Shoppers across the UK have spoken and the results of a supermarket survey are in, crowning one retailer as having the best in-store experience.

For the fourth year in a row, Marks & Spencer has won the accolade, with customers praising its quality of products and saying it’s a ‘real treat’ to shop in its stores.

The annual survey, by Which? Saw M&S received a customer score of 79% making it the UK’s highest-rated in-store supermarket for a fourth year in a row, and it was the only one to earn five stars for its own-brand and fresh food products.

A total of 3,206 people shared their thoughts on the supermarkets they used in the last year, ranking them on everything from store appearance and queuing time to delivery and the choice of substitutions.

Speaking about the appeal of M&S, one shopper claimed: ‘It’s a real treat to shop there – great quality products that I don’t mind spending a bit more on.’

And online reviews are similar with Miss Terri Shopper giving five stars on Trustpilot, writing: ‘I can’t fault M&S at all. From clothing, underwear, homeware, toiletries, and food everything is quality and the staff will go out of their way to help you. Some things may be a little dearer but the quality is there. I’d rather pay that little extra but if you want cheap go ahead and get inferior goods. M&S is quality with first class service.’

A woman known only as Cath, shared: ‘Love love love M&S. I shop online at M&S more than any retailer. Delivery is super fast, returns and refunds are equally efficient and their clothes these days are really on trend, fab quality and reasonably priced. There’s literally nothing I don’t love about M&S.’

And M Shuttle added: ‘Brooklands store in Surrey is superb. At Christmas, collecting my food order was efficient, the staff jolly and fun. My food order was outstanding. Collections throughout the year are so straightforward.’

M&S has been a high street fixture for 141 years and the company has recently been working to encourage more people to do their weekly shop in the Food Hall, expanding their range, revamping their stores and freezing or lowering the price of basket staples. 

Tesco, the UK’s biggest supermarket, came in second place in the survey, following closely behind M&S with a score of 74%. It garnered four stars for store appearance, product range, and stock availability but missed out on top marks due to accessibility issues with the Clubcard scheme, as under 18s are not able to access the lower prices, meaning they miss out on big savings. 

Despite recently being crowned the UK’s cheapest supermarket, Aldi came in joint third, along with Iceland and Waitrose. Shoppers love the bargains the German retailer offers, but admitted they were fed up of long checkout queues in store, didn’t enjoy being rushed by cashiers and complained local stores were messy or badly stocked.

At the other end of the ratings, Asda and Morrisons were at the bottom of the table, scoring just 66% overall.

Morrisons customers felt the retailer had ‘gone downhill’, stating that stores were ‘cramped’ and checkouts ‘poorly-manned’. While Asda only scored two stars for value for money, customer service and stock availability. This could turn around over the next year though, as Boss Allan Leighton has pledged to ‘restore Asda’s DNA’ by cutting prices, and the company recently re-launched Rollback.