The Tesco & other non-Morrisons supermarket thread

[Pete]

Are other Tescos merging the customer service desks and fag / lottery kiosks? I thought it was just to reduce staff / gain space but actually its resulted in a much better service as instead of having one person on a two till kiosk, and one on a tiny customer service desk, you now have three people on a massive customer service desk that can flex up to five if needed.

They've added a little forex hut too, although its not open yet. Tesco's rates tend to be very good and they have better opening hours than Thomas Cook who once shut the door in my face because it was 4:59.

[Pete]

ah yes I knew I had something to post. Had to retrace the route of the 309 bus to remind me where this was but...


On a recent visit to North Tyneside I finally saw several of these fabled OneStop shops that Tesco own.

What the point of them is and why they aren't just Tesco Express? Surely it's just a pointless overhead? Especially with Booker now being on board.

Also... can anyone explain to be the logic of this? (click to enbiggen)


Here we have Battle Hill and a OneStop and Tesco Express at either sides of the same reasonably new set of retail units. Why?

[Martin Phillp]

There's a One Stop and a Tesco Express on the same stretch of road in Penge. No real demographic change in either part of the road where they're based.

[bilky asko]

How many One Stops are Tesco owned, roughly? All the ones locally are franchised ones that switched from Nisa a few years ago.

I believe that, on average, One Stops are smaller than Expresses, and are generally more expensive.

[Critique]

In contrast, I'd say that all the One Stops local to me are in more affluent areas - definitely not places I'd consider as 'downmarket' by any stretch of the imagination! Wouldn't even say that either store I'm thinking of is that different in size to an Express. One is only a ten minute walk from a Tesco Metro, so maybe it's providing the illusion of choice?

[Martin Phillp]

In contrast, I'd say that all the One Stops local to me are in more affluent areas - definitely not places I'd consider as 'downmarket' by any stretch of the imagination!

Agreed, the layout of the Penge One Stop seems to be attracting a more affluent customer than the Express down the road. However, they do offer Paypoint on the POS, which is more likely to be used by the CD2E locals than the ABC1.

[jonathan]

The Tesco self scan setup is by far the best implementation. The Asda system is far from perfect, but a lot of the issues stem from having no loyalty card or similar, as you say.

Sainsbury's have no such excuse, yet for reasons completely unknown to me when you register you have to input your email and set a password (then confirm it) on their laggy android tablets. Total rubbish. And they too have the awkward 'scan a barcode on the screen of the self scan then scan the QR code on the handset on the self scan' arrangement.

My only gripe with the Tesco setup is that it treats every Clubcard number individually, even though you can have several all linking to the same account. Given the only registration step is popping a postcode in it hardly matters though.

I also prefer the separate bank of checkouts which Tesco seem to have ditched; it meant that it was always a speedy way to pay up and get out, whereas now you're at the mercy of whichever technically illiterate fruitcakes may have tried to use a computer for the first time ever to pay for their trolley load of loose produce and bakery items.

Oh and for some reason there's been a massive delay when transferring to self scan recently (40+ second wait, then loading items at a rate of 1 every 2 or 3 seconds).

The Waitrose implementation is very similar to Tesco but superior IMO due to lack of rescans/checks (maybe I'm lucky) and instant loading to the till.

Waitrose use the same system IIRC but with a godawful nixdorf till at the end.

I've never had an issue with the Nixdorf tills there, unlike Morrisons where I rarely didn't have an issue. Perhaps it's partly due to the scales being disabled.

[thegeek]

My local hospital has recently gained an M&S Simply Food in its grounds. It's clearly run as a travel store - the meal deal is £4 rather than £3.50, ready meals are 3 for £10 - usually it's £7, though not across ranges - and being in a hospital, they're not licensed. It's also in a brand new, standalone building, so I'll probably pop in there rather than the (slightly nearer) corner shop because it's only 50p for a pint of milk.

I spotted this today:

It looks like they're covering up a '2 for £3' promo that's not running in this store. The 'Marks & Spencer LONDON' logo is, according to the brand guideines [pdf] supposed to be for international use only, but I guess the fact that it's in London means that nobody else would notice.

The store is, incidentally, operated by WHSmith Travel.

[Martin Phillp]

I've found the prices in my local M&S food store and the hospital are broadly similar. The ready meals are 3 for £10, same as the hospital. The fruit pots I find are £2 in the in-house and £2.20 in the hospital.

My local hospital M&S is operated by another franchisee and is in the main building on the ground floor.

[thegeek]

This one's been here a while - 80s font outside Poole Extra showing compliance with 1845 Gaming Act.

Don't you mean the 1831 Game Act?

[Finn]

This one's been here a while - 80s font outside Poole Extra showing compliance with 1845 Gaming Act.

Don't you mean the 1831 Game Act?

He may be playing a game with you.

It won't be nice and it won't be pheasant. You may even need to duck...