THE nation’s best and worst supermarkets have been revealed in The Grocer’s annual mystery shopper survey.
Sainsbury’s was voted best supermarket overall, with Asda coming bottom — although it has remained the cheapest for 20 years in a row.
But each supermarket was found to have its perks – Tesco was boasts the speediest checkouts, with an average wait of just one minute 38 seconds.
It isn’t known whether this time compares to Aldi – which was not included in the survey – who recently revealed how they managed to keep checkout time so low.
Meanwhile, Asda shoppers get the cheapest groceries but, with a queue of more than two minutes, hang around longest.
Morrisons was found the have the best car parks and Sainsbury’s won best store layout and in-store service.
Waitrose showed the biggest improvement on last year, seeing the upmarket grocery store overtake Morrisons to secure third place in the annual ranking
The improvement comes after Waitrose set out plans to focus on its existing stores rather than continuing its expansion, which has seen branches increase from 146 to 352 over the past 18 years.
Waitrose ploughed 25 per cent of its profits into improving stores in last year.
Trade magazine The Grocer sends mystery shoppers to a different branch of the five main chains every week for a year.
WHICH SUPERMARKET IS BEST FOR WHAT?
The supermarkets were ranked with Sainsbury's coming top overall, Tesco's coming in second, Waitrose third, Morrisons fourth and Asda last.
However, each supermarket was praised in a particular area:
- Tesco has the speediest checkouts
- Asda shoppers get the cheapest groceries
- Morrisons boasts the best car parks
- Sainsbury’s won best store layout and in-store service
- Waitrose was the best overall improver
They measure the price of a basket of 33 popular products, queues at the checkout, service and how pleasant the store is.
Supermarkets are undergoing something of a transformation as tech firms get stuck into the way they operate.
Last month, Barclaycard announced their new app would consign the queue to the history books.
The app, which is currently being trialled, lets shoppers scan barcodes and pay without visiting a checkout.
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