Waitrose has been named as the surprise winner of a poll by BBC consumer programme Watchdog to find the UK’s favourite supermarket.

Waitrose emerged as the winner after 21% of voters in an online poll cited the upmarket retailer – or online partner Ocado – as the supermarket where they would prefer to do most of their shopping.

Sainsbury’s was next with 19% of the vote, ahead of Tesco (15%), Asda (14%) and Morrisons (10%). Marks & Spencer claimed just 9% of the vote, although 35% of voters said it offered the best quality food, ahead of Waitrose on 29%.

Meanwhile, Waitrose also scored highest for shopper satisfaction, with 85% saying they were ‘very satisfied’ with the shopping experience.

However, voters named Asda as the best-value supermarket (24% of the vote) ahead of arch rival Tesco (16%), although Tesco had more shoppers in the poll than any other supermarket. Just 1% of voters thought Somerfield offered the best value.

Notably, voters placed equal importance on price, quality and convenience, with all three cited by 26% of participants as the single most important factor in determining where to shop.

More than 36,300 consumers took part in the online poll, run on the Watchdog website.

See Saturday’s edition of The Grocer for full analysis and comment on this story.

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