Tesco's - taking over the world? (Tesco)

Member Name: Mabelthemini

Product:	Tesco
Date:	09/01/09 (129 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good value,good choice

Disadvantages: local small shops suffer

My local branch of Tescos happens to be on my way to work so it's handy if I haven't been bothered to make myself a packed lunch. Recently I have been buying a ready meal of tomato and mozarella Italian pasta which is on offer for £1, unfortunately a lot of the time it is out of stock which seems to be a relatively common occurance in my local branch on a lot of things. I don't know if they under order on purpose or if it's just unexpectedly busy but it is very annoying when it happens all the time. Anyway-i digress...

Tescos in general is a great shop although they have steamrollered over a lot of smaller local shops which closed down when they opened. Much has been made recently about Tescos buying our local independant family run supermarket which was kept so quiet even the staff didn't know, some of them have actually left as they liked working for a locally run firm and didn't want to help a massive conglomerate like Tescos.

The store is well laid out and most things are easy to find, the clothing range used to be good but unfortunately it seems to have shrunk to half it's previous size (the range not the actual clothes) and now there isn't a lot to choose from, our Sainsburys branch has at least three times the choice.

Being a vegetarian I can't really comment on the freshness of the meat and fish but my Mum shops there and has no complaints! The fruit and veg is generally well stocked and in good condition occasionally you can pick up some reduced items but discounts don't tend to be huge.

As well as the food they also do a range of stationery items, Cd's ,Dvds,books and mobile phones. They have a photo developing lab which i have tried and it's well priced with good results.

Special offers tend to be buy one get one free's or 3 for 2's, they used to give you an extra 100 clubcard points here and there on special offer items but I havent seen this recently .

The clubcard scheme itself is a good one if you use the vouchers wisely, every so often they send you vouchers corresponding to the points you have earned while using your clubcard while shopping, the trick is not to use these vouchers off your shopping but to convert them into clubcard deals vouchers which are worth four times the amount. My sister recently converted hers and had a great day out at a Sealife centre and a restaurant meal afterwards. You get a booklet with the deals in when they send you the vouchers so you can choose where you want to go or what you want to buy.

Recently I was sent an email offering me a free Tescos home delivery so I thought i'd give it a go, it was easy to pick what you want on-line and then you choose a 2 hour delivery slot, times range from 7am to 9pm in my area. My shopping arrived on time, there were a couple of substitutions of items that were out of stock, one was ok and one wasn' , the driver took the unsuitable one away and my card was refunded for it the next day. You can tick a box on the order form if you don't want them to substitute items, also if you choose to have your delivery without carrier bags you earn extra 'green' clubcard points.

I recommend Tescos in general but i prefer shopping on-line with them rather than instore as it's a lot less hassle, guess I'm just lazy!!

Summary: Good supermarket