The Mystery Shopping Awards are an annual initiative run by the City Centre Business Improvement District (BID) to celebrate and benchmark customer service excellence across the city centre.
Each year, winners across multiple categories are announced at an Awards Breakfast.
2026 Mystery Shopping Awards
The exercise was conducted by ProInsight Mystery Shopping in May and June, covering hundreds of city centre businesses across categories including Health and Beauty, Technology, Food and Drink, and Fashion.
Winners were celebrated at a ceremony on Wednesday 15th July at The Stoller Hall.
The programme saw Outstanding! results:
- 248 businesses scored above 89%
- 100% service excellence by 70 BID businesses
With huge congratulations to all.
Best of the Best 2026
- Fashion: Large Stores: Boss
- Fashion: Foot Asylum
- Boutique: Sunglasses Hut
- Food & General Retail: Spar
- Footwear: Barker by Brogue Trader, Clarks, Dune, Kurt Geiger
- Health & Beauty: Jo Malone, L’Occitane, Molton Brown
- Home & Lifestyle: Build-A-Bear, Clarendon Fine Art, Ecig, Merkur Casino, Whittard
- Stationery & Books: Ryman
- Wellbeing: Pure Gym, Seen, XF Gym
- Bank & Building Society: Metro Bank, Natwest, Halifax, HSBC, Virgin Money
- Advised Customer Service: Vispring
- Technology: Apple
- Jeweller: AP House, David M Robinson, Boodles, Ramsden, Tudor
- Hospitality – Quick Service: Subway
- Hospitality – Restaurant: Lucky Cat
- Hospitality – Coffee/Takeaway: Gail’s Bakery
- Hospitality – Casual Dining: Flight Club.
Best of the Best 2025
- Advised Customer Service: Emma – The Sleep Company
Bank & Building Society: NatWest - Boutique: Yours Fashion
- Large Stores: Frasers Group
- Fashion: Mint Velvet
- Footwear: Russell & Bromley
- Home & Lifestyle: Warhammer
- Coffee Shop/Takeaway: Krispy Kreme
- Quick Service: McDonald’s (Manchester Arndale)
- Casual Dining: Kingpins
- Restaurant: Grand Pacific
- Health & Beauty: LUSH (Manchester Arndale)
- Technology: Sky
- Jeweller: Boodles
- Food & General Retail: Marks and Spencer
- Wellbeing: King Street Gym
- Stationery & Books: Waterstones (Manchester Arndale).
This is a testament to the hard work and dedication of everyone contributing to the success of Manchester’s retail, leisure and office sectors.
See the 2026 Photos (PC: Social Allies)
See the 2025 photos (PC: Fiona Finchett)
More about Manchester City Centre BID
CityCo, The City Centre Management Company, is the membership organisation representing businesses in Manchester city centre. Through our diverse networks, we bring together over 1,500 companies. Part of our work includes managing the City Centre BID (Retail/ Leisure/ Office Business Improvement District).
Email: info@manchesterbid.com
Follow the work of the BID, services and events on LinkedIn here
