The Grocer – 24 August 2019

analysis the grocer 33

17 | The Grocer | 24 August 2019 Get the full story at thegrocer.co.uk

mystery shopper

S

ainsbury’s put an end to
Tesco’s four-week win-
ning run as its Newport
store delivered an excellent
performance, scoring 91 points.
As well as providing this
week’s only full basket,
Sainsbury’s staff recorded full
marks for shop floor service.
Our shopper found them “polite
and friendly”, in particular one
member of the team who helped
her search for the pizza.
Waitrose in Horley did not
stock the aforementioned pizza,
the only thing stopping it also
providing a full basket. Our
shopper found the store tidy
and free of litter – but it was the
staff who were the real stars.
The service was described as
“excellent, the best of any store
I’ve been in”.
Our mystery shopper’s expe-
rience of staff in Morrisons
Verwood was more mixed,
ranging from staff who simply
said “it would be there if we had
it in stock” to those prepared to
go and check in the store room
and come and find her again as
she continued her shop.
Availability was the biggest
issue for Asda’s Old Kent Road
store in London with five out-of-
stock items. Staff were generally
helpful but our shopper felt they
lacked the knowledge to be able
to tell if an item was stocked in
the store or not. They repeatedly
referred our shopper to the vari-
ous department managers.
Tesco in Reading was strug-
gling with broken down freez-
ers. Our shopper said staff were
hard to come by, with most of
the staff she could see busy
fulfilling online orders. When
she did find staff to help she
described the general experi-
ence as average. One member of
staff was “miserable, unfriendly
and bordering on rude”.

Ronan Hegarty

You got a particularly high

score on a very busy day. How?

We were visited on a Saturday

when we are always busy –

all the more so when England

and Wales play rugby. We were

under a lot of pressure that

day so I’m chuffed. We’ve put a

brand new management struc-

ture in place called Winning

Teams, which enables our

managers to manage more. It’s

put a lot of responsibility on our

colleagues. They have really

stepped up. What you’re seeing

there is a result of really strong

customer trading managers.

There’s a lot more onus on col-

leagues taking responsibility

for customer care and customer

awareness.

Sainsbury’s fared the best of

the big four in the latest Kantar

figures. Is there a positive feel-

ing in the business? I think

we’ve drawn a line under the

Asda piece. The money that was

going to be used there is being

invested into stores and price.

We’ve seen a huge amount of

price activity within our pro-

duce department. More than

that I think it’s about going back

to basics, and providing the

availability and cleanliness in

store so our customers want to

shop there. Our colleagues are

actively told to engage.

Are your customers stockpiling

yet in anticipation of a no-deal

Brexit? I don’t see any evidence

of it. Customers are beginning

to talk in those terms but I’ve

not seen beans being bought in

bulk. The more you hear about

it on social media and the news,

the more it’s going to be in peo-

ple’s heads. The closer we get

we will see a difference but not

at the moment. I think peo-

ple are more concerned with

weather issues at this moment.

If you could wish for one new

department in your store, what

would it be? We could proba-

bly be a bit sharper on health &

beauty. I know Selly Oak has an

incredibly ornate and success-

ful new beauty shop in store,

which is almost like a depart-

ment store. I’d like something

like that.

Sainsbury’s

ends Tesco’s

winning run

Dale Shaugnessy was talking to

Andrew Don

Winner: Sainsbury’s Newport

Store operations manager: Dale

Shaugnessy

Opened: 2010

Size: 75,000 sq ft

Market share: 14.2%

Nearest rivals: Aldi – 1.1 miles

Iceland – 1.4 miles

Lidl – 1.9 miles

Asda – 2.2 miles

Store data source: Analysis by CACI.

Call the market planning group on 020 7602 6000

store of the week

GOLD MEMBERS GET MORE!

Read itemised service score breakdowns and

full mystery shopper comments from each

store visit at thegrocer.co.uk/grocer-

SATURDAY 17 AUGUST 2019, 9AM-11AM WINNER

SERVICE & AVAILABILITY Asda Morrisons Sainsbury’s Tesco Waitrose

Old Kent Road,

London

Verwood,

Dorset

Newport,

South Wales

Reading,

Berkshire

Horley,

Surrey

Car park score (out of 10) 10 10 10 8 10

Store standards score (20) 14 13 15 11 16

Store layout (10) 881056

Shop floor service (20) 12 12 20 9 19

Checkout score (20) 12 15 16 14 11

Availability score (20) 0720818

TOTAL (100) 56 65 91 55 80

Out of stock/not stocked 5/1 1/4 0/0 2/1 0/

Availability 84.4% 96.6% 100% 93.8% 100%