In this week’s battle between no fewer than seven stores, Asda picked up just its second win of the Grocer 33 year, continuing the good vibes kicked off with the return of Rollback last week.
Its store in the Central Twelve Shopping Park in Southport picked up an impressive score of 92 points. The branch earned high praise from our shopper, who upon entry was “made to feel an important part of a shopping experience” – a feat “I doubt will ever be replicated elsewhere”.
One of the only blights on a near-perfect Saturday morning shop was the five-pack of garlic being out of stock. However, single bulbs and packs of three were available.
Elsewhere, our shopper was impressed by the staff member on the checkout, who offered a “warm” greeting along with “interesting and friendly” small talk. He also felt the store layout “could not be faulted”, that staff were pleasant and smiley, while every section was “sparkling clean” with enticing offers available.
All in all, our shopper was won over enough to become a new customer – he vowed “without a doubt I will shop here now on a regular basis”.
Sainsbury’s in Bradford missed the top spot by just a whisker, with an impressive score of 90. That was built on excellent availability: only the tiger loaf was not stocked.
The store also delivered a particularly strong showing on store standards. Everything was clean and tidy on this Saturday morning, our shopper noted, with restocking trolleys carefully placed out of the way of customers. The Valentine’s displays were also singled out for being “delightful” and “impressive”.
Morrisons in Dundee picked up a creditable 81 points – higher than the winning score in the past two weeks – to claim third place.
One out-of-stock and one not-stocked item put a small dent in its availability score, in a strong week for stock levels. However, our shopper was complimentary about the enticing deals on offer, consistently full shelves and great customer service.
Just behind on 80 points came Waitrose in Chester. The store hit a perfect score for availability and had attractive, well-stocked cheese, deli, fish and meat counters.
Two members of staff were “most helpful” when asked for assistance, which added up to “a really nice experience” in a good-sized store.
Lidl in Plymouth was the first of two guest retailers this week. The discounter put in a good showing with a score of 77, bolstered by a perfect 20 points for availability.
Our shopper described the store as “really impressive”, with all areas feeling well looked after and slightly dimmer lighting providing “a soothing effect”. It was “really clear the staff work hard to look after this store”, she added.
Tesco in East Kilbride was next up with 72 points. Its availability score was hampered by one out-of-stock and two not-stocked items, partly explained by the store’s smaller size . However, it scored well on shop floor service. Our shopper enjoyed the store’s ‘quiet hour’ with no music or unnecessary announcements and slightly dimmed lights.
Bottom of the pack was Aldi in Lincoln with 61 points. The store did well enough on availability but scored just one out of 10 for layout, mainly due to “difficult to follow” signage. The store also lacked customer toilets and food-to-go but offered “interesting” items such as air fryers in its Specialbuy aisles.
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