Waitrose has bagged a second store of the week award in as many outings thanks to its Maidenhead branch, which notched up an impressive 84 points.
Our shopper would have picked up a full basket but for an out-of-stock on the Linda McCartney’s Vegemince.
His visit got off to a slightly tricky start – he found the car park “a little confusing” – but once parked and inside, it was plain sailing. The store front and entrance looked great, with an attractive display of flowers and drinks.
Here he encountered a manager clearly explaining and assigning tasks to staff. She seemed particularly knowledgeable and efficient, and also took time to welcome shoppers.
While older and not as bright and airy as other Waitrose stores in the region, it was clean, tidy and easy to navigate. The store was also “well staffed”, which helped to maintain high store standards.
Staff were excellent and happy to take our shopper to the items required – earning the accolade of the “best and most engaged I have seen in any mystery shops”.
Runner-up was Tesco in Skipton, whose score of 80 would have been enough to claim the win in many other weeks. The store had a “pleasant feel” on our Friday evening visit with “music playing as you walked around”. It was “clean, bright and welcoming”.
The store was clean and tidy and while staff were busy restocking shelves in several aisles, they kept well out of the way of customers.
This made staff easy to find when needed. They were generally friendly and able to point our shopper in the right direction as she was generally in the correct aisle in the first place.
The store was generally well-stocked, apart from a couple of small gaps in the fruit & veg section. In terms of availability, our shopper took 30 items home with one out-of-stock and two not-stocked items.
Only four of the 14 manned checkouts were open, which led to a five-minute queue. The checkout operator was friendly but did have to be prompted to scan our shopper’s Clubcard.
Just two points further back on 78 was Sainsbury’s in Morecambe. This was another store that almost provided a full basket, with only the Mentos chewy sweets out of stock. A friendly member of staff apologised for the missing item and suggested alternatives.
The layout was praised as one of the best stores our shopper had visited in terms of locating items. Her only disappointment came at the checkouts: just one manned till was open and the length of the queue pushed her to the self-checkouts.
There was a notable gap to next-placed Morrisons in Totton, Southampton, which scored just 63 points. Our shopper was impressed by the store standards and the range of products on display. However, availability was an issue – she only managed to pick up 27 items. There were three out-of-stocks and the same number of not-stocked items. Staff were generally friendly, though one masked member of the team did not speak to our shopper, which she found unfriendly.
Availability was also a concern at Asda in Clapham Junction. Three items were out of stock and there were noticeable gaps across the store. Staff were a “mixed bag”, with two team members proving helpful but two others not at all.
There was also little sign of queue management at the tills and not enough manned checkouts. Finally, our shopper found the store too cold.
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