Who we visited

Spar, Manor Green Road, Epsom, Surrey

Kwik Save, The Paddock, Handforth, Cheshire

Best One Ditton Hill, Long Ditton, Surrey

Scotmid Co-op East Main Street, Uphall, West Lothian

Tesco Express, Acton, Surrey



How they performed

A number of items on The Grocer 33's Top Up shopping list have been switched this week, as we continue to glean a broader insight into pricing within the convenience store sector.

The four-pack of 440ml Stella Artois has been swapped in favour of a 415g can of Heinz Baked Beanz, while Fairy Liquid has been replaced with another breakfast staple - the 24-pack of Weetabix. The five stores visited this week performed well in terms of availability and also impressed our shoppers with their range of tempting special offers.

Kwik Save proved it had put its availability woes well and truly behind itself - providing all 10 Top Up items on our list and at the cheapest price. The retailer, whose availability was further tried this week when we conducted a full 33-item shop at a range of its stores (see pages 6 and 7) was carrying the cheapest price for a six-pack of bacon and Tetley tea bags.

This week's report also exposed some substantial price variences on Heinz Baked Beanz. The cheapest 415g can could be found on sale at Scotmid Co-op for 48p, while Spar's Epsom store was 11p more expensive at 59p. Kwik Save and Best-one both carried the price of 55p. The same was true for a 2-litre bottle of Coca-Cola - which was at its cheapest (£1.36) at Scotmid Co-op and 43p more expensive at Spar's Epsom store. The Co-op store was also offering this product at two for £2.30. All of our shoppers reported seeing a high number of promotions. Best-one's Thames Ditton store was offering two cans of beans for £1.00 and two cans of cat food for £1.09, while Kwik Save's Cheshire store was offering 50% extra free on Tetley tea bags.