Asda is the star performer of the latest Verdict report on the shopping habits of UK consumers. The report says Asda has overtaken Sainsbury to take number two spot in the hearts of the UK shopper ­ gaining number one spot in the loyalty stakes. It prolongs the agony for Sainsbury, which was knocked off the number one spot by Tesco in 1998. But Sainsbury slammed the report saying its findings were irrelevant and ambiguous, and the multiple said it was still second for market share. Asda, now owned by Wal-Mart, attracts the highest loyalty rating among the superstores across a range of factors, particularly price. But the key message is that loyalty has been eroded over the past 12 months because of the price war. A year ago Verdict found 75% of shoppers were loyal ­ that being the percentage of shoppers who thought their main store was the best. This year that has fallen to 70%. In other words, says the report, 30% of shoppers or 7.2 million households would switch their main food store if it was convenient. Verdict said loyalty cards were still not very significant in fostering loyalty. Convenience and price are the two most important factors in attracting shoppers. Although there is not a high level of loyalty, almost 70% of shoppers still use one of the big four chains ­ either Tesco, Asda, Safeway or Sainsbury. But Morrisons, Asda and Tesco are converting more than 50% of casual visitors to main shoppers. Waitrose comes top for customer service, layout and store ambience. Marks & Spencer outperforms all other food retailers on quality. But Tesco is still the undisputed market leader and is uniformly well regarded for convenience, price and range, although still over a quarter of its customers would prefer to shop elsewhere. Safeway gets bottom marks for customer loyalty. It is the lowest in the survey, with 40% of users preferring to use another store. {{NEWS }}

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