The Grocer – 10 August 2019

analysis the grocer 33

Get the full story at thegrocer.co.uk 10 August 2019 | The Grocer | 17

mystery shopper

T

esco claimed its third
successive service and
availability award
with this week’s win the most
impressive. The retailer’s last
two wins came with scores of
65 and 67 but here a full bas-
ket of all 33 items helped Tesco
Salisbury to an impressive 88.
Our shopper was impressed
by the well signposted store,
“excellent” range of services
and “enthusiastic” staff.
Sainsbury’s store in
Braehead, Glasgow also per-
formed well this week. Our
shopper described it as “bright,
spacious and clean” as well
as “well organised and well
stocked”. She described her
interactions with staff as “excel-
lent” and the store would have
picked up the win but for an
out of stock on the chocolate
Hobnobs.
There were two out of stocks
at Waitrose in Billericay. The
store was easy to shop, though
there was litter at the entrance
and while staff members did try
to help, one directed our shop-
per to the wrong aisle when
hunting the condensed milk.
It was a mixed picture in
terms of staff at Morrisons
Stoke-on-Trent. Adam was
described as an “ace chap and a
credit to the store”, though our
shopper subsequently found it
difficult to find members of staff
when she needed them. When
she did find them, some were
not as helpful or as friendly as
she would have liked.
Availability was the biggest
issue for Asda in Washington.
The store had three items out
of stock while our shopper also
noted “ a general lack of shop
floor staff”, except for the high
number of staff she spotted
carrying out online and click &
collect orders.

Ronan Hegarty

The store is 30 years old this

year. Are you planning to cel-

ebrate? We certainly are. We

have a big party planned for all

the staff in October that every-

one is looking forward to. We

still have a number of staff who

have been here since the store

opened – in fact we have some

who have been with Tesco for

40 years.

Does having all that experience

help in terms of customer ser-

vice? It does help, but there is

no real secret to good customer

service. It comes down to good

training and engaging with peo-

ple in the right way, so that they

in turn will engage with cus-

tomers in the right way. As well

as plenty of experienced staff,

we have a great mix with lots of

energetic younger staff.

Tesco is celebrating its cente-

nary this year. What has been

the highlight so far? Without

doubt it was our Tesco Dance

Beats fundraiser for Cancer

Research UK last month. It

was the best charity event we

have done in all my 20 years

at Tesco. We had local groups

in the foyer doing street dance

and older people ballroom

dancing. I obviously had to get

involved, which was great fun,

and we raised a load of money

for cha r it y.

How has summer trading been

so far? We had a tough time last

year in the town, as the nerve

agent poisoning meant tourist

numbers fell and it hit trade –

but then we had eight weeks of

unbroken sunshine and sales

were great. So while tourists are

coming back to the town and

customer numbers are up, it’s

still a tough comparison against

last year. I will say our distri-

bution has been the best it has

ever been, in terms of planning

for hot weather-related lines

and reacting to sudden temper-

ature spikes.

You were at one of the

Metro stores affected by the

announcement of job cuts this

week. How was that? It is never

easy news to deal with, and so

it was important to be there to

support staff as best we can.

Tesco picks

up hat-trick

of S&A wins

Nick Helps was talking to

Ronan Hegarty

Winner: Tesco Extra Salisbury

Store manager: Nick Helps

Opened: 1989

Size: 115,000 sq ft

Market share: 29.4%

Nearest rivals:

Lidl – 0.1 miles

Aldi – 2.3 miles

Iceland – 2.4 miles

Waitrose – 2.5 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-

WEEK 8: SATURDAY 3 AUGUST 2019, 9AM-11AM WINNER

SERVICE & AVAILABILITY Asda MorrisonsSainsbury’s Tesco Waitrose

Washington,

Co Durham

Stoke-on-

Trent, Staffs

Braehead,

Glasgow

Salisbury,

Wiltshire

Billericay,

Essex

Car park score (out of 10) 8 3 10 10 10

Store standards score (20) 7 8 16 17 17

Store layout (10) 8 7 9 10 10

Shop floor service (20) 10 9 19 20 12

Checkout score (20) 14 13 17 11 13

Availability score (20) 1 11 15 20 10

TOTAL (100) 48 51 86 88 72

Out of stock/not stocked 3/2 1/2 1/0 0/0 2/

Availability 90.3% 96.8% 9 7. 0 % 100% 93.9%