Best supermarkets for shopping in-store and online: how Tesco, Sainsbury's & more compare

Prefer shopping online or do you like perusing the aisles? New research reveals the best supermarkets for both.

One of the expenditures that households simply can’t avoid is food shopping. Given the cost of living crisis, however, it’s really important to think carefully about precisely which supermarket to use.

So how do you pick?

A helpful insight comes from the annual supermarket satisfaction survey carried out by the consumer champions at Which?, where thousands of shoppers are polled about their experiences at the various supermarkets.

Those responses are then used to award the supermarkets with scores in a range of categories, like value for money, stock availability and the quality of the produce.

It has just published the latest results, so let’s take a look at the supermarkets that stand out from the crowd, and those that are likely to disappoint.

Best & worst supermarkets for shopping in-store

Best: Marks & Spencer

Worst: Co-op

Marks & Spencer was named the best supermarket for in-store performance, notching up an overall score of 77%.

It performed well in almost every category, nabbing full marks for the quality of its products, the appearance of its store and the helpfulness of its staff.

Indeed, the only category in which it didn’t perform well was value for money, when it scored just two out of five stars.

Second spot was a tie, between two brands that are very much at opposite ends of the supermarket spectrum.

Both Aldi and Waitrose scored 73%, though as you can imagine the areas in which they excelled were rather different.

For example, Aldi scored four out of five stars in the value for money and product quality categories, but didn’t do so well in the likes of stock availability and checkout queuing time.

Waitrose didn’t do well on value for money, yet was a consistent performer elsewhere, achieving full marks for its range, quality, store appearance, helpfulness of staff and length of queues.

At the other end of the scale, Co-op finished bottom with a score of just 61%.

It scored a dreadful one out of five on value for money ‒ the worst score by any brand on any category. It also managed only two out of five for stock availability, product quality and the range of products.

The best supermarkets for shopping online

Best: Ocado

Worst: Morrisons

Of course, the way that we shop for food has changed substantially over the years, with plenty of us preferring to pick up our groceries without actually setting foot within a store.

Supermarkets were assessed on a broader range of categories here, such as the ease of using the website, availability of collection or delivery slots, and choice of substitute items.

The best performer here was Ocado, which racked up a whopping 81%. It stood out not only for its range but also the availability of slots and level of customer service at delivery.

Again there was a tie for second spot, and once again it was between brands at very different ends of the spectrum.

First up was Iceland, which got full marks for slot availability and also did well for the range, ease of website and customer service.

It was level with Waitrose, which also scored 76%, and achieved full marks for its range and customer service.

Last place went to Morrisons, with an overall score of 66%. While it did OK for the likes of customer service and slot availability, it scored only two out of five for value for money, stock availability and its choice of substitute items.

There were a few trends among the online supermarkets. No brand managed to score more than three out of five for value for money, which is particularly notable at a time of such rapidly rising prices.

Also, when it comes to substitutes, only Waitrose managed to score higher than three stars.

It’s also worth pointing out that Amazon Fresh, the delivery service launched by the online retailer, was the joint second worst performer at 69%, level with Aldi and Asda.

Making our money go further

Picking the right supermarket has rarely been more important than it is currently.

Prices on most of our household expenses have increased at an extraordinary rate over the last year. After all, that’s why we have seen overall inflation hit its highest level in decades.

But these price hikes have been particularly significant on food. According to the Office for National Statistics, food price inflation for the year to December stood at 16.9%, having risen for 17 straight months.

It’s now at the highest level since September 1977, while it’s important to note that it is continuing to rise at a time when the rate of inflation is now tailing off.

Given that, it’s not particularly surprising that plenty of us are looking carefully at not only how we spend money at supermarkets, but also which supermarkets we spend with.

A study last year from YouGov found that around one in six of us have switched supermarkets as a result of the cost of living crisis, and that’s borne out by the most recent data from Kantar World Panel which tracks supermarket market share.

Since last January, it has found that Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons, Waitrose and Co-op have all seen their market share fall, while Aldi, Lidl and Iceland have seen gains.

While factors like customer service and product ranges will, as always, play a role when we determine which supermarket to use, value for money is only likely to become more important in the months ahead.