 points. Our shopper felt the entrance at Morrisons had too many different promotions and fixtures, which she said was “all a bit muddled”. The was a spillage in the beer aisle with a yellow warning sign next to it, but was not being attended to.
Staff seemed busy but were friendly and keen to help, while the checkout assistant was also “excellent and really friendly”.
Our Iceland shopper’s trip got off to an inauspicious start. She had trouble finding a trolley and noticed that many were rusty and in poor condition. The small store felt cluttered with promotional stands, metal bins and unattended restocking equipment.
Two of the three staff she approached were very friendly and helpful, though a third team member blanked her twice. She was also shocked at the tills when the checkout operator got up and walked away while she was still packing.
The lowest-scoring store was Asda in Solihull with just 48 points. There were two out-of-stocks and one not-stocked item. One aisle was blocked by staff restocking shelves, though our shopper’s biggest gripe was a long wait at the tills as there were not enough manned checkouts open.
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