Ever since its Safeway takeover, Morrison's has struggled to find its feet. Shoptalk gives a consumer's view of its strengths and weaknesses.

SO what is it about Morrison's? The supermarket chain has been a northern favourite for years. Made huge profits. Always did well in our consumer tests. Was admired in the business. Was recently named as one of the cheapest supermarket chains in Britain, second only to ASDA.

Then they took over Safeway. And since then it's been nothing but trouble. Profits have plummeted. Boardroom battles.

Of course, the sheer expense of the takeover has taken a huge chunk of company money. But there have been other grumbles.

Among them is that Morrison's is just too northern and downmarket for southern customers. Too many pies and pease pudding, not enough polenta and pancetta.

Is this fair? Is this true?

We took our trolley and looked at Morrison's as if for the first time, comparing it - as a southern standard - with Sainsbury's.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

You can't see into the store properly for bins of special offers cluttering up the fruit and veg section. Sainsbury's draws you in, Morrisons makes it an obstacle course.

FISH COUNTER

At first, Morrison's fish counter seems to be all cod, kippers and cockles. But they also have whole fresh salmon, sea bass, lots of salmon steaks and helpful assistants. Their counter is actually bigger and better stocked than Sainsbury's. It just doesn't look it.

FRUIT AND VEG

Lots of lettuce varieties, for example, and a good range of tomatoes. There are also some delicious sweet Ava strawberries - much, much nicer than the bog standard watery Elsanta offerings - but you have to hunt them down. In Sainsbury's, the Ava strawberries are flagged up as Taste the Difference - easy to spot. But in Morrison's, to get to the fruit and veg you're bumping round bargain boxes of squash or barbecues, and lots of cardboard boxes.

PIES

There are, it is true, an awful lot of pies in Morrison's. Hard to escape the sight and smell of them. There's the pie shop, with warmed pies. There are pies on the deli counter. Then further round, there is another chiller counter full of pies and pasties.

DOUGHNUTS

A whole display of doughnuts. We like doughnuts. But you can have too much of a good thing. Displayed in such quantities, they make you yearn for a lettuce leaf. And even those who like pies and doughnuts don't always want to shop in the sort of store that sells so many of them.

BREAD

Huge selection of bread, including some very good speciality breads baked on the premises. But the soap powder section almost comes into the bread section. It's just off putting.

DELI COUNTER

Excellent range of cooked hams and beef. Better than Sainsbury's. But really just a token selection of continental meats. And yet more pies.

READY MEALS

Good range - but hard to get to as the cabinet was blocked by a display of barbecue briquettes.

STOCK LEVELS

Excellent. While Sainsbury's have been struggling to keep their shelves filled, Morrisons have their supply chain sorted and always seem to be well stocked.

MEAT

Good selection of fresh meat, including free range and organic and good down to earth stuff such as ox hearts and neck of lamb.

LAYOUT

Display of air fresheners and lavender scented wooden balls are practically in the butter cabinet.

SPECIAL RANGES

Free From Range not as big as Sainsbury's but still good. Small but interesting range of "Something Special" included puy lentils, ubon noodles, Duchy Original mineral water.

ALCOHOL

Excellent range of wine spirits, beer, including real ales and organic ciders.

BISCUITS

Biscuits were strong on bargain rate custard creams, very thin on more upmarket brands. Don't know what they're missing.

FREEZER AISLES

More clutter - boxes of lager, deck chairs, many of them still heaped up in cardboard boxes. If we'd wanted an obstacle course, we'd have joined the Army, not gone shopping.

SERVICE

Fly swatters in the sweet display at the checkout. Odd. Pleasant assistants, but no-one offered to help pack. In Sainsbury's, checkout assistants always pack the first bag and offer to do the rest too. It's a nice little courtesy - as well as speeding the job along.

REWARD SCHEMES

No loyalty cards, points for purchases in store. But Morrison's petrol prices are some of the lowest in the region. They also give points back that you can spend in store.

VERDICT

It's not really what Morrison's sells, it's the way they sell it. They actually have a lot of "upmarket" ranges - but they're not pushed, you have to hunt for them. It's almost as if they're embarrassed by them. What you actually see is a lot of pies and doughnuts - off putting if you're a lamb's lettuce and parma ham sort of person.

The clutter in the store is irritating. It also reminded us of little old fashioned general stores where the buckets were next to the butter and the polish next to the potatoes. But times have changed. We don't want to shop like that any more. Cluttered chaos is no longer appealing.

We did our shopping at Morrison's at Morton Park, Darlington, one of the biggest in the region. Colleagues who use the smaller Morrison's that was Safeway at Barnard Castle are not impressed - much less choice and the quality is not what it was when it was Safeway.

They've been pushed into seeking out smaller specialist suppliers, so unwittingly, Morrison's might have boosted local shops. Probably not what they intended.

MEMO TO MORRISONS

Get rid of the clutter. Get your stores organised. Make them easy to walk around and easy to find what you want.

Top quality ranges and foreign specialities are nothing to be ashamed of - so make them easy to find, not some sort of guilty secret. And stock more of them. Though it's not really the stock that's the problem, it's the image. Piles of bargain offers in cardboard boxes make us think we're shopping in a warehouse, not a 21st century superstore.

And remember, you can have too much of a good thing - especially pies.