Grocer Gold Awards 2022: Grocer 33 — availability award

Winner: Tesco

No question, the supply chain crisis last year tested the grocers as never before. Sure, the early stages of the pandemic were difficult, with shelves stripped bare, but the industry quickly got to grips with the situation. The supply chain issues last year were something else, taking far longer to resolve.

That’s reflected in availability scores in our annual mystery shopping competition. Availability was worse at every single supermarket in the past 12 months. But Tesco clung on to win – for the fourth year on the trot – with availability averaging 93.3% across the 50 weeks of the competition (vs 95.9%) and three full baskets.

Waitrose had two full baskets across the year with 91.6% availability (vs 93.3%). In third came Sainsbury’s at 90.8% (vs 92.1%). Morrisons lost less ground (90.6% vs 90.8%) and also had two full baskets. Asda’s 89.8% fell from 90.4%).