Faultless availability and excellent customer service made Morrisons' store in Auchinlea, Glasgow, the clear winner this week.
Our shopper found the three-year-old 40,000 sq ft store to be bright, airy and clean. The checkout assistant was friendly and polite and packed our shopper's bags.
Staff were also helpful at Waitrose's Sutton Coldfield store, but our shopper found that over-crowded shelf-edge labels made it difficult to determine which product some price labels referred to. The chicken tikka healthy meal was out of stock due to a product recall over allergens.
Asda in Bury St Edmunds only opened last month and our shopper was pleased at how clean and fresh the store looked - although some staff had difficulty locating items she asked for. She didn't have to queue at the checkout and said the assistant was chatty and friendly.
Three out-of-stock items - double cream, balsamic vinegar and frozen forest fruits - let down Tesco in Loudwater, High Wycombe, but the checkout assistant was very friendly and gave our shopper extra school vouchers.
In Sainsbury's in Worthing, West Sussex, two items - the Soreen malt loaf and the balsamic vinegar - were out of stock and a few packing trolleys had been left in the aisles, but our shopper said that the overall shopping experience was pleasant.
Winner: Stephen Neary, store manager, Morrisons, Glasgow
How well is your store trading? Our sales growth is 12%-15% a year and our popularity is growing all the time.
How much is non-food? A good 12% of what we sell is non-food and our new ranges of furnishings, candles and mugs are doing well. Our gardening range is brilliant: it gets updated every year so the furniture is modern and priced competitively compared with other retailers.
How much freedom does your head office give you? One of the values our company recently introduced is Fresh Thinking, whereby if you have an idea about how to improve the business you can pass it to your area manager and it will get passed up the chain.
What everyday management challenges do you face? Fluctuations in the weather are a major challenge - in Scotland you can get four seasons in one day. But at Morrisons that is easier to manage than our competitor chains because we make so much of our own food. We also multi-skill our staff so they can be moved around when necessary.
Who is your biggest competitor? We have an Asda and a Tesco, both about five miles away, and I would say that Asda is our biggest competitor because of the price perception. But you only need to look at The Grocer to see that our prices are always there or thereabouts.
How big a problem is theft? We did have a considerable problem with theft, which was costing us up to £70,000 a year, but we have recently introduced tagging on spirits, Champagne and razors, and that seems to have worked quite well. We introduced it last November and theft has fallen by half on spirits since then. We also use the civil recovery scheme to get back the money lost.
What do you do for the local community? Twelve schools in the area signed up for Let's Grow, where they save vouchers to buy gardening equipment. We invite schools to the store to have a tour and try some food. We have also just had a meeting of our social committee to discuss fundraising for Cancer Research, Morrisons' charity of the year.
Our shopper found the three-year-old 40,000 sq ft store to be bright, airy and clean. The checkout assistant was friendly and polite and packed our shopper's bags.
Staff were also helpful at Waitrose's Sutton Coldfield store, but our shopper found that over-crowded shelf-edge labels made it difficult to determine which product some price labels referred to. The chicken tikka healthy meal was out of stock due to a product recall over allergens.
Asda in Bury St Edmunds only opened last month and our shopper was pleased at how clean and fresh the store looked - although some staff had difficulty locating items she asked for. She didn't have to queue at the checkout and said the assistant was chatty and friendly.
Three out-of-stock items - double cream, balsamic vinegar and frozen forest fruits - let down Tesco in Loudwater, High Wycombe, but the checkout assistant was very friendly and gave our shopper extra school vouchers.
In Sainsbury's in Worthing, West Sussex, two items - the Soreen malt loaf and the balsamic vinegar - were out of stock and a few packing trolleys had been left in the aisles, but our shopper said that the overall shopping experience was pleasant.
Winner: Stephen Neary, store manager, Morrisons, Glasgow
How well is your store trading? Our sales growth is 12%-15% a year and our popularity is growing all the time.
How much is non-food? A good 12% of what we sell is non-food and our new ranges of furnishings, candles and mugs are doing well. Our gardening range is brilliant: it gets updated every year so the furniture is modern and priced competitively compared with other retailers.
How much freedom does your head office give you? One of the values our company recently introduced is Fresh Thinking, whereby if you have an idea about how to improve the business you can pass it to your area manager and it will get passed up the chain.
What everyday management challenges do you face? Fluctuations in the weather are a major challenge - in Scotland you can get four seasons in one day. But at Morrisons that is easier to manage than our competitor chains because we make so much of our own food. We also multi-skill our staff so they can be moved around when necessary.
Who is your biggest competitor? We have an Asda and a Tesco, both about five miles away, and I would say that Asda is our biggest competitor because of the price perception. But you only need to look at The Grocer to see that our prices are always there or thereabouts.
How big a problem is theft? We did have a considerable problem with theft, which was costing us up to £70,000 a year, but we have recently introduced tagging on spirits, Champagne and razors, and that seems to have worked quite well. We introduced it last November and theft has fallen by half on spirits since then. We also use the civil recovery scheme to get back the money lost.
What do you do for the local community? Twelve schools in the area signed up for Let's Grow, where they save vouchers to buy gardening equipment. We invite schools to the store to have a tour and try some food. We have also just had a meeting of our social committee to discuss fundraising for Cancer Research, Morrisons' charity of the year.
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