Wednesday, August 27, 2008

I Heart Tesco

As foreign as the word "Tesco" sounds to most Americans, it's a household word here in the UK.

Tesco is a grocery store that we love and buy most of our groceries from. If I had to compare it to American stores, I'd say it's a mix between Wal-Mart, Ukrop's (for you Richmond readers), Kroger, and Target.

It's the closest thing the UK has to Wal-Mart, but a far cry from the real deal, since it only has one aisle each of auto parts, kitchen items, computer items, toys, office supplies, and sports equipment. Tesco has a nice bakery and some prepared food, but nothing like Ukrop's Chicken Salad, White House Rolls, or their Macaroni and Cheese. They sell clothes that are about the same quality as Target's, but unfortunately not as cheap since the dollar is so weak. The grocery section is closest to a Kroger in Richmond, but with larger all-natural, free range, and organic foods sections.

But, the absolute best quality of Tesco is...they deliver!

The closest Tesco is 45 minutes from us; there are a couple of little markets and one small grocery store in between here and there, but the prices, and quality of the produce, don't compare to Tesco.

With gas costing $12 a gallon (yeah you read that right, no typo, $12 a gallon. To us $3-4 per gallon gas is an awesome deal. all of our fellow Americans don't know how good they've got it in the States so if you complain to us, you won't find a sympathetic ear) we try to curb our driving as much as possible. Not to mention the amount of time it takes to drive to Inverness, (the city where a Tesco resides) pick out the groceries, put them in the cart, put them on the conveyor belt, put them in the bags, (because they keep prices down by having customers bag their own groceries) put them back in the cart, put them in the car, drive back to Dornoch, take them from the car to the house, and finally put them in their temporary resting place in the kitchen cabinets.

Sheesh, that's a lot of moving groceries.

So, we go to Tesco's website, pick out our groceries (they even save what we've bought before under "My Favorites" so it's easy to re-buy what we buy often), pick out a delivery slot on a specific day, and for a mere few pounds, Mr. Tesco delivery man brings our groceries straight to our front door. He'll even put them on the kitchen table if I ask.

Here's our delivery guy, he's so nice and pretty funny. And check out his Yankees hat! Not that we're Yankees fans (definitely not since James has us praying for his team), but how funny that he owns an MLB hat!?

If you come to visit us I have no doubt that you will get to have your own Tesco experience. Get excited!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tesco ruining cities & small businesses jsut like Wall Mart & paying low wages with no benefits. You must be very proud.

I'm Jennifer said...

Oh, super proud, thanks for asking. You should taste their chocolate pastries, and their pasta salad...delish!

If you're looking for a reaction, you should comment on someone else's blog :)

Anonymous said...

Jenn,
We have been using the Ukrops program on buying groceries and getting money off per gallon of gas at certain local gas stations. Your mom was getting groceries and the accoount was going on a different card and we could not figure why the pump kept saying no reductions available....well we got it straight and yesterday she got gas for a whopping $1.69 a gallon. That was close to the cost we got in Fairmont 3 years ago and we thought it was bad then.
I catch the shuttle at 4:00a.m. here in Oregon and will be home around 4:30 p.m. in Richmond.
James will be happy that I got a Eagles hat today and I will say a little pray for the teams.
Love Dad

I'm Jennifer said...

$1.69?!? That's amazing! Wait to go Ukrops!

James will be stoked about your new hat, he's really going into withdrawal not being able to see his teams play.

Anonymous said...

He's not watching the Phillies on the internet at 3 am anymore? Fox has been airing lots of Yankees games this year (for those of us who don't have cable), but we have yet to see the Phillies. :(