Best And Worst Shops, Consumers Association Survey

[Eddy]

Consumers rate best and worst shops

In an online survey from Which? of more than 11,000 people, customers have rated the best and worst high street shops (based on price, products, service and store, after sales/returns) – with Lush coming top for the first time.

Shoppers praised Lush for its ‘friendly and knowledgeable staff’ and ‘high quality products’. WH Smith and Halfords were among the lowest rated.

But the continuing squeeze on household budgets has clearly had an impact on shopping habits – with more than half of shoppers (56%) saying they are doing less shopping than this time last year.

Online shopping is now preferred by 41% of consumers, primarily because it’s cheaper and easier to compare prices. The majority (57%) of people surveyed said they buy more online, rather than on the high street.

10 highest-rated shops

1 Lush (83%)
2 John Lewis (81%)
= Apple (81%)
4 Lakeland (80%)
= Independents electricals (80%)
6 Clarks (79%)
7 Richer Sounds (78%)
8 Disney Store (77%)
9 IKEA (75%)
10 Morrisons (74%)
= Bonmarche (74%)

10 lowest-rated shops

89 JD Sports (58%)
= Homebase (58%)
= Primark (58%)
92 BHS (57%)
= Brantano (57%)
= TK Maxx (57%)
95 JJB Sports (56%)
= Poundstretcher (56%)
= Tesco (56%)
98 Blacks (55%)
99 WH Smith (52%)
100 Halfords (51%)

'Which', Consumers Association.

[Mootle]

That's very interesting Eddy! I feel sorry for the shops that didn't perform well.
I have in the past been served by truly awful assistants in WH Smiths, Boots and Scholls, all female.
It's strange how one remembers the bad assistants but not the good ones..

[Eddy]

For me, Woolworths used to be the worst. I miss it so much but not the majority of its staff.

I remember buying a toy one Christmas. When leaving the store the security alarm went off and I was approached by a security person.The shop assistant had forgoten to remove the security tag!!! When I approached her to remove the tag she told me not to blame her. She said it was my fault for not reminding her to do it!!! I really lost my temper that day, something that seldom happens.

Boots and W.H Smiths are poor. I find M&S, Sainsbury and Waitrose to be quite good.

[grimfandango]

Lush would be bottom of my list I'm afraid, I once purchased something from their website and my card (along many hundreds of other customers too) was cloned due to stupidly lax security on their website.
Their reaction to this breach was abysmal, seeming to find the matter hilarious and treating it as a joke, never using them ever again.

Lakeland though, brilliant, it has to one of the best shops ever. the only problem being it's almost impossible to leave without buying anything.