A stupendously close battle played out this week with just two points separating the top three retailers. Emerging victorious on 78 points was Waitrose in Greenwich, which may have seen a clearer margin of victory had its diminutive size not impacted its availability score through five unstocked items and one out of stock.
The picture was brighter in pretty much every other category, though, especially shop floor service, with our shopper awarding it a perfect 20 and commenting that “the high quality of customer service was the best thing about this store” with multiple members of staff she spoke to all going “out of their way to help me”.
Overall, she judged this a “spacious, clean store” that provided a “very positive” experience.
Edged into second place by a solitary point was the giant Asda in Gateshead, which came in at more than four times the size of this week’s winner. Its score of 77 was helped by just one out-of-stock and one not-stocked item, though it was on tills and checkouts that the store really excelled, with our shopper noting that the staff member serving her was “friendly and able to answer my question about using a coupon on the Asda Rewards app”.
She also found the range of food available to be “excellent” but noted that “for such a huge store” there was “no butcher or deli counters” which “feels like a miss”.
In third this week with 76 points was Tesco in Craigavon, which had two out-of-stocks but zero items not stocked. Our shopper was very pleased with the service she received on the till, where “the lady was very polite, she asked me lots of questions and was very helpful” – and she even helped our shopper pack her bags.
She described this as a “lovely store” with staff that were “all very friendly and helpful”, with the “only bad parts” being the bakery and fruit & veg sections being low on stock and staff sometimes seeming to be “missing in action”.
The gap between third and fourth was more of a chasm this week, with fourth-placed Morrisons in Stockport garnering just 39 points. The problems began with a zero score for availability, thanks to five out-of-stocks, and didn’t get much better elsewhere.
One bright spot was the car park, which had “a lovely aesthetic entrance”, according to our shopper. But unfortunately, “after a great start in the car park, entering the store was very underwhelming”.
He reserved praise for “the lady on the till” who was “extremely lovely”, but this was little consolation for the “quite chaotic” tills area, which had long queues and “no attendant to manage them”. There was also a problem with the store’s system that meant our shopper’s loyalty card did not work and management could not resolve it in-store, meaning a call would be necessary later.
In last place, a further 10 points back on 29 – the second-lowest score of 2025 so far – was Sainsbury’s in Fulham. The store had three out-of-stocks and three not-stocked items, while our shopper was also dismayed to find there were zero manned checkouts on offer.
While she said the layout was good, she found some shelves were empty, the shop “seemed very cramped” and it was “difficult to move around the store when shopping”. Furthermore, the staff “were not overly helpful” and were more inclined to direct our shopper “rather than show [me] where items were”.
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