With a full basket, no queue at the checkout, great service from “helpful, knowledgeable and well trained” staff, and an orderly and clean store, Asda Huyton posted a very high score of 92 to win this week. In line with our freshers’ basket it was also running a student living promotion.

In just about any other week, the big new Morrisons in Crawley would have prevailed: it was just one point behind Asda, also with a full basket. There was no in-store sampling and promotional displays looked fairly standard to our mystery shopper, but staff gave “clear instructions” and took our shopper to products. At the checkout there was a slight queue but the “very nice” assistant handed out a pack of Nerf cards for children to play with.

A team member at Tesco Seacroft greeted incoming customers. But store standards did not impress. Stock was seen on pallets rather than shelves, while the milk display was messy: bottles had leaked - but staff hadn’t noticed. There was an “excellent” range of services, however, and no queue.

The car park at Sainsbury’s O2 Finchley Road was easy to navigate and tidy. Displays looked new and the layout made it fairly easy to find items. Staff did their best to help locate products but didn’t always check the stockroom. There was a lengthy checkout queue.

Waitrose Westbury Park’s car park had temporary signage, which made it hard to navigate. It didn’t score a point for availability and though it was clean, fresh and well-lit, freezers were almost empty and a trolley was obstructing the alcohol aisle.

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