I went to the UK's worst ranked supermarket and this is what struck me

A survey conducted by Which? has ranked the chains Asda and Morrisons as the joint worst supermarkets in the country. Many Asda shoppers noted bare shelves and unmanned checkouts as some of their main issues and said they were underwhelmed by both product selection and customer service.

Since the survey was conducted and Asda received an overall score of 66%, the chain said it had made significant investments, hiring more staff and introducing a Rollback scheme to lower prices.

I’m not a regular shopper at Asda but I took a trip to their massive Cardiff Bay store to form my own opinion. When I arrived I noticed lots of trollies outside the shop and many car parking spaces available, all good so far. From superstar gigs to cosy pubs, find out What’s On in Wales by signing up to our newsletter here.

When I went inside I noticed pretty much all the shelves were well-stocked and tidy. This included the fresh food departments, hair and beauty, cleaning, homeware and frozen food and there was a good variety of products at different price points, similar to Tesco prices. I also noticed their new Rollback scheme on items like chorizo, biscuits and crisps.

A picture of a fruit aisle in a supermarket. There are apples, oranges and pears pictured. — One of the fruit aisles -Credit:Bryana Francis

Fruit and vegetable aisle in a supermarket. It is well-stocked. — Asda received two stars for value for money in the recent Which? survey -Credit:Bryana Francis

As I continued walking round I noticed there were lots of members of staff, I found someone on the majority of aisles and there were countless colleagues fulfilling online orders. When I did reach the tills they were well-manned and I counted six members of staff helping in the self-service checkouts alone.

Having been pleasantly surprised by my first impressions I wandered towards the bakery, in my opinion one of the most important parts of a big supermarket. Luckily I wasn’t disappointed, with two bakery staff working away there was a range of well-stocked fresh baguettes, rolls and other sweet goods.

A full display of baguettes inside a supermarket. They are displayed on a metal stand. — Lots of freshly-baked baguettes in Asda, Cardiff Bay. -Credit:Bryana Francis

A display in a supermarket with lots of shelves filled with bakery rolls — There was a range of different fresh rolls in Asda’s bakery section -Credit:Bryana Francis

Whilst I was pleased with what was on offer I was hoping to pick up some daffodils, something I assumed there would be heaps of in a supermarket of this size at this time of year. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a single bunch. Another area I think the supermarket could improve on would be sustainability as I noticed a lot of products came in lots of plastic packaging.

I don’t think I’ll be switching to Asda for my regular shop but that’s mainly because it’s not my local supermarket. But I would be more than happy to do some bigger shops there from time to time.

The Which? poll was conducted between October and November last year and both Asda and Morrisons were given an overall score of 66%, failing to achieve more than three stars in any of the categories. M&S came out on top with a customer score of 79%.

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