Waitrose rated the best grocer, Asda the worst – Which?

24th February 2020

Elias Jahshan

Waitrose named the best supermarket while Asda the worst - Which?

Grocery Research

// Waitrose rated the best supermarket by Which?

// M&S Food and Aldi rounded out the top 3, while Asda rated the worst

// The UK grocers were scored and ranked after a survey of more than 14,000 consumers

Waitrose has been rated as the best in-store supermarket in the UK while Asda was rated the worst, according to Which?’s annual satisfaction survey.

The consumer lobby group’s survey of more than 14,000 members found that Waitrose scored five stars in almost every category, although it ranked joint worst for value.

Not surprisingly, Aldi and Lidl were ranked best for value but ranked third and fourth overall.

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Which?’s annual survey and ranking of UK grocers was determined by store appearance, product range, queues, staff availability and helpfulness, own-label product quality, availability of recyclable packaging, and value for money.

It’s the second time Waitrose has been voted the top grocery store in the UK, with Marks & Spencer’s food business coming in at second place.

While M&S scored five stars for both its own-brand and fresh produce, its overall customer score of 73 per cent left it just below Waitrose.

Meanwhile, the only Big 4 grocer to maker it in the top five was Morrisons, while Asda was rated the worst overall.

“There’s clear room for improvement for the Big 4 – Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Asda – as they continue to trail behind Waitrose and Marks & Spencer for experience, and behind Aldi and Lidl on value,” Which? magazine editor Harry Rose said.

Which?’s survey found that while shoppers like Asda’s range of goods in store, they wanted more recyclable packaging and products without packaging and as a result it only scored one star in this category.

Asda also scored just two stars for the quality of its own-label products.

The retailer responded by highlighting that none of Which?’s members had visited one of its stores recently.

“We’re always happy to take feedback – but as 70 per cent of the Which? panel surveyed haven’t visited an Asda in the last six months, we don’t believe their findings are a true reflection of the experience of our 18 million weekly shoppers, who are looking for a supermarket that provides great value, range and service to customers working to any budget,” an Asda spokesperson said.

“We are proud that our customers are recognising this, with our online grocery service growing at three times the rate of the market.

“We’re constantly striving to improve our offer to our customers – be that through the efforts of our hardworking colleagues, the 1272 new products we launched in 2019, the 530 awards we won for quality, the 8000 tonnes of plastic packaging we removed from our stores or the 22nd annual Grocer Award for being the best-priced supermarket.”

The Which? survey found that when shopping in store, customers were most frustrated by waiting for help at self-service checkouts (26 per cent) and by a lack of staffed checkouts (25 per cent).

Here are the supermarkets’ overall customer scores, according to Which?:

Store and sample size	Store appearance	Staff availability	Quality of fresh produce	Value for money	Customer score
Waitrose (4378)					76%
Marks & Spencer (3278)					73%
Aldi (3873)					71%
Lidl (3628)					67%
Morrisons (3732)					65%
Sainsbury’s (5049)					64%
Tesco (4901)					61%
Iceland (1507)					60%
Asda (2933)					58%