Supermarkets Compared: Best And Worst Supermarkets

Which? Team

The UK's definitive supermarket survey reveals the best and worst grocery stores for food quality, customer service and value for money.

In this article

It's been a year like no other for supermarkets. Some have risen to the challenges posed by the pandemic, while others have struggled to cope with demand.

Our survey of more than 3,000 shoppers reveals the best supermarket based on your priorities: whether you're after value for money, a pleasant in-store experience or all-round great service, our star ratings and customer scores will help you choose the grocer for you.

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Best supermarkets for shopping in-store

Links take you to our reviews of each supermarket.

Supermarket stores 2021
Supermarket	Store appearance and layout	Queuing time to get into store	Queueing time at the checkout	Staff availability and helpfulness	Stock availability	Range of stock	Overall quality of own-label and fresh products	Availability of products with recyclable/no packaging	Value for money	Customer score
Aldi (706)
Asda (697)
Co-op (590)
Iceland (509)
Lidl (691)
Marks & Spencer (524)
Morrisons (694)
Sainsbury's (703)
Tesco (820)
Waitrose (349)

_{Note: sample sizes are in brackets.}

Best supermarkets for online grocery deliveries

Links take you to our reviews of each supermarket.

Online supermarkets 2021
Supermarket	Ease of navigating the website or app	Stock availability	Range of stock	Availability of convenient delivery slots	Supermarket’s choice of substitute items	Overall quality of own-label and fresh products	Drivers' service	Freshness of perishable items	Availability of products with recyclable/no packaging	Value for money	Customer score
Amazon Fresh (60)
Asda (363)
Iceland (234)
Morrisons (238)
Ocado (159)
Sainsbury's (342)
Tesco (524)
Waitrose (135)

_Note: _{sample sizes are in brackets.}

Which supermarket offers the best coronavirus safety measures?

In our survey, we asked shoppers to rate their supermarket's in-store COVID-19 safety measures. Sainsbury's had the most people rating its measures as good or excellent with 81%, while Lidl and Iceland had the least with 66%. You can see how all the supermarkets compare below.

How do we find the UK's best and worst supermarkets?

We surveyed 3,037 members of the public in October 2020 for our annual supermarkets survey. The respondents were only asked about supermarkets they had used within the previous five months.

For those who did their supermarket shopping in-store, we asked them to rate how good the supermarket's appearance and how long it takes to queue at the checkout. We also asked whether there are friendly staff available to help with any queries.

For online shoppers, we asked whether there's usually a good choice of delivery time slots, whether the supermarket chooses sensible substitutions when items are unavailable, and how good the drivers' service is.

We asked both in-store and online shoppers the all-important questions around value for money and the quality of fresh and own-label products.

And finally, we asked how satisfied shoppers are on the whole with their supermarket, and whether they would recommend it. These two questions allow us to calculate our unique Which? customer scores.