Marks & Spencer has been voted the best supermarket store for 2022 after impressing shoppers with its top-notch products and first-class customer service.
Meanwhile Iceland is the leading supermarket for online grocery shopping, with customers particularly appreciating the availability of its delivery slots.
Continued Covid disruption, chaotic supply chains, CO2 shortages, staff absences and of course price inflation all mean that finding a trustworthy supermarket that offers great value for money is more important than ever. And thanks to the latest Which? supermarket survey we can reveal which ones are impressing despite the turbulent climate – and which are simply falling short.
Read on to find out how all the supermarkets compared, plus the weirdest substitutions supermarkets have sent out in online deliveries.
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Supermarkets survey: the results
We surveyed 3,057 members of the public about their favourite supermarkets, quizzing them on a range of factors from store appearance and quality of produce to value for money.
You can see some of the topline results in the tables below. For the full star ratings, including which stores are best for queue lengths, customer service and online delivery slots, see our supermarkets compared guide.
In-store supermarket results
Links take you to our in-depth reviews of each supermarket.
| Supermarket and sample size | Store appearance | Quality of produce | Value for money | Customer score |
| Marks & Spencer (214) | 5 stars | 5 stars | 3 stars | 78% |
| Aldi (379) – Which? Recommended Provider | 3 stars | 4 stars | 5 stars | 77% |
| Waitrose (175) | 5 stars | 5 stars | 3 stars | 75% |
| Iceland (236) | 3 stars | 3 stars | 4 stars | 73% |
| Lidl (375) | 2 stars | 3 stars | 4 stars | 73% |
| Tesco (467) | 4 stars | 3 stars | 3 stars | 70% |
| Sainsbury’s (389) | 4 stars | 4 stars | 3 stars | 68% |
| Asda (373) | 3 stars | 3 stars | 3 stars | 67% |
| Morrisons (387) | 3 stars | 3 stars | 3 stars | 67% |
| Co-op (218) | 3 stars | 3 stars | 2 stars | 61% |
Online supermarket results
| Supermarket and sample size | Choice of substitute items | Availability of delivery slots | Value for money | Customer score |
| Iceland (133) | 3 stars | 5 stars | 4 stars | 76% |
| Ocado (99) – Which? Recommended Provider | 3 stars | 4 stars | 3 stars | 74% |
| Tesco (280) | 3 stars | 3 stars | 3 stars | 74% |
| Sainsbury’s (194) | 2 stars | 4 stars | 3 stars | 72% |
| Morrisons (148) | 3 stars | 4 stars | 4 stars | 71% |
| Waitrose (94) | 3 stars | 3 stars | 3 stars | 71% |
| Aldi (55) | 3 stars | 3 stars | 4 stars | 69% |
| Asda (209) | 2 stars | 3 stars | 3 stars | 67% |
| Amazon Fresh (92) | 3 stars | 3 stars | 3 stars | 63% |
Results based on an online survey of 3,057 members of the public in October 2021. Customer scores based on satisfaction with the brand and likelihood to recommend it. Star ratings out of five.
- Find out more: best and worst supermarkets of 2022
The UK’s best supermarkets
Marks & Spencer was top of the table for shopping in store, while Iceland was voted best for shopping online – so why did we decide not to name either of them Which? Recommended Providers, and did any other supermarkets win the accolade?
If you’re after a pleasurable shopping experience, M&S (MarksAndSpencer.com) has it all: it gets top marks for the appearance of its stores, customer service and product quality. But this does come at a cost, with customers only giving it a middling three stars for value for money.
The retailer doesn’t offer full online delivery and so doesn’t feature in our online rankings. However, shoppers have been able to buy M&S own-brand food through Ocado for nearly 18 months now.
One happy customer told us, ‘I seriously love M&S, it is part of my childhood and culture. The food is the best you can get.’
However, we didn’t make it a Which? Recommended Provider because of its poor performance in our supermarket sustainability investigation, which found that it uses a lot of plastic and is one of the worst supermarkets for greenhouse emissions.
What does Iceland do so well?
It’s not been long since online grocery deliveries were like gold dust thanks to Covid-related demand and clearly Iceland (Iceland.co.uk) customers are grateful, scoring the retailer five stars for the availability of its delivery slots.
They also love the ease of using Iceland’s website and app for ordering their groceries, helping it move up the online rankings from joint second place last year.
It’s been a decent year for Iceland’s stores, too. While they don’t reach the heady heights of its online service, Iceland has risen from eighth last year to joint fourth in our in-store rankings, with respectable star ratings across the board.
Iceland is now focusing its efforts on growing The Food Warehouse, a venture launched in 2014 which offers larger stores often on retail parks.
However, it came last in our supermarket sustainability investigation in February, being the worst on greenhouse gas emissions intensity (probably due to all those freezers) and plastics, so we didn’t make it a Which? Recommended Provider.
Aldi and Ocado named Which? Recommended Providers
Aldi’s stores and Ocado’s online service both achieved the winning combination of excellent customer reviews and praise from the experts at Which?, leading us to make them Which? Recommended Providers this year.
Aldi (Aldi.co.uk) beat rival discounter Lidl on the value for money front, scoring five stars compared with Lidl’s four. Aldi was also named cheapest supermarket of the year in January.
While it doesn’t wow on all fronts, customers appreciate its product quality and availability and its stores scored 77% overall.
Ocado (Ocado.com) meanwhile was the only supermarket to score the full five stars for product range, rising from joint-fifth place last year to joint-second this year.
- Find out more: how to spend less at the supermarket
Which supermarkets are the worst performers?
The Co-op came bottom of the table for shopping in-store for the second year in a row, while Amazon Fresh came last for shopping online. Here’s why shoppers rate them so poorly.
What’s wrong with the Co-op?
The Co-op languishes at the bottom of the in-store table for the second year in a row, scoring the worst of all supermarket stores for availability, range and value.
Some of this could partly be explained by its focus on the more convenience end of the market, although it’s worth bearing in mind that the Co-op’s market share is bigger than each of Lidl, Waitrose, Iceland and Ocado.
One unhappy Co-op customer said, ‘I use the Co-op when it is the only shop available. It tends to have small aisles, cramped stores, few staff and few offers, meaning prices are almost always “full price” which tends to be more expensive than I would choose to pay.’
- Find out more: which is the cheapest supermarket?
Why don’t shoppers rate Amazon Fresh?
Amazon Fresh plunges from joint-second last year to bottom of the table for 2022, scoring particularly poorly for delivery driver service and quality of produce (in fact it was the worst of all the online supermarkets for these two measures).
It still only covers certain UK postcodes and doesn’t offer a full nationwide service.
One customer said, ‘The product range is a lot less and some of the prices seem inflated. Although, the delivery slots are great and I can get things last minute in quick time.’
Our survey only covered its online deliveries, however Amazon Fresh opened its first bricks-and-mortar checkout-free UK store in London in March 2021 and now has 15 stores across the city.
- Find out more: Amazon Fresh checkout-free store video review
Supermarket frustrations: what gets your goat?
Whether you’re shopping in-store or online, it’s rarely a perfect experience. We asked people what they found most annoying about grocery shopping.
Biggest frustrations when shopping in-store*
- Not enough staffed checkouts (19%)
- Shelves were not well stocked (18%)
- Long queues at checkouts (17%)
Biggest frustrations when shopping online*
- An item I wanted was not available (31%)
- Items I chose were substituted (19%)
- Perishable goods were not fresh or had a short shelf life (13%)
*Results based on an online survey of 3,057 members of the public in October 2021. Respondents were able to choose multiple answers, so percentages total more than 100%.
Supermarket substitutions
Imagine ordering parmesan… and receiving parma ham. That’s just one of the bizarre delivery substitutions online shoppers told us about.
Supermarket pickers – the staff who pick the items for deliveries from supermarket store shelves or warehouses – often receive automatic prompts on their handheld scanners about which product to choose as a substitution if the original isn’t available. But we’ve heard sometimes these computer-generated ideas aren’t very suitable and have to be manually overridden.
Whichever way substitutions are chosen, there’s no getting away from the fact sometimes they are just plain odd. As well as the parma ham, we’ve heard of beef stock being substituted for brandy sauce, a tin opener instead of tinned tomatoes, cat food for a tin of tuna, tomato sauce instead of tomato soup, a washing sponge instead of sponge cake, duck paste for duct tape and Cadbury Crème eggs for hens’ eggs… to name but a few.
Aldi and Sainsburys’ customers were the most likely to say their most recent order contained substitutions (49% of customers for Aldi and 48% for Sainsbury’s, compared with an average of 39% across all supermarkets). For Iceland this was just 18%.
- Find out more: supermarkets compared
source https://www.which.co.uk/news/2022/02/which-reveals-the-best-and-worst-supermarkets-of-2022/