Tescos

Tescos, I know they get knocked but they do have the convenience factor. The day Tescos announced they were coming to Hamlet Court Road, about 3 years ago as a full blown convenience store was welcomed with mixed responses. The small independents gave themselves a time span for closure, but they didn’t, and regular customers thought the challenge might boost the current offer from the likes of Co-​op opposite.
Dropping in today, for the regular bottle of wine and something for the kids sandwiches for tomorrow’s pack lunches, I was met with the standard layout of cramming as much shelf space and prime product in as can be possibly done. The Tesco plan however is not to provide their own cheap brand, ‘Blue & Whites, which I am sure they do for certain items per day rationed, so come early evening they are all gone, leaving only the expensive main brands on offer (ok I know the Manager is target driven and the own brands don’t hit it). These stores are convenient if you can afford them. Put it this way the £10 I spent today on 7 products would have gone further if I jumped in the car travelled a mile for the super huge Tesco store and bought the own brands, but they know they have me, as the offers would mean I would not buy just 7 items here.
Back to this store, well it is quite a mindless process: find the need, place in basket, oooh at things you like but can’t afford, try and justify buying them and then baulk at the price and move on. Find the end of the queue that winds it way up through the booze area, handy for studying wine prices. There are two self serve tills which I religiously use, and usually two human tills which still attract those adverse to robots, thank god. However, usng the robots, I still always need the young person’s approval at the till that I am old enough to buy wine?
Bags packed and leave, go home and study contents of the hunt, and wonder why I didn’t go to Co-​op, although if I had bought stuff there, the same angst occurs the other way round too.