Asda leads way in supermarket fight against coronavirus

Asda is the supermarket with the most health and safety measures in place to prevent a further spread of the coronavirus, according to research from Shepper.

Based on data collected from 500 stores across the UK, this found that only 10% of supermarkets had measures in place for the clinically vulnerable and 38% had no staff wearing PPE.

Overall, Asda had preventative measures in place in 76% of stores. Tesco took second spot (74%), while Sainsbury’s ranked the worst (56%).

Other findings included: most supermarkets had checkout screens in the majority of stores checked, with Morrisons and Lidl reaching 100%; All Asda and Aldo stores had floor markings for queuing at tills and the remaining retailers weren’t far behind.

Shepper also measured how long on average it took to queue for each supermarket. With the UK average at seven minutes, Sainsbury's and Asda's queue times were the longest at ten minutes. Lidl, on the other hand, clocked in at two minutes.

Jan Vanhouttte, Shepper co-founder, comments: ““Though shoppers may be frustrated by the current queuing times to enter supermarkets, our data has shown longer queue times are reflective of increased Covid- 19 measures in store, meaning the longer you queue, the safer your shopping trip.”

“Communicating this insight to shoppers through signage whilst they queue could prevent customer frustration and in turn improve the work lives of supermarket staff."

He adds: "Our data has also revealed a few lacking areas, particularly when it comes to the clinically vulnerable. At the beginning of lockdown there was a lot of buzz about dedicating shopping times to these people and so on, it's a shame this seems to have lost priority. We hope this data can help supermarkets focus their efforts for improvement."