Tesco, Edgbaston - Saturday 11th July 2015

Following news that Tesco in Edgbaston (Five Ways) is closing, I want to do a re-review to see how Tesco Edgbaston will fare now.

Tesco Edgbaston is based in Five Ways and has opened since the 1970s. Its rival is Morrisons Edgbaston which is pretty much opposite to it. It is due to close in mid-August due to now renewing its lease. So, how will it do now that the store is closing soon? And what will its rating be?

The criteria is as follows.

1. Clean - Yes, clean in general.
2. Friendly staff - Quite friendly.The checkout lady offered to pack up and gave a good greeting.
3. Aisle width - Most aisles wide enough for three trolleys. However, some aisles are slightly narrower (notably non-foods and the small clothing section) where two trolleys can be passed through.
4. Everything I was looking for was in stock - Better than before, now to a good. The essentials such as fruit, veg, meat, milk, eggs were stocked well. World foods offered a good variety of Chinese goods and other international goods. Very impressed that it offered brunches of spinach, ung choi, choi sum and pak choi with it being reasonably priced. Fish could be better - not enough variety compared to the Morrisons opposite.
5. Extras: pharmacy/opticians/specialist food/petrol station - Pharmacy, small clothing section (I do mean small), specialist world foods (good with three aisles) and good section on organic and quorn goods available. Halal butcher, deli, bakery, fishmonger also available. Finally, there's a Costa cafe and a small narrow petrol station. Petrol is priced very reasonably - unleaded petrol is 114.9p per litre, just 0.2p behind the cheapest one I've seen which is 114.7p at Asda, Barnes Hill.
6. Fresh produce with long sell-by dates - Yes! All the goods I bought have long sell-by dates for the week. There is also a reduced foods section with not too many goods which shows that stock control is reasonable. Reduced goods offered at around a 25% discount during late morning.
7. Opening Hours - Requires improvement. 6am to Midnight Monday to Saturday. 10am to 4pm Sundays. Bordering on inadequate from next Monday - opening hours changed to 6am to 10pm Monday to Saturday. But then it is closing.
8. Speed of till-processing - Self-service tills available on one side of Tesco (weird layout), and non self-service tills (around 14 in total) on the car parking side. It is quite quick and good service.
9. Self-service tills available - Yes, though I didn't use this facility.
10. Parking facilities - 3 hour parking limit at a multi-storey car park. Good amount of parking time available. What is disappointing is the narrow parking spaces, but it was easy to find one as lots probably defected to Morrisons or the Tesco in Spring Hill.
11. Value for money - Generally competitive with it being part of the "Big Four" supermarkets. Their loyalty card offers the Fuel Save option and it has a petrol station (albeit being narrow). It also has somes goods cheaper than the Chinese supermarket, such as the Vitasoy.
12. Organic produce - available if you want them.
13. Cash machine or cash back - Cash machines available inside the superstore and cash back is available should you need it.
14. Pedestrian access - yes and step free.
15. Space ultilisation - Weird layout of two old office blocks stuck together. Still not a fan of groceries being in the middle of the supermarket. However, they have done the best they can out of this. The concerning bit though was that in the non-foods section, it was boiling hot. It was air conditioned where the foods are. Though I am concerned that with the reduced foods section, it does stink.

In my opinion, Tesco Edgbaston has improved slightly but it can never really match Spring Hill. Which is probably why they decided to have one in Spring Hill. Tesco Edgbaston is a very quiet superstore and it's a shame (even though I'm not a fan of it) that it's closing down. UoB students will miss out from this.

 

Photo courtesy of the Local Data Company

Rating: 5.5 out of 10 (-0.5 for small clothing section, -0.5 for narrow petrol station, -0.5 for narrow parking spaces, -0.5 for lack of variety of fish, -1 for reduced foods aisle that stink, -0.5 for temperatures not being even enough, -1 for opening hours)

Waitrose, Harborne - Sunday 5th July 2015

Time for another supermarket review. This time, I decided to head to a "posher" supermarket.

Waitrose Harborne is a medium sized supermarket which is based in a very busy High Street. How will it do?

The criteria is as follows.

1. Clean - Yes, clean.
2. Friendly staff -Yes. Checkout staff doing the usual promos such as "Have you got a Waitrose card?" Maybe if it's meant to be a posh supermarket, they should really bag the items for us?
3. Aisle width - Narrower than usual. You can't really fit three trolleys, but two is definitely possible.
4. Everything I was looking for was in stock - Good for a medium sized store. There were quite a few offers that I was impressed. The Bottle Green cordials were on promo, which I was pleased! The variety of fish could be improved - too many fillet cuts and not enough whole fish. The meat section is too small. The fruit and veg section is impressive with many different varieties. Milk was disappointing... Not enough 4 pint bottles available but they are charged at the same prices as Sainsbury's. Prices were probably not as dear as I thought it would be.
5. Extras: pharmacy/opticians/specialist food/petrol station - World foods - one long aisle and a good variety. Obviously not as good as some of the Tesco Extras but a good range available for foods from different nationalities. Other extras include deli, butcher, bakery (where you can order cakes). Oh, and free tea/coffee and newspaper if you have a Waitrose card. No cafe or petrol station or opticians or mobile shop, etc. Good variety of eggs, milk, fruit juices, and cordials!
6. Fresh produce with long sell-by dates - Yes, good long sell-by dates. Reduced items occupy quite a bit and they're not generous in offering discounts - 20% at most.
7. Opening Hours - Requires improvement. 8am to 9pm Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm Saturday, 10am to 4pm Sunday
8. Speed of till-processing - A dozen or so tills. Quick service for a posh supermarket.
9. Self-service tills available -No, they prefer good quality customer service.
10. Parking facilities - Small car park, often congested. Only offering 1 and a half hour parking but it is a medium sized supermaket!
11. Value for money - Surprisingly competitive against the "Big Four" supermarkets on quite a lot of items. However, watch out - some items are over priced such as broccoli, meat or fish.
12. Organic produce - available with an impressive section.
13. Cash machine or cash back - Cash machines available and cash back is available should you need it.
14. Pedestrian access - yes and step free
15. Space ultilisation - For a medium sized supermarket, it's used well.

In my opinion, Waitrose is okay - not great, not bad. I wouldn't go there for a usual shop as quite a few items are overpriced. The quality of stock looks good - which explains why they are more expensive than other supermarkets.



Photo courtesy of the Local Data Company
Rating: 6 out of 10 (-1 for not enough milk in stock, -1 for lack of fish variety, -0.5 for amount of meat in stock, -0.5 for narrower than usual aisles, -0.5 for parking facilities, -0.5 for items being overpriced)