After two months without a mystery shop win, Tesco has now bagged two victories in three weeks.
Its branch in St Oswalds Street, Liverpool, picked up 69 points in a low-scoring week across the board.
Tesco’s win came despite scoring zero for availability, with eight out-of-stocks and one not-stocked product. Nonetheless, it just about saw off Sainsbury’s thanks to strong scores in all other categories.
A perfect 20 for shop floor service was secured thanks to Tesco’s staff all being “very friendly and happy to help”. On three occasions, different staff members checked their handheld devices to find the location of a product or whether it was stocked, and a couple of other times our shopper was shown to where a product was located.
This was backed up by wide aisles and clear signage, which made it easy to find products. All in all, it was a “stress-free” shop in a store with “a pleasant atmosphere” – something our shopper wasn’t necessarily expecting on a Friday evening, which can often be “chaotic”.
Sainsbury’s Thetford store bagged second place, with two out-of-stocks and two products not stocked. Our shopper was complimentary about the store’s helpful and polite staff, who were frequently available to help with queries.
However, the store appeared quite low on stock, with shelves empty in places. Fresh items, in particular, were “lacking and untidy”. Worse, though, were the alarms, which “kept going off with no announcements over the Tannoy to inform customers or allay fears” over the reasons for the alert.
Asda in Ruislip managed 62 points – enough for third place – partly thanks to a strong showing on availability with just one out-of-stock. It also scored well on tills & checkouts, where our shopper was served quickly, and staff were “great”.
Unfortunately, this came in stark contrast to the staff on the shop floor, who were very thin on the ground – bar those who were picking items. Our shopper received “very poor responses generally” and “felt staff would rather be left alone”. However, the world food aisles and halal butchers were both “impressive”, as were the food-to-go and pizza offerings.
Just behind on 61 points was Morrisons in Brentford. It recorded zero out-of-stocks but had six not-stocked items – partly explained by its relatively small size – that brought down its availability score.
Our shopper found the layout quite confusing. Upon entering, she was unsure where she was supposed to go and noted some of the items “weren’t where I expected them to be”.
There were also “a few” abandoned trolleys scattered around the store. However, all the staff (bar one) were “really fantastic” when asked for help finding things – although the haphazard placement of items meant this was a regular occurrence.
Waitrose in Frimley limped in last with just 52 points, not helped by our second zero score for availability this week, with six out-of-stocks and one item not stocked. Not many staff were around on the shop floor and experiences were mixed with those that could be tracked down – one didn’t check the stock to see if there was any fresh turmeric, for example.
Service at the tills was more positive. Although the checkout assistant was quite chatty, meaning it took “a little bit longer to be served than I would perhaps have liked”, when she came to serve our shopper “she was very nice and friendly, so I didn’t mind that it had taken slightly longer”.
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