The Tesco & other non-Morrisons supermarket thread

[Pete]

Had a look around Kensington and indeed Tooley St recently, both remarkable stores (for Tesco).

http://www.groceryinsight.com/blog

Kensington High St is a lovely store. The two levels are quite odd for such a small branch (only seen it before in Liverpool One) but it does mean the top floor is amazing.

The second floor at Kensington only has seating for the cafe and access to the multi-story, there's nothing to be bought there unlike Liverpool.

I think we might be talking about two different branches, I was meaning the Metro on the High Street.

[rdobbie]

Just for fun, in case anyone doesn't remember it (it had a very brief lifespan), the original Clubcard logo (acknowledgement: Logopedia):

I was in the Tesco in Lichfield earlier this week and I noticed something strange- they have those barriers that they but across aisles when they're closed, but they had the 1990-1995 Tesco logo on them. This is especially strange because it's a new Extra store that replaced the old store around 4 years ago, so this means that either Tesco are still making these things with an 18 years out of date logo on, or they cheaply re-used some fixtures and fittings from the old demolished store.

I know the barriers you're talking about and I've also seen them in modern Tesco stores.

Sometimes in large organisations, things escape the control of the branding department. I've worked in companies when a new logo has been rolled out, and it's just impossible to get every employee to remove all the obsolete logos off their hard drive, because they just don't understand the importance of rebranding. This leads to situations where some minion places an order for something to be printed (e.g. payslips, car park permits, identity badges) and they send the supplier an old logo. It shouldn't happen but it does. You also get situations when you send the printer the correct logo in a universal format (PDF or EPS with text converted to outlines) and, for reasons known only to themselves, they recreate it in a different font!

You'll also spot many old or badly recreated supermarket logos on the cardboard boxes that arrive from the factory containing own brand items - I even saw the pre-1995 Tesco 'slug' on a box containing vinegar bottles a few weeks ago.

[WillPS]

Sometimes in large organisations, things escape the control of the branding department. I've worked in companies when a new logo has been rolled out, and it's just impossible to get every employee to remove all the obsolete logos off their hard drive, because they just don't understand the importance of rebranding. This leads to situations where some minion places an order for something to be printed (e.g. payslips, car park permits, identity badges) and they send the supplier an old logo. It shouldn't happen but it does. You also get situations when you send the printer the correct logo in a universal format (PDF or EPS with text converted to outlines) and, for reasons known only to themselves, they recreate it in a different font!

You'll also spot many old or badly recreated supermarket logos on the cardboard boxes that arrive from the factory containing own brand items - I even saw the pre-1995 Tesco 'slug' on a box containing vinegar bottles a few weeks ago.

There's also the possibility that the same supplier has been delivering tensabarriers and vinegar since the early 90s or earlier, and they've just kept reordering rather than respecifying. This was the case at JS - until the 'by Sainsbury's' launch a good third of all ambient stuff (and even stuff like the paper they wrap fish in on the counters) had the pre-1999 logo.

[james2001]

Just for fun, in case anyone doesn't remember it (it had a very brief lifespan), the original Clubcard logo (acknowledgement: Logopedia):

It lives on though- thanks to an appearance in Blackadder Back and Forth, even though it was made 4 years after they stopped using that logo, and Tesco were actually one of the sponsors of the film (presumably why it got plugged there in the first place, but you'd think they'd have used a new card!).

And, again, on a similar note, can anyone else remember Tesco carrier bags still having the old logo on until the back end of 1997? And it wasn't even the case that they'd stockpiled a load of ones with the old logo on, as they also had the "Charity of the Year 1996/97" and Clubcard adverts on with the new logo.

Oh, and Tesco Worksop is brilliant (until the new one gets built): https://maps.google.co.uk/?ll=53.315229 ... 9,,0,13.34

[james2001]

There's also the possibility that the same supplier has been delivering tensabarriers and vinegar since the early 90s or earlier, and they've just kept reordering rather than respecifying. This was the case at JS - until the 'by Sainsbury's' launch a good third of all ambient stuff (and even stuff like the paper they wrap fish in on the counters) had the pre-1999 logo.

We didn't have a branch of Sainsbury's until 2004 (when it replaced Safeway, as it was one of the branches Morrisons had to sell off) and when it opened all the baskets still had the old logo on it, even though the branch didn't open until 5 years after the logo change.

[jay]

So I work about right next to Tesco Tooley Street which is a concept store (which basically means they refurbish it in some way every three months).

The latest additions are a "Harris and Hoole" coffee shop, which utilises some of the previously dead space on the upper level, and a "Euphorium" bakery. It looks like (unlike Tesco's previous brands bullshit which was a pack of lies, and fooled nobody except for me who in a fit of delirium decided that 'Cocopia' chocolates were the best things ever) these are genuine brands. Or were once genuine brands. Or something.

The coffee place is absolutely packed (or maybe that's just an illusion by how small it is) - but I have no idea why. I would feel cheated. I mean it's one thing to pay £3 for a coffee in starbucks but doing so in a bloody Tesco is another thing altogether.

The Euphorium bakery on the other hand is interesting. It appears extremely upmarket and has little interactive displays (such as "bread of the day") but the prices don't seem too out of this world. It has little dessert things too that Tesco has definitely never done before. The quality of the bread seemed ok-to-good (not great), and I can't decide if that's because it's a genuine step up from Tesco, or Tesco's bread has been improving for ages and I just haven't touched it because I can't forget the days when it tasted horrid.

There are a load of touch-screen computers plonked around the store which let you browse the Tesco website, too.

There are now about 25 self checkout tills and two normal tills. This is good. You can go in at peak times with 30 people queuing ahead of you and only wait a couple of minutes.

You should try the coffee - it's really nice, and I'm a big Starbucks fan but I'd go to Harris and Hoole over them any day of the week!

There is one in my village (it was the first one to launch, actually) and it's a big unit on the High St which is always packed.

Tesco are close to launching LED shelf edge labels - I'm not just talking about the dodgy LED price displays that Morrisons/Sainsbury's tried out, but actually the whole length of the shelf edge, with full colour HD displays. I've seen a concept video that looks absolutely stunning, and it recreates the look of the standard shelf-edge labels, along with promotions and even playing TV adverts of some of the products - even recipe ideas for the products on the shelf.

[Square Eyes]

Tesco are close to launching LED shelf edge labels - I'm not just talking about the dodgy LED price displays that Morrisons/Sainsbury's tried out, but actually the whole length of the shelf edge, with full colour HD displays. I've seen a concept video that looks absolutely stunning, and it recreates the look of the standard shelf-edge labels, along with promotions and even playing TV adverts of some of the products - even recipe ideas for the products on the shelf.

Ridiculous. One of my pet hates is people loitering around in front of shelves in the supermarket when I want to get in. It should be about giving people the easiest and quickest access to product, not giving them cause to note down a recipe or gather to watch a TV ad.

[scottishtv]

I was at Tesco Corstorphine (Edinburgh) yesterday and noticed that they have a few tills with screens along the full length of the checkout (where there used to be leaflets, giftcards and other rubbish) advertising various Tesco Bank products. This might just be because this shop has it's own dedicated Tesco Bank built in the car park, so a bit of cross promotion going on.

[Pete]

Screens probably work out cheaper and easier in the long run. When you think about what an ordeal printing out all those price tickets is and how many man hours they have to put into it.

[all new Phil]

I'm sure the staff at the stores will figure out a way of getting them to display everything in underlined Times New Roman.

[WillPS]

Screens probably work out cheaper and easier in the long run. When you think about what an ordeal printing out all those price tickets is and how many man hours they have to put into it.

Christ - the cost of equipping *every shelf* in an Extra must be massive!! I can't imagine them making that back before they're all bust...

...which brings me to me to my next point - what's the fall back?