The Grocer – 20 July 2019

analysis the grocer 33

Get the full story at thegrocer.co.uk 20 July 2019 | The Grocer | 19

mystery shopper

A

sda wins this week,
with its Walton store
in Liverpool scoring
82 points. Our shopper was
impressed by the “fast and
hassle-free shop” and noted
that good stock levels helped
to “make it all easy”. The “effi-
ciency and organisation” of the
staff meant it was a “smooth
and easy” experience.
Morrisons in Solihull scored
top marks for shop floor ser-
vice, thanks to staff who were
“all very helpful”. The store felt
“spacious and airy” with an
“enticing” display of plants at
the entrance. But the chilled
fresh food section was not well
signposted and medicinal items
were five aisles away from the
pharmacy, so the branch scored
low on store layout.
Waitrose in Bagshot pleased
our shopper with its “nice, clean
and bright” entrance. However,
staff seemed focused mainly
on unpacking a late delivery,
though they were “still polite
and friendly”. All employees
were also happy to stop restock-
ing to help our shopper.
Tesco in Horsham was
“quiet” and there were “some
empty spaces” in the fresh food
aisles. The checkout employee
was friendly and chatted to
our shopper, and there was no
queue. However, the layout felt
“confusing” and the narrow
entrance did not give “the best
first impression”.
Sainsbury’s in Deal was
“incredibly busy” and felt
“cluttered and dated”. There
were a lot of “in-your-face and
dominating displays” at the
store entrance. Plus, there
were “gaps” on the shelves
and “loads” of trolleys aban-
doned in the aisles. Our shopper
found the shop “quite stressful”
overall.

Emma Gesto

How much of a sales spike did

the sporting Super Sunday

give you? It had a really good

impact. We were really busy at

the weekend with all the big

sporting events on. The fact

that we’ve had some really good

weather in the last four or five

days has also really helped and

we’ve been seeing some really

good sales numbers, despite

the tough comparison with last

year’s heatwave, which is good.

Some people also switched their

normal shop to click and collect

so they could get back to watch

the sport.

What products have been sell-

ing well in the sun? We’ve had

some stunning offers on our

beer ranges and the in-store

bakery has also been flying.

We launched a new pizza this

week, we call it the ultimate

barbecue pizza. It’s £2.50 for a

10-inch pizza and is a great new

product.

You’re no stranger to big sport-

ing events recently. No, a few

weeks ago, of course, Liverpool

won the Champions League

final. I’m an avid Red. It’s been

a massive boost for the city and

for the store. As much as pos-

sible we had the store featur-

ing red and white in the aisles.

There’s been a real buzz in the

area because of it and long may

that continue.

What other big sales drivers

are there at the moment? We’ve

launched our Back to School

range and I think it’s better than

ever this year. It’s a really good

offer which is good value and

good quality.

You scored maximum for ser-

vice. Is being a community

store important to achieving

that? The fact that it’s a close-

knit area and our staff know

their customers is really impor-

tant for that. I like to think of

ourselves as being the biggest

corner shop in Liverpool.

You have won the award before

but didn’t get to receive it, is

that right? Yes, when I was the

manager of the Asda Huyton

Supercentre we won, but I was

on holiday at the time so it’s

great to be able to win again.

Asda offers

a ‘hassle-

free shop’

Graham Watts was talking to Ian

Quinn

Winner: Asda Walton, Liverpool

Store manager: Graham Watts

Opened: 1990

Size: 56,000 sq ft

Market share: 11%

Nearest rivals:

Iceland – 0.6 miles

Aldi – 0.6 miles

Sainsbury’s – 2 miles

Tesco – 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-33

WEEK 5: FRIDAY 12 JULY 2019, 11AM-1PM WINNER

SERVICE & AVAILABILITY Asda Morrisons Sainsbury’s Tesco Waitrose

Walton,

Liverpool

Solihull,

West Midlands

Deal,

Kent

Horsham,

West Sussex

Bagshot,

Surrey

Car park score (out of 10) 8610910

Store standards score (20) 13 11 9 11 15

Store layout (10) 86548

Shop floor service (20) 20 20 14 12 12

Checkout score (20) 18 16 13 17 14

Availability score (20) 159265

TOTAL (100) 82 68 53 59 64

Out of stock/not stocked 1/0 1/3 2/4 2/2 3/0

Availability 97.0% 96.7% 93.1% 93.5% 90.9%