The World Cup continued to play havoc with our shop, as anyone visiting stores after the England v Argentina match would have discovered. Our south-east shopper fared worst. The trip to the Co-op coincided with hordes of fans who were topping up supplies before the next big match. The store had many empty shelves, although our shopper missed out only on eggs and bacon. However, neither the biggest trolley offered by the store, nor the conveyor belts were big enough to cope with a full shop. Our shopper was also unhappy with checkout staff who allowed products to get squashed against the conveyor belt and consequently drop onto the floor and onto the shopping of the following customer. Sainsbury and Asda stores fared the worst for missing lines. The two not listed by Sainsbury were Persil Tablets 24-packs and Anchor Spreadable. However, in spite of Asda's empty shelves, the store was impressive while staff willingly helped our shopper find four products. An assistant for fruit and veg and a checkout operator who helped pack the frozen items were singled out for praise. At Morrisons, 20 of the 25 checkouts were open, but the store was so busy it could have made good use of the other five. A lot of fruit and veg were stacked on the floor, which made negotiating the aisles difficult. Service was slow when our shopper asked for more potatoes: they took nine minutes to arrive. A further 12 minutes was taken to fetch Home Fries oven chips. However, the staff were polite and friendly, and the store provided the cheapest full basket at £38.67. Safeway produced the only till error when Golden Delicious apples became Granny Smiths, adding 4p to the bill. {{GROCER 33 }}

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