Which? have named Aldi the top in-store supermarket for 2021 and Sainsbury’s the best for online shopping, based on its survey of 3,037 members of the public in October 2020.

The consumer research group’s survey asked consumers to provide scores out of five based on factors such as store appearance, quality of produce, value for money, queue lengths and customer service, and availability of online delivery slots.

Co-op was given the bottom rating in the in-store supermarkets table and received one-star ratings for value for money and range of stock, but Which? said this could be due to their more convenience centric business model.

Asda retained its bottom position from last year for online shopping and came second-to-last for in-store shopping. It scored two stars for the quality of its products and for value for money.

A quarter of Asda shoppers found that an item they wanted in their most recent online order was not available, making it the worst supermarket on this measure.

Asda also performed the worst for substitutions, and 43 per cent of their online customers received substitute items in their last order.

Aldi scored the maximum rating of five stars for value for money, which consumers told Which? was the most important consideration for them and beat runner-up Marks and Spencer’s.

However, Aldi scored just two stars for store appearance, and three stars for quality for produce.

Sainsburys did not obtain five-star ratings in any category but narrow narrowly beat out Amazon Fresh and Iceland in the online category.

The supermarket scored three stars for choice of substitute items, four stars for availability of online delivery slots and three stars for value for money.

Which? also said that Sainsbury’s performed well on behind-the-scenes measures like food hygiene and nutritional labelling.

Other findings in the Which? report included a list of the main frustrations of UK supermarket shoppers.

24 per cent of shoppers said their main frustration was other shoppers not social distancing, while 16 per cent said not enough staffed checkouts, 15 per cent said long queues at the checkout, 11 per cent said obstructions in the aisles and 10 per cent said out of stock items.

The Which? survey also included consumers biggest frustrations when shopping online.

21 per cent of consumers said their biggest online shopping frustration was an item they wanted not being available, while 18 per cent said it was items,they chose being substituted, 13 per cent said not being able to get a convenient delivery slot, 12 per cent said perishable goods not being fresh, and 10 per cent said too many plastic bags used in delivery.

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