Everyone's heard of them, Its not all good though (Tesco)

Member Name: Trengot

Product:	Tesco
Date:	29/10/09 (63 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, wide range, easily accessible

Disadvantages: morallity of some of their trading practises could be considered dubious

I read somewhere recently that Tesco took in one in every eight pounds spent in Britain across all their services and were the second biggest retailer globally. While these are scary statistics (or impressive depending one where you stand), it isn't too hard to see why. For one thing their shops are everywhere. Every corner shop seems to be turning into a Tesco metro or Tesco express and every town seems to have an out of town 'big' Tesco or Tesco Direct.

This can also be seen as a good thing or a bad thing. They are providing cheap, easy access to groceries for everyone. On the other side of the fence are the people calling for them to stop their monopoly over the food market and to let the small businesses thrive again.

Either way, you have to give them credit for the shops themselves. They are clean, well staffed (generally) and well laid out. There is generally a large range of each item from their own brand 'Tesco value' to the much more expensive branded goods from the well known companies. They accommodate for every budget and every requirement fairly well.

They also have a club card scheme where for every pound you spend you get a point and every point is worth a penny. This may not seem a huge amount but they often do offers on the points (for example they are currently offering 2 points per pound). And even if it isn't much it is better than nothing. I'm not sure what the equivalent offered by other supermarkets is.

I do use Tesco often as it is the closest by far and is not expensive but I am slightly off put by the stories (they could be just that) of the exploits carried out by them in buying out farmers for far too low prices and the like. If you can get over that or choose to not believe it, I can see noting wrong with the shop.

Summary: A good shop but nothing very special