Morrisons has bagged its first store of the week prize of the current Grocer 33 year, which kicked off at the beginning of July.
Its Poplar Street store in Manchester notched up 73 marks to outscore Tesco Peterborough by four points.
Availability was mostly strong across the store, though our shopper did spot a few gaps. There was just one out-of-stock item on our list and a further four not-stocked items.
The store was mainly tidy, though there was a leak in the dairy aisle, which was marked out by yellow warning signs. A couple of freezers were also out of order, but these were similarly marked by signage.
The “neatly presented and well groomed” staff were friendly and helpful. All seemed very knowledgeable and if they were not able to help, were happy to ask other colleagues for assistance.
Only a couple of manned checkouts were open, but this was enough for the number of shoppers. The checkout operator was friendly and efficient.
Our mystery shopper at Tesco took home 30 items due to three out-of-stocks. However, in general there was a good level of stock. The store seemed neat and tidy with attractive promotional displays.
There was some restocking taking place, but staff were taking care not to get in the way of shoppers. When called upon, they were happy to check their devices for missing items and, if necessary, advised on when they would next be in.
The checkout operator was friendly, though there was a till error – our shopper was not charged for the Fruit Shoots.
Sainsbury’s in Godalming was just a point behind Tesco. The availability situation was similar, though as well as three out-of-stocks there was also one not-stocked item.
Our shopper was impressed by the store standards. She overheard a manager asking one of the team to tidy up the packaged salads fixture, which she thought already looked fine. There were a few cages in the aisles, which our shopper felt could have been parked better, but the attending staff kept them out of the way of shoppers.
Staff were helpful and while they did not take our shopper to items, they provided clear instructions on where to find them. The checkout operator was also friendly and attentive.
There was a significant drop-off to the bottom two stores. At Waitrose in Windsor, our shopper and other customers had a lot of trouble prising the trolleys apart, while the ladies’ toilets were out of order.
There was just one out-of-stock item, as well as two not-stocked products. While our shopper was able to bag all the fruit & veg items on our list, many were low on stock during this Friday evening visit.
Staff were difficult to find, and were polite but did not go out of their way to help. The checkout operator also rushed our shopper by scanning before she was ready. She was also not asked for her loyalty card.
Asda’s Breck Road store in Liverpool came in at just 50 points. The biggest issue was availability: there were four out-of-stocks and six not-stocked items. This was another store in which the toilets were not working – adding to our shopper’s impression of a “grubby” store, which had rubbish in the aisles and black marks on the floor.
There was a long queue at the self-checkout area, which our shopper had to avoid by turning down another aisle. Staff were hard to find and tended to offer suggestions as to where to find items rather than taking our shopper to the location.
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