The Asda supercentre in Spondon, Derby, provided the best service this week, with plenty of extras on offer. Grapefruit and clementine sampling drew our shopper into the well-stocked fresh produce section and helpful staff showed her where to find the Quorn.
She was also impressed by the concessions, including McDonald's, First Choice travel agents and an optician.
It was a different story at Morrisons in Stamford Hill, London, our shopper describing the customer service as "appalling".
Two managers who were chatting responded with "I don't know" when asked if the Stilton was in stock. In total, six items were out of stock, and the checkout assistant didn't say hello, offer bags or tell our shopper the total.
Waitrose in East Grinstead also had seven items out of stock, but a helpful assistant and no queues at the checkout went some way to making up for this.
Our Tesco shopper was also able to whizz through the checkout at Milngavie, Glasgow, and completed a full shop in what was described as a clean and tidy store.
Sainsbury's in Brighton offered a full basket, too, but our shopper had to queue and the store was very busy. Three checkouts were closed, slowing proceedings further, and the bakery's slicing machine was out of order. The shelves were full and the checkout assistant was friendly and efficient.
Winner: Steve Kanabar, Asda, Spondon, Derby
What is selling particularly well at the moment? We have just finished a four-for-three promotion on £1 frozen lines and toiletries. It included ready meals, pizza and vegetables in addition to toiletries such as toothpaste, mouthwash and Olay products. Sales on frozen lines were up 10% and on toiletries up 15%.
In a supercentre with 850 staff, how do you make hundreds of staff feel like a team? We have a very strong bond with the local community and colleagues give talks to universities, colleges and the WI, so we recruit from the community. We have what we call the Happy to Help programme, which is about making sure we look after our customers, but it also helps us to bond as a team. The store opened in 1982 and we are such a strong team we still have 18 people here who helped open the store.
How much freedom does head office give you? Although the main strategies come from head office, if I have a supplier come to me I can stock that product, depending on space. Right now we have a local drink for kids called Funky Monkey. It's 98p for a 12-pack and we brought in 6,000 units this week, which I am expecting will sell quickly.
What events do you have at your store? We have a lot of celebrity book and CD signings because we are such a big store. Recently we've had Peter Andre, Ant and Dec, Ross Kemp and this week Danny Dyer is coming in. Ross Kemp drew the biggest crowd. We have to be organised with health and safety, so we have barriers up and operate a ticket system and also get the local police involved. Often people will come for the signing and then do their shopping after, so it is a good way of drawing people in.
What are you doing to reduce food waste? There is a lot of pressure from government to change what we do with waste and how much is sent to landfill, so we have started a new scheme this week. Normally any food waste such as cereal would be scanned as waste, put in the compactor, then taken off to landfill. But now we are putting the waste food in bags and it is being taken by a driver to be recycled at our depot.
She was also impressed by the concessions, including McDonald's, First Choice travel agents and an optician.
It was a different story at Morrisons in Stamford Hill, London, our shopper describing the customer service as "appalling".
Two managers who were chatting responded with "I don't know" when asked if the Stilton was in stock. In total, six items were out of stock, and the checkout assistant didn't say hello, offer bags or tell our shopper the total.
Waitrose in East Grinstead also had seven items out of stock, but a helpful assistant and no queues at the checkout went some way to making up for this.
Our Tesco shopper was also able to whizz through the checkout at Milngavie, Glasgow, and completed a full shop in what was described as a clean and tidy store.
Sainsbury's in Brighton offered a full basket, too, but our shopper had to queue and the store was very busy. Three checkouts were closed, slowing proceedings further, and the bakery's slicing machine was out of order. The shelves were full and the checkout assistant was friendly and efficient.
Winner: Steve Kanabar, Asda, Spondon, Derby
What is selling particularly well at the moment? We have just finished a four-for-three promotion on £1 frozen lines and toiletries. It included ready meals, pizza and vegetables in addition to toiletries such as toothpaste, mouthwash and Olay products. Sales on frozen lines were up 10% and on toiletries up 15%.
In a supercentre with 850 staff, how do you make hundreds of staff feel like a team? We have a very strong bond with the local community and colleagues give talks to universities, colleges and the WI, so we recruit from the community. We have what we call the Happy to Help programme, which is about making sure we look after our customers, but it also helps us to bond as a team. The store opened in 1982 and we are such a strong team we still have 18 people here who helped open the store.
How much freedom does head office give you? Although the main strategies come from head office, if I have a supplier come to me I can stock that product, depending on space. Right now we have a local drink for kids called Funky Monkey. It's 98p for a 12-pack and we brought in 6,000 units this week, which I am expecting will sell quickly.
What events do you have at your store? We have a lot of celebrity book and CD signings because we are such a big store. Recently we've had Peter Andre, Ant and Dec, Ross Kemp and this week Danny Dyer is coming in. Ross Kemp drew the biggest crowd. We have to be organised with health and safety, so we have barriers up and operate a ticket system and also get the local police involved. Often people will come for the signing and then do their shopping after, so it is a good way of drawing people in.
What are you doing to reduce food waste? There is a lot of pressure from government to change what we do with waste and how much is sent to landfill, so we have started a new scheme this week. Normally any food waste such as cereal would be scanned as waste, put in the compactor, then taken off to landfill. But now we are putting the waste food in bags and it is being taken by a driver to be recycled at our depot.
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