Sainsbury's has played down concerns of an availability crisis despite reports of dismal out-of-stocks from The Grocer 33 survey. In the past four weeks, Sainsbury's average availability has plummeted to 89.4%. Last year's average across the six major retailers was 96.7%. Sainsbury's - which last year boasted more full baskets than any other retailer - enjoyed a fantastic start to The Grocer 33 new year, starting 16 June, with five consecutive weeks of 100% availability. But in our 21 July issue, the Hedge End branch near Southampton was sold out of three different items. The situation deteriorated last week when the Hove branch had five out-of -stocks, including parsnips, Schweppes tonic water and own-label ice cream. This week it's even worse. Our mystery shopper could not find six items on The Grocer 33 shopping list and was informed by staff at the Stoke Gifford store near Bristol they were not available. "I asked various members of staff whether they had the items, but they didn't seem interested in helping and told me that the items were out of stock," said our mystery shopper, who has been with The Grocer 33 for more than two years. However, Sainsbury's claims it has till receipts from the Stoke Gifford store that show all six of the items were passed through checkouts throughout the day, therefore proving the items were available. The Grocer has learned that other Sainsbury's stores around the country have been running low on key products. Baking potatoes, lasagne, fruit scones and Schweppes tonic water were out of stock at the Balham branch, south London, and the Warren Heath Sainsbury's in Ipswich had low stocks of breakfast cereals, ice cream and squash. One shopper said of her local branch in Purley, south of London: "The shelves were bare in the chilled areas, bakery and particularly fresh produce. I actually asked customer services if the store was closing down." But availability issues are not limited to Sainsbury's. In the past nine weeks, Somerfield has also suffered with 89% availability, while Asda was at 95.9% in this period.

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