Sainsbury’s claimed a third service & availability win in the past six weeks as its Leicester store delighted our mystery shopper.
The store racked up 76 points. It was well-stocked, with only an out-of-stock on the grapefruit preventing her from taking home a full basket. It was clean and tidy, and our shopper was impressed by the wide range available. Staff were all excellent, including one member of the team who went on a hunt for the missing grapefruit even though he was on his break. Our shopper said it lived up to the ‘superstore’ moniker.
The runner-up spot went to Morrisons in Weybridge with 68. The modest score came despite our shopper taking all 33 items home and impressive interactions with staff.
Her biggest gripe was that the store was hard to navigate, with different products arranged in multiple locations in a seemingly random way. Even though our shopper found all of the items she was after, it took her a long time to do so. Ultimately she left pleased that she got everything she needed but “feeling pretty ambiguous about the store”.
Third spot went to Asda in Gillingham with 67 points. Availability was the main negative, with five out-of-stocks. There were a number of gaps in the fruit & veg section but the produce looked fresh.
Staff were busy replenishing aisles and our shopper said she was made to feel like an inconvenience as staff tried to get their restocking crates through the aisles. These crates were also often left in the way of items our shopper needed to get to. One member of staff, when asked for help finding the feta, merely pointed at it.
Tesco Bradford was a point back on 66. Our shopper enjoyed the vast array of seasonal items with some Christmas lines already in store and lots of Halloween-themed areas. Store standards were generally good, but there was a spillage in the chilled area, which had a “Caution! Wet floor” sign next to it. The spillage hadn’t been attended to.
There were noticeable gaps across the store, though there was only one out-of-stock on our list. There were also four not-stocked items. None of the colleagues took our shopper directly to the product but they all knew which aisle to go to.
Lidl in Dartmouth was the top-performing discounter on 63 points. There was a pleasant smell from the in-store bakery but aisles were full of cages, pallets and a portable freezer storage unit. A pallet truck was left in the fruit & veg aisle but there was a member of staff nearby stacking items. Our shopper managed to take 32 items home, with only the tuna steaks out of stock.
Waitrose’s branch in London’s South Bank Tower scored 61. There were no out-of-stocks, but had 13 not-stocked items in the almost 18,000 sq ft store.
Shelves were neat and tidy and generally fully stocked, but on one occasion our shopper had to move a restocking trolley to view the items on a shelf. He was impressed by staff, with one in particular very polite and “willing to help me track down missing items and suggesting alternative purchases”.
Aldi Guildford came last with a score of 60. There were three out-of-stocks and one not stocked item. The fruit & veg was slightly disappointing compared with our shopper’s previous visits. A number of items were unavailable and it was slightly untidy. Two restocking trolleys blocked one aisle. Staff were happy to help despite clearly being behind schedule in terms of replenishment.
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