Sainsbury’s in Bourne, Lincolnshire, squeaked to victory by a solitary point this week – over the Waitrose food hall in the John Lewis Oxford Street store.
Just 71 points was enough to secure Sainsbury’s the win, which also arrived despite five not-stocked items. It was still enough, however, to make it the best-performing store on availability this week.
It owed the win to shop floor service, with “lots” of staff restocking and “working carefully not to disrupt shoppers”. Our shopper also reported they located items “easily” when asked and said the store was well stocked but noticed a few gaps on shelves.
The layout was also “mostly intuitive”, and though our shopper felt the store was “a little tired”, the spacious aisles, service and broad offering “would encourage me to return”.
The Waitrose food hall in the John Lewis Oxford Street in central London was edged out by one point. The range available was ill-suited to a weekly shop: this played out in the store’s availability score, as 14 items were not stocked. And a comfortable victory would have been achieved were that not the case.
As it was, the store performed well in most other areas and was praised as “neat, tidy and clean” with plenty of staff available on the shop floor. Those who were asked for help were all “more than willing to assist”.
Our shopper was also impressed by the store’s unique counters, including ‘Create Your Own Hamper’, a ‘Cheese Room’ and a dedicated kosher counter, as well as free hot drinks.
Deals were conspicuous by their absence, however, and our shopper left feeling “like I was in a maze” with signage that “wasn’t helpful”.
Third placed Morrisons in Corby also performed poorly on availability with two out-of-stocks and four items not stocked. And in a week when Morrisons announced it would shut almost 100 fresh counters, plus cafés and c-stores, our shopper was “impressed” by the various counters and lamented how “my usual store doesn’t have the counters any more, or a café”.
Our shopper was disappointed by the trolley section and saw gaps on shelves, but had fond words for staff members “Jordan, Paige, Katie and Luke”, all of whom were “very polite and helpful”.
Tesco Newbury, on 57, recorded eight out-of-stocks and one item not stocked, which our shopper regarded as “disappointing”, especially given the size of the store (almost 60,000 sq ft). Despite this, the first few aisles “still felt crowded” due to the high number of staff – “too many to count” – pushing trolleys and picking orders.
The upside was it was easy to find staff when help was needed, our shopper noting all five of those she approached were “very helpful” and “didn’t appear to mind being interrupted”.
Last this week was Asda in Stoke-on-Trent, which picked up just 46 points in a shop again plagued by availability issues, thanks to its six out-of-stocks and two not-stocked items.
Our shopper described her experience as “not a happy” one and remarked that she “would like some sort of order and logic in a shop”. Instead, she “wandered about looking for things in strange places” for over two hours and worried she would receive a parking fine.
She added: “Why have a café and a large store and encourage people not to hang about, have a cuppa, browse the clothes and homeware and possibly spend more money? Bad plan.”
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