Budgens Queen Charlotte Street, Bristol

Mills Yew Tree Lane, Solihull

snax 24 Daleside Road, Nottingham

tesco express Wellingborough Road, Northampton

Coopers Edward Street, Westbury



How they performed



This week's Top-Up Shopping exercise revealed a mixed bag of experiences. While Budgens' Queen Charlotte Street store in Bristol scored top marks for availability, our shopper was disappointed with the customer service that she received. She said the store appeared untidy and that both members of staff she approached for assistance simply pointed her in the rough direction, rather than taking her to the products. Mills' small Yew Tree Lane store in Solihull does not stock Stella Artois in 440ml cans so our shopper was only able to pick up nine of the ten items on our list. She did, however, receive pleasing levels of customer service. The store was attractively presented, well merchandised and manned by helpful staff. She was also offered help packing her goods. Tesco Express in Northampton was out of stock of its cheapest-brand butter block. However, the rest of our shopper's experience went without a hitch. Staff were polite and happy to offer assistance, and he also had his bags packed by the checkout assistant. At £1.11, the store was charging the same price as larger Tescos for its own label semi-skimmed milk, while it was charging 17p more for four 440ml cans of Stella Artois, 33p more for Fairy liquid, and 5p more for a two-litre bottle of Coca-Cola. Meanwhile, our Nottingham shopper had a frustrating experience at her local Snax 24. The store only keeps baskets behind the counter and our shopper had to ask to be given one. She had quite a bit of trouble locating some of the products on her list and noted that a number of them were not priced. The store does not stock bacon or butter, which meant our shopper was only able to collect eight items.

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