SENIOR figures from the Midcounties Co-op were quizzed by Highworth councillors who have been swamped with complaints from unhappy shoppers.

Empty shelves, out-of-date food, and freezers which had been left unusable for over a year were among the biggest problems put to Mark Taylor, head of operations, and Mark Williams, chief operating officer of food operations at the supermarket.

The pair attended a council meeting in response to a strongly-worded letter the councillors had written to the retailer about their dissatisfaction with the town’s only supermarket.

Coun Lynn Vardy said: “The biggest issue I’ve heard from other people is a lack of stock.

“It’s sad that people perceive it as an expensive supermarket with not a lot in it.

“The staff, on the whole, are lovely, but some of them should be sent on a customer service course.”

Coun Josephine Clark said: “You’re selling goods that had gone past their sell-by date.

“I spoke to someone about investigating this over a year ago but the problem is still ongoing, I’m surprised there hasn’t been a health and safety issue.”

Coun Nick Gardiner agreed: “One lady told me there’s constantly out-of-date stock on the shelves, then when she reported this to the chain, they said they check stock three times a day and no-one had handed in off products since January – but she’d frequently given out-of-date stock to staff.”

The two executives seemed surprised that customers were experiencing these problems.

Mr Williams said: “There’s a process in-store where staff scan products that they’re running low on, then the system generates more stock and should send it to the shop before they run out completely.

“If the staff aren’t doing that, then the stock won’t replenish.”

He added: “There should not be availability issues unless there is an issue with our supplier.

“Something has obviously been missed here, it’s not working as well as it should be, there’s no excuse for this. We’re not doing a good enough job and we will fix this.”

Coun Alison Durrant thanked the shop for its commitment to Fairtrade products, Coun Angela Livall praised the quality of its high-end products, Coun Keith Smith congratulated it for employing people with special educational needs, and Coun Nick Gardiner noted that the staff were always happy to support local community events.

However, councillors asked the representatives to up their game.

The representatives pledged to fix these long-standing issues as quickly as possible.

Mr Williams said: “It’s been very useful to hear your comments first-hand.

“This is damning for us because these problems are all operational matters that should be fairly simple things which we can sort out.”

“We have lost your trust and our challenge now is to earn it back.”