The Grocer – 13 January 2018

analysis the grocer 33

Get the full story at thegrocer.co.uk 13 January 2018 | The Grocer | 19

mystery shopper

I

n a high-scoring
week, Tesco takes the
win, with its Dundee
Riverside store scoring top
marks for availability, thanks
to its well-stocked fresh and
chilled sections. The shop was
“stress-free”, and the store both
“easy to navigate” and “clean
and tidy”. Our shopper also
liked the healthy choice ‘swaps’
dotted throughout.
Close behind was Asda in
Chorley, with a great score on
shop floor service. Staff were
“pleasant and friendly” and the
shopper vowed to return to do
her weekly shop there.
Sainsbury’s in Wadsley
Bridge, Sheffield, scored top
marks on shop floor service
with “plenty of staff availa-
ble to provide assistance” and
employees who stopped to help
and check stock. The store was
thought to be “fairly new” and
was “well organised” with
“extremely pleasant staff”.
Morrisons in Dereham was
described as a “nice and pleas-
ant” shopping experience
but was let down by “unpro-
fessional behaviour” with
checkout staff seen to be gos-
siping about a colleague and
a supervisor reprimanding
an employee about holiday
requests.
Waitrose in Brighton had
“poor layout and signage” and
it took our shopper 54 minutes
to complete the shop, due to
“too much time spent going up
and down aisles to find items I
needed”.
Aldi in Jericho, Oxford, was,
according to our shopper, “the
most bizarrely laid out store I’ve
ever been in”. At the checkout,
she was asked to load scanned
goods back into her trolley and
only load them into her bags
away from the till point.

Emma Gesto

Tesco claims to have outper-

formed its rivals on fresh food

sales over Christmas. How did

your store do? Our store perfor-

mance on fresh was excellent.

The Festive Five veg sold really

well and being priced at just

29p meant it was superb value,

cheaper than last year. It really

flew off the shelves.

What were the standout

performers in fresh food? We

had a whole salmon at half price

on our fish counter, which was

our number one seller.

General merchandise didn’t

sell so well though did it? Were

there any bright lights there?

We didn’t really have a big over-

hang on GM, it did OK. We had

some fantastic sales on our Fox

& Ivy range of products, which

were perfect for Christmas gifts.

How do you motivate staff to

get going again after such a

busy time? The teams know it’s

very important to have a quick

turnaround and to make sure

we don’t have a sudden dip

in availability or levels of ser-

vice. I think we’ve come out of

Christmas as a store and as a

company in really good shape.

Tesco this week launched a

new partnership with charities

to fight obesity. What are you

doing to battle the bulge? We’ve

just launched the second year

of Helpful Little Swaps. We’ve

got lots of round-pound deals in

the power aisle, offering prod-

ucts and healthy alternatives

that are reduced in sugar or salt.

We’re also offering free fruit for

kids again – I’ve never seen so

much fruit go out. We’ve also

had a lot of reformulated prod-

ucts like breakfast cereals and

our new pasta sauces, which

came out last year. I would def-

initely say there is a lot more

choice on healthier products

than we had three years ago

This is a hat-trick of wins for

you in the Grocer 33. What is

the secret? Yes, it’s the third

time I’ve won it, the first was

back in April 2015. The secret

is always the same – just

keep trying as hard as pos-

sible to improve service and

availability.

Tesco offers

a ‘stress-

free’ shop

Charlie Burness was talking to

Ian Quinn

Winner: Tesco Extra

Riverside, Dundee

Store manager: Charlie Burness

Opened: 1990

Size: 60,000 sq ft

Market share: 43%

Nearest rivals:

Morrisons – 2.8 miles

Sainsbury’s – 3.8 miles

Asda – 7.9 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 28: SATURDAY 6 JAN 2018 – 9AM-11AM WINNER

SERVICE & AVAILABILITY Asda MorrisonsSainsbury’s Tesco Waitrose Aldi

Clayton Green,

Chorley, Lancs

Dereham,

Norfolk

Wadsley Br,

Sheffield

Dundee

Riverside

Brighton Jericho,

Oxford

Car park score (out of 10) 10 9 10 10 6 10

Store standards score (20) 14 15 13 15 13 8

Store layout (10) 8 10 10 10 4 1

Shop floor service (20) 19 14 20 17 18 8

Checkout score (20) 12 16 14 16 16 7

Availability score (20) 20 10 13 20 8 13

TOTAL (100) 83 74 80 88 65 47

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

Availability 100% 100% 96.9% 100% 93.8% 96.9%