Tesco is celebrating its first store of the week victory since November.
The supermarket’s Andover store brought home the bacon this week with an impressive 81 points. Our shopper picked up the first full basket of 2025, and was generally impressed by how well stocked the store was.
In another plus point, there were plenty of staff, all of whom were well presented. However, a lot of them were picking for online grocery orders, which made this busy Saturday morning visit slightly more difficult.
Restocking cages were kept well out of the way of customers, though, and enough tills were open at the checkout.
Our shopper at Asda in Charlton was a whisker away from completing a full basket. There were no out-of-stocks, and only the Nutella B-ready snack bars were not stocked.
The store was also “very clean and spacious”. Although not that busy, our shopper was hampered by online pickers and a lot of staff were restocking shelves. The main obstruction was an electric scissor lift in one aisle, which was being used by two members of staff to inspect the roof.
Our shopper’s interactions with staff were positive – all were “very polite and helpful and either took me to the aisle I needed or told me which aisle to go to”. There were also enough manned tills open to ensure a smooth checkout.
There was just a single point separating third and fourth this week. Third place went to Sainsbury’s Lordshill in Southampton with 68. Overall, our shopper had a positive experience and would be happy to return to the store.
In terms of availability, there were two not-stocked items and just one out-of-stock. However, our shopper did spot a lot of missing produce in the fruit & veg section.
Staff were mostly friendly and approachable, bar one negative moment when she needed assistance but the two nearest members of staff appeared to be busy chatting. One of them merely pointed in the direction of a missing item instead of offering more help.
At the checkout, the experience was again excellent, with plenty of manned tills available.
Just behind on 67 was Waitrose in Gloucester Arcade in London, which was described as clean and tidy. Availability was the biggest issue in this smaller store, which measures at 15,500 sq ft – one factor behind the seven not-stocked items. However, there were also six out-of-stocks.
Staff were generally polite to our shopper, but the large number of missing items meant she often had to ask for help. She was often met with the same response: “if it’s not on the shelves or in the freezers” then it’s not stocked.
Availability was also the main problem at Morrisons Farnborough, which mustered a score of 58. It had four out-of-stocks and one not-stocked item, and our shopper felt store standards were poor.
The store looked more like you might expect on a busy Saturday afternoon, with cardboard everywhere and lots of gaps on shelves, and staff were helpful but hard to find. The store’s highlight was its counters – the only areas that seemed to have enough staff.
Guest retailer Iceland fell in last place with just 52 points. Staff at its Hyde store were also hard to locate but were “all polite and helpful when approached” and apologised for any missing items.
There were three out-of-stocks and one not-stocked item, and a bit of a wait at the tills due to a lack of staff.
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