Tesco, the world’s third largest supermarket chain and well known brand in the UK has finally opened its first store in China, in the centre of Beijing. Despite existing competition from Carrefour and Wal-Mart, the market potential in Beijing alone is huge and just on the first day of business Tesco was already jam-packed. Although Tesco has existing investments in Chinese chain LeGou (乐购), this new store is the first fully Tesco-owned operation.
I decided to pay a visit for my evening groceries and was generally pleased: the vegetables appeared fresher than my usual store, the checkout queues were short (they had more counters open), they seemed to sell more products, and they even have a special section for “UK produce” – which I particularly liked! Prices were also reasonable – I don’t have any direct comparisons but nothing seemed more expensive than either Carrefour nor Wal-Mart.
Among the amenities in the all new shopping complex is a set of colourful lockers just outside the supermarket entrance – fully electronic and free to use. You are assigned a locker, given a bar coded receipt, then to retrieve your bag you scan the receipt and your locker opens again. Marvellous! There’s also a KFC nearby, a bakery, restaurants, and lots of new shops. This is becoming a trend in China – the supermarket becomes a magnet for commerce. But it works, and with housing construction still booming in the run-up to the 2008 olympics you can be sure that many more stores are to follow.
Unfortunately time was short on this visit, but i’ll definitely go again.