For our Christmas 33 shop, the “lovely, large and spacious” Sainsbury’s Gloucester Quays proved just the job. The car park had plenty of signage making easy to navigate and was queue-free on entry and exit. The store layout was logical and promotions “enticing”. Staff were “very good” though sometimes hard to find. There was a small queue at the checkout but the assistant offered to help with packing.

Waitrose was a close second. The only store to boast full availability, and also scored highest for shop floor service as staff proved helpful, particularly in finding a product that was on the bottom shelf. But messy trolleys in the car park and the lack of stock in the fruit & veg section meant it narrowly missed out on first place.

Some areas of Tesco Handforth were messy and depleted of stock. Down aisle 26, restocking was taking place but the cage was positioned in an obstructive place. A good range of counter services were offered and staff were very helpful, though occasionally difficult to find. There was a lengthy queue at the checkout as the assistant seemed to be new and was very slow at scanning - and didn’t offer a bag for life. Availability was also poor. A mere two points in this section.

There was a queue to get into the car park at Morrisons Welling and it wasn’t clear that you needed to pay to park. Shop floor staff were busy restocking shelves but did offer to check the stockroom for products. At the tills the queue was over four minutes and the assistant didn’t even look at our shopper until it was time to pay. Four products were not stocked.

The entrance at Asda Hatfield was full of offers - especially on Christmas trees - and well-placed to avoid congestion, but our shopper hated the overall layout. The fruit & veg department was finally found at the back of the store after asking a member of staff where it was. And stock was low throughout, even with staff refilling shelves, while a number of empty boxes were also spotted.

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