stock up for holiday parties The World Cup and the Jubilee public holidays meant stores were heaving with people determined to stock up for the four-day celebrations. But in spite of this, there were only six lines unavailable to our shoppers this week. Sainsbury fared the worse, running out of sausages, Birds Eye cod fish fingers and 320g Dolmio pasta sauce, the latter having been pushed off the shelf by a special offer on the 500g size. Asda at Long Eaton was awaiting delivery of Birds Eye cod fish fingers, while Waitrose did not stock the sizes of McVitie's chocolate Homewheat and Tetley teabags we wanted. Five full baskets were recorded this week with Asda at Cramlington checking in the cheapest at £37.18. However, our mystery shopper was unimpressed by the fact this store had a fair number of aisles clogged up with packing trolleys and by the fact staff were not particularly helpful. Our shopper needed to ask twice for help before getting it. Staff at the Asda branch at Long Eaton, on the other hand, were more helpful, especially so at the checkout where a packer volunteered to help without being asked. Tesco was praised for the way its staff handled an extremely busy store. The store was well merchandised and provided a full basket ­ and has been named star performer in our new Storewatch feature (see next page). To kick off our sixth year of our weekly shop we tweaked our list by replacing frozen chicken and Jacob's Creek Shiraz Cabernet with lean mince and Hardys Stamp Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon. Our 18-pack of Persil Tablets has been replaced by the 24-pack as the former is being phased out by manufacturer Lever Fabergé. {{GROCER 33 }}