The rise and rise of Tesco

For my contribution to Wordless Wednesday this week I posted a set of 7 photos under the title A Store is Born charting the building of a new Tesco Superstore in a small town near me. My pictures prompted several questions about Tesco – for example, Janet asked ‘So is Tesco the British equivalent of Walmart (big box store with cheap prices designed to drive out all the local Mom and Pop stores)?

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Well, yes and no! It’s not a big box store, but as the country’s largest food based retailer it has driven the high street independent out of the market as they simply can’t compete on price. But Tesco aren’t actually the cheapest supermarket chain. That accolade goes to the second biggest supermarket chain, Asda – owned by Walmart!

.Let me give you a few facts and figures. Tesco has 32% of the UK grocery market. One pound in every seven of UK resident’s disposable income goes into Tesco’s tills. They are replacing the small high street shops, which they forced out, with local convenience stores of their own

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My nearest sizeable town is Eastbourne which has a modest population of about 22,000 souls. Tesco has one massive hypermarket, one superstore and five local stores in that town alone!

Their portfolio now extends to clothing, electrical and garden centres. They have an enormous range of financial and insurance services and are the countries largest petrol ( gas) retailer..

In recent years Tesco has grown its overseas operation. They now have stores in 13 countries, including 56 in China, 142 in South Korea, 71 in India and no less than 532 in Thailand. And more recently they have edged their way into the US by launching a modest chain of neighbourhood stores under the Fresh and Easy brand which will grow to 500 locations on the west coast in the next year.

.So Janet, hopefully that answers your question! Right now I need to get some food in. I’m off to Tesco’s. Bye!

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