I decided to write this opinion on Tesco Extra in Aberdeen as it is a great store to do my shopping in. You can find everything under one roof, from DVD’s to bikes and food to financial services. Tesco Extra is the largest style of store, you may come across smaller Tesco Express or Tesco Metro stores.

Extra Things you can find in a Tesco Extra Store

Newspapers and Magazines – You will find an extensive collection of magazines here covering all types of interest from pets, to sports, photography and general interest such as New Woman or FHM.

Cards and Giftwrap – Birthdays, Anniversarys, you name it they have it. The cards are reasonably priced and you can even find a few “value” ones there too.

Music and Video – Chart CD’s, DVD’s, videos, games, books, stationery. All at great prices. Quite often you will find offers such as VAT free music and video. Paperback books are generally priced at £3.77, I tend to buy most of my books from here.

Electrical Department – Here you will find a selection of vacuum cleaners, mobile phones, TVs, PCs, videos, small kitchen appliances, etc. They are competitively priced, in fact, most of our electrical goods have come from here.

Clothing – There is a wide range of clothing here. You will find even come across plus sizes and maternity ranges. The clothing tends to be their own brands “Cherokee” or “Florence & Fred”.

Home Department – In this department you will find a selection of bedding, storage facilities, dishes, towels, DIY tools and products and decorative items such as vases. I have an oil burner from here, which was a bargain at £3.99.

These are a few of the departments you can expect to find, other items are sports equipment, bikes, toys and games. The staff are able to construct the bikes for you and are happy to help you out to the car with heavy items. There is not an extensive range of toys and games, but I think that this is a good thing as your shopping could get a bit pricey if you had a child with you.

They also have seasonal items. At the moment it seems to be focused on the outdoors, you know, Patio Sets, Deckchairs, gardening, etc. At Christmas Time the seasonal aisle is full of great gift ideas to suit all tastes.

Customer Service
I have always found the staff in Tesco to be very helpful. If you are struggling to find an item, ask a member of staff and they will be happy to lead you to it. They are easy to spot in their blue checked shirt and navy trousers or skirt and there is usually many of them on the shop floor, stacking shelves, etc.

The queues can be quite bad at busy times, but Tesco have a contingency plan for this. You will hear a tannoy announcement where all staff are asked to report to the checkouts to help tackle the queues. Also at the tills you can have assistance in bag packing and carrying your goods to the car. I just wish they would come home and unpack for me!

The after-sales service is also good. You can return goods you are not happy with and expect no quibbles providing you have proof of purchase. We did not experience any problems when we returned a Microwave as the turntable did not work.

If you are particulary happy with the service by a specific member of staff, you can nominate them for an award. I think that this is a great way as it encourages good customer relations. Fair enough, some of the staff would probably prefer a tip, but they are not allowed to accept them. After receiving three awards, the staff member gets a badge and a photo of them goes up on a board in the staff reception.

Choice and Value
At Tesco you can find a great variety of brand name and own brand foods. One thing I was disappointed at was that I couldn’t find my “Magnum Yoghurt Fresh” but one item out of many is not enough to grumble about.

They have a value range, packaged in the signature blue and white packaging. This offers many everyday products such as bread or orange juice at very low prices.

Or for something special, why not try something from the “Finest” range, packaged in silver with black writing. They offer “finest” ideas for dinner such as the Chicken and Asparagus in a White Wine Casserole for under a fiver.

They have special offers on all the time on brand name items. Such as 2 for the price of 1, or 2 for £3.00. These are easily spotted as you will see a big red and yellow sign stating the offer.

Clubcard
The clubcard is a loyalty card. I don’t know about you, but my purse is full of loyalty cards. Basically you get one point for every pound you spend. Every three months you receive a clubcard statement showing how much points you have earned and these are converted to vouchers to spend instore. Along with your vouchers you also get money off coupons, for example 20p off when you spend £1.25 or more on frozen chips. Okay so it is not millions but as Tesco would say “every little helps”.

You can now earn points on your clubcard visiting other businesses. I have used my clubcard in H Samuels and got one point for every pound there. A few of the other places you can earn points are; Marriott Hotels, Dollond & Aitchison, Beefeater, National Tyres & Autocare, Nationwide Autocentres and Johnsons Dry Cleaners.

As part of the Clubcard scheme you also have the opportunity to join some clubs for free. For example, if you join the “Baby Club”, you will receive £150 worth of savings as well as the opportunity to log onto the website for advice and information. Another club which might be of interest to some of you is the “World of Wines”, joining this club will get you wine tips and coupons.

Financial Services
At the checkouts you will find various leaflets offering other Tesco services you might be interested in. So in doing your weekly shop, you might decide to insure the dog or cat, take out home/car/travel insurance. You can even apply for loans, credit cards, savings accounts, ISAs and mortgages. I have never actually studied any of these leaflets in detail, but you can get extra clubcard points for taking out these services. The interest rate for the savings account is 3.75% gross/AER.
Should you apply for the credit card, you will be pleased to learn that you earn clubcard points every time and anywhere you use it. You get 1 point for every £2 you spend. The rates on this card at present are 0% on balance transfers until 1 January 2004 and 14.9% APR after that.

Overall Verdict
I generally love Tesco, well as much as you can love grocery shopping. Our store is open 24 hours, which is handy if you need something urgently in the middle of the night. I have been up through the night with toothache and have jumped in the car and headed to Tesco. Although the pharmacy closes at 10 o’clock, I was able to get some painkillers.

You can find everything under one roof, it is great at for buying the latest music, video or games. You can just stick them in with your shopping and add them onto the food bill.

The range of products available is extensive and they have some good offers, which tend to be repeated from time to time. This is good if it is something that you buy quite regularly.

The staff are generally helpful and pleasant.

The store is well laid out and is spacious. Sometimes I do find this a pain though, as it can be quite a hike if I am just nipping in for the odd thing. They have very cleverly put all the exciting things at the beginning of the store so that you have to walk past them to get to the boring stuff. This is not going to stop me giving the store five stars.