The Grocer is unveiling a new and improved methodology for The Grocer 33 store of the week.

The weekly mystery shop competition will feature a new scoring system in which the car park, store layout, navigation and counter services will all be assessed for the first time.

Under store standards, there will be marks for promotional and fresh produce displays and in-store sampling. Scores for areas like availability have also been adjusted, with five points deducted for every item out of stock, and two points for every item not stocked.

“The key objective in relaunching The Grocer 33 mystery shop was transparency,” said Adam Leyland, editor of The Grocer. “We wanted to ensure the service was fair. After talking to store managers, we realised the best way was to itemise all the scores.”

In the next few weeks, thegrocer.co.uk will unveil new tables detailing which store scored what and why at a granular level, as well as publishing extensive commentary from mystery shoppers. In the meantime, digital subscribers can access highlights at thegrocer.co.uk/grocer-33.

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