Metropol

The one near me says Est. 2006, but it's technically incorrect as there's been a store there since 1980 (though it was demolished and rebuilt in 06- though the petrol station dates to 1996).

In terms of Express stores the Bethnal (Green) one in London has 1969.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/K5Cut5wRm8WwapF96

Can't remember if I've mentioned this branch before but it's a very large Express. I'd argue it should be just a regular, though small, superstore given the range is much bigger than your standard Express and a lot of the prices are superstore level too. There's a regular small Express a few minutes walk down the road too.

That store being an Express is likely a side effect of all those sort of stores becoming Metros in the 90s and 00s, then all the Metros being folded into expresses in the last few years. The one in the Victoria Centre in Nottingham is another former Metro that feels far too big to be an Express as well (I don't think that one has a date sign on it though, but I think it opened with the centre in 1972).

Interestingly looking at the older Streetview pictures of that Bethnal store, the pictures from 2018 and 19 show it was actually was rebranded from a Metro to just a regular "Tesco" (with some strange black signage I've never seen anywhere else), then regained the Metro branding by 2020 before becoming an Express in 2021.

Interestingly this photo from 1980 seems to show the store was a LOT smaller then (though there do seem to be stairs, so presumably there was shopping space up there), so it presumably expanded massively in the years since:

Boy that window display is ugly/a cluttered mess. We’ve come a long way

The Kidlington store (Est. 1979) changed to a Metro in the early 2000s, but changed back to a regular superstore when the Metros were abolished. Are there many Metros which didn’t become Expresses?

Those posters mention a "checkout card" too, a precursor to the clubcard?

Can't find any info on it, but have found a photo of a carrier bag promoting it:

james2001 wrote: Sat 23 Aug, 2025 18.00 Those posters mention a "checkout card" too, a precursor to the clubcard?

Can't find any info on it, but have found a photo of a carrier bag promoting it:

It was a hybrid store account card/savings account and was eventually rebranded Clubcard Plus. They were the weird ones with the green version of the early 00s Clubcard design, which then didn't get updated with subsequent redesigns but eventually they were updated to look more like the Tesco Bank 'strawberry' credit cards:
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-tesco ... archtype=0

I believe the idea was that you set a direct debit to collect a deposit from your current account regularly, the balance on the account attracted interest and could be spent at Tesco stores. There was also a moderate credit limit which you could use (again, only at Tesco) and pay interest on, like a conventional store account card.

The product limped on with almost zero publicity, not even a mention on Tesco's website, until 2017:
https://web.archive.org/web/20170919134 ... s-accounts

The Clubcard Plus name was then reused by Tesco Stores for the subscription product which still exists.

The replacement product mentioned in that article, the current account, was itself closed and replaced by a product called Clubcard Pay... rapidly renamed Clubcard Pay+. This all makes trying to Google details about the older scheme very tricky indeed!

Lpjthomas wrote: Sat 23 Aug, 2025 11.43 The Kidlington store (Est. 1979) changed to a Metro in the early 2000s, but changed back to a regular superstore when the Metros were abolished. Are there many Metros which didn’t become Expresses?

Well Street in Hackney was a Metro and is now a superstore.
Its sign says 'est 1978', though I reckon they could legitimately claim 1919 on that branch, as it's a stone's throw from Jack Cohen's first market stall.


Byres Road in Glasgow (also previously a Metro) claims 1994, which is odd because it didn't open until 2009. I wonder if they've somehow claimed continuity for the Argyle Street Metro, which was open from 1994-2008.