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  Tesco Express - background  
 

 

With a name like Express, it's not surprising that this is Tesco's fastest growing format, opening at least 50 stores a year! It meets customer demand for longer trading hours and greater convenience. Express stores are usually found at petrol stations and are aimed at local customers who want a convenient place they can trust to 'top up' their shopping or replace home essentials. Each Tesco Express is a single unit of up to3000 sq ft, stocking around 2800 lines, including fresh and frozen food, ambient goods, a bakery and, in many cases, wines and spirits. The stores are very busy and it's a very fast-moving, hands-on environment.
Source: http://www.imaginerecruitment.com/advice/featured/tesco_express.php

  
       
  Tesco Express stores are neighbourhood convenience shops, stocking mainly food with an emphasis on higher-margin products (due to small store size, and the necessity to maximize revenue per square foot) alongside everyday essentials. They are found in busy city centre districts, small shopping precincts in residential areas, small towns and on Esso petrol station forecourts. The 1000th Tesco Express site opened in July 2009. Tesco have now started building Tesco Express stores with no staff tills, only having 'Self-Service' tills in which the customer scans all their own shopping and packs it, in the event of a problem the machine will notify a member of staff who will assist you.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesco

 

  
     
 

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s the average size of supermarkets grew as small high street (independent) stores were replaced by large, out-of-town stores. But in recent years there has been a return to the high street. Big supermarket chains like Tesco are opening more convenience stores in town centres (i.e. Tesco Express stores.)

  
  The main reasons for this reversal is our changing lifestyles. There are a number of factors:  
 
  • a rise in the number of smaller households (with less need to buy in bulk)
  • a rise in the number of pensioners, many of whom do not drive
  • an increase in wealth, so people want more choice and more speciality foods
  • families easting at different times and a trend towards snacking, not meals
  • an increasingly diverse population with different tastes and shopping needs.
  
     
  Renewed interest in town centres has come a bit late for some. Many towns have been in long term decline, often as a result of large, out-of-town superstores taking away their customers. Government policy and local town planners now want services centred in towns and not on greenfield sites at the settlement edges.  
     
  Some people think supermarkets help to regenerate town centres. Others think they only make things worse  
     
 
"This is  family business trading for 34 years, but we've had a 35% drop in trade since Tesco opened. I don't want to sell up but I don't think we can manage to stay in business much longer. "
James Crawdon, butcher, Stalham (Norfolk) [speaking before his shop closed down]

"It is clear that the introduction of the Tesco Express format to these communities helped to bring about a major relocalisation of top-up shopping - away from distant superstores towards local shops"
Professor Neil Wrigley, Department of Geography, University of Southampton
 
  Source: of information: GCSE Geography textbook OCR/Oxford