BRENTWOOD: Mystery shoppers say town is the best

By painsworth

BRENTWOOD has been hailed as the greatest place to shop after it topped a list of town centres around the country in a study.

It claimed top spot in a list of 70 town centres which were all surveyed in the mystery shopping exercise.

Three retailers achieved 100 per cent scores as Brentwood received the best ever results in the Skillsmart Retail research into small business performance.

Shopkeepers have been told the average score for the 25 shops studied was 87.4 per cent – far above the national average of 77.

The mystery shopping visits were carried out in November by ESA Market Research and each store was visited twice.

Independent retailers Boudoir Lingerie, New Beginnings and French Quarter, all received 100 per cent scores in one of the visits.

New Beginnings received the highest average score overall.

Gill Levings, manager at the bridal shop, said: "One of the things I pride myself on is customer service. I am delighted for the store and delighted for Brentwood.

"This shows that while Essex is not always a shopping destination, Brentwood offers superb customer service and a great shopping experience to compete with London."

Karen Charlesworth, head of research at Skillsmart Retail, said: "This research shows that Brentwood retailers are very friendly and many are doing a lot of things very well.

"We were really impressed with what we saw.

"The fact that three shops scored 100 per cent really does indicate the high level of shopping quality in the town.

"We are now working with the Brentwood Town Centre Partnership team, local authorities and retailers, to help them find ways of doing things even better."

Cllr Jean McGinley, a director of Brentwood Town Centre Partnership and deputy leader of Brentwood Borough Council, said: "We were keen to invest in the Skillsmart Retail mystery shopping exercise.

"It provides independent and timely corroboration of what is already known – that Brentwood town centre truly is the place to go for your shopping."