JUST GO TO TESCO (Tesco)

Member Name: DJBorley

Product:	Tesco
Date:	19/06/04 (3776 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent all round

Disadvantages: None

Tesco have two stores in Chelmsford. One based right on top of town, and one just out of town near the Miami roundabout, which is my local store, and the one that this opinion is based on.

I try to do most of my shopping at Tesco. The food is good, the prices are reasonable and my local store sells everything from food and drink to clothes and CDs. There is also a petrol garage situated alongside the main store, with a car park that has several hundred spaces, and is never full (although you may often have to park a minute or twos walk away from the store)

Tesco stock a wide variety of products and like most supermarkets sell primarily the big names. If you want to be something made by Birds Eye, Coca Cola, Ben & Jerrys or Huggies, then Tesco will sell it. They also offer their own ranges, these being the Value range, which is a cheap and cheerful offering aimed at those who don?t care if their goods have fantastic packaging. Most of the value range has very simple white and blue packaging, without pictures. I guess that this is to keep costs down as the Value range is also very cheap. An example of this is a tin of beans for 9p, compared to 33p for a similar sized HP tin. Their other range is the Finest range which, as the name suggests, is aimed at the higher end of the consumer range. This range is supposed to be better tasting, and is priced accordingly. Their Finest Irish Cheddar Mash (400g) is £1.99, which is indicative of the high price you?ll pay for this range.

* Rewards

Tesco have a rewards card called ?Clubcard?, which you need to register for by filling in and sending off a form with your name and address details. The good thing is that the form you fill in has a card attached to it which means that you can start collecting points straight away. A genera
l rule of thumb is that you can collect a point for every £1 that you spend, and after a few months you get vouchers back equating to a penny for every point earnt. This may not sound a lot but Tesco also run a lot of promotions where you can earn extra points by buying certain things, and recently they have been offering double points of any fuel bought. It?s not unusual for our house to get £30 - £50 in vouchers each year, and we certainly don?t spend between £3,000 and £5,000 at Tesco in that time!

* Price

As I?ve mentioned above, there are two different Tesco?s own ranges that are cost effective or more expensive, depending which one you go for. Other than these though, the prices in store are generally very good, and it?s obvious that Tesco use their might as one of the UK?s leading supermarkets to drive down costs and pass them on to customers. The store is also very keen on promoting this fact and you will often see little projecting signs throughout the store comparing the Tesco price for certain products to that of Sainsbury and Boots. As with most supermarkets, Tesco is much cheaper than smaller shops, and it?s Clubcard rewards system effectively means that you?re getting back at least 1% of what you spend. It may not seem much, but it?s definitely welcome when it comes in a big lump.

* Layout & Presentation

Tesco seem to lay out all of their stores in the same way, with newspapers and magazines being by the main entrance, next to sandwiches and lunchtime snacks, with soft and alcoholic drinks being positioned at the far end of the store. The aisles are well spaced, meaning that, ignorant shoppers aside, you can easily have two-way traffic down the aisles without bumping into people. The aisles are well sign-posted with large hanging signs at each end of an aisle giving a clear indication of what is down each aisle. &#
84;he ends of most aisles are generally used for promotional items, and it?s here that you will often find the ?Buy One Get One Free? offers. The back end of this store has the in-store bakery, meat counter and fish counter, and this is the same for most stores.

* Selection, Range & Availability

With an average of around 25 aisles, most with two sides of at least five shelves, the store has a huge range of goods, and although the store is primarily stocked with food, there are aisles set aside for baby products, CD?s, videos and DVD?s, and electrical equipment. The range of foods is extremely wide, and though their range of other products can be a little limited, there is usually enough of a selection to enable you to make a choice of purchase.

The availability of items is extremely good, with just about all products being in stock all of the time. Of the occasions when there hasn?t been a great deal of stock in on a regular basis, the store has acted on this and ensured that there has been a sufficient supply for the future.

* Customer Service & Staff Knowledge

The staff are generally extremely friendly and approachable, and I?ve never had any problems or run-ins with any staff members. Unlike some stores, all staff seem to know the layout of the entire store, and will often stop what they are doing to actually take you to the item you are looking for, rather than tell you which aisle it is down. On one occasion I even had a member of staff go and search the store area in the back for some goods that weren?t on display, without being asked, which was a nice surprise.

The customer service is also excellent, with a desk based near the front of the store always having at least one, if not two people staffing it. Tesco run a (very much unpublicised) policy of, if they make a mistake in pricing wh
en the goods are run through at the checkout, they will refund the entire costs of the goods and also give you the goods free of charge. This is a very rare occurance, but it is always worth checking your receipt in case the ?Buy One Get One Free? offer didn?t pull through when you paid for your goods! A hint here is that Tesco will generally make a mistake with pricing when goods have been marked down due to being close to sell-by date.

* After Sales Service

Again, this is excellent. Any problems that I?ve had, which have included asking for cashback, and forgetting to take the money and going back the next day to get it, and buying meat which, despite being stored accordingly, started to smell funny before the Best Before date, have been dealt with in a quick and quibble-free manner.

* - Queues

Tesco operate a ?One in front? scheme at their checkouts which means in layman?s terms that if there is at least one person in front of you in your queue, they will open up another till, if they have the staffing levels to do so. Although this is a good idea, it can be frustrating when there is clearly not enough staff on at a busy period. Generally the size of the queues are dictated by the times that you choose to do your shopping. Any weekday evening, particularly Thursday and Friday are chaos, with an abundance of shoppers and huge queues, though it is certainly no worse than any other store at the same time.

* Other points

Sainsbury?s are making a big deal of their ?One in front? and ?Scan ?n? Pack? services in their commercials right now, but these are services that Tesco have offered for a long time. With a continued activity towards improving the store, a suggestion box with recent comments from customers and the replies from the management displayed on the wall, there is a definiate f
eel that the customer?s needs matter. A wide range of trollies are available, from the standard size, to the smaller trollies which are far easier to steer, through to trollies for use by those in wheelchairs, and trollies that hold baby seats, or offer an in-built baby seat.

There are spaces in the car park set aside for disabled visitors, and those with small children, as well as a collection and drop-off point set aside slightly away from the main entrance to prevent a large number of stop-start car journies that would cause traffic problems.

Wheelchairs are available free of charge for disabled visitors, and there is a café situated at the front of the stores, with lockable lockers which you can wheel your trollies into and leave safely whilst you eat.

Even the access to the store has been designed in such a way that the cars have to follow a one-way system into and through the car park, which makes things a lot easier for everyone.

* Overall

Tesco have a very good reputation as a company, and having shopped at this store for three years, it?s easy to see why. I often had misconceptions about Tesco stores, as they were never a big player in the town that I used to live in. Now, I wouldn?t be without it. Although it?s a drive away, they generally hold as much stock as I?ll ever need, with excellent prices and pleasant staff. In fact, the only bad thing I can say about them is their damned annoying TV ads, but I won?t let that spoil a good opinion! 5 stars.

Summary: