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They describe the Tesco data mining tools in terms that make them look a lot better (to me) than they feel when you see the result in the store. Tesco opened a

They describe the Tesco data mining tools in terms that make them look a lot better (to me) than they feel when you see the result in the store. Tesco opened a new flag ship store in London, UK, close to where I lived, in Earl's Court. (This was a while ago, so I am sure they are better now. About 5 years ago.) This is in an area which has a number of competitors, all who had fine tuned what the store offered to the local market. The area has people with high income and a lot of (rich) immigrants, think Saudi, stock brokers etc. The Tesco store's range of products was awful for the first 12 months. It was like they had drop-shipped a generic store, tuned for general suburbia, and then slowly tried to fine tune it. 50% of what they sold seemed to be the wrong stuff for the market. They later opened a Tesco Express as well, just a couple of blocks away, and compared to the Marks and Spensers Food Only store down the street (which opened a year later) it was awful, really bad. I couldn't go in and actually buy anything I wanted there other than maybe milk. I have visited recently and the Tesco Express is still there, the same crappy collection of goods and hardly anyone seems to buy anything. Whereas the M&S is packed. It could well be that the area, Kensington / Earls Court, has such a special set of clientele in it that the "standard" model of product provisioning for Tesco just doesn't cut it. But I could have easily come up with a better set of products to sell in there myself and I am just a customer not a retail specialist. So I guess I am saying that I think there is plenty of scope for improvement.

axod 18y ago
I don't think Tesco is up market enough for Earls court. Waitrose and M&S etc are always going to do better there really. Tesco is a great middle-class supermarket for most people.
JimmyL 18y ago
I think that's more a symptom of poor intra-company communication than a lack of data. In several other publications from various pro- and anti-Tesco sources, I've seen pretty much universal agreement that the datasaet generated by all users of the Tesco loyalty/frequent-shopper card is about the best data of that type in the world, and certainly the best in the UK. Since they make such a big deal out of using the Tesco card, they have a unique ability to track Tesco shoppers across locations and times, and see who's buying what and where they're doing it - and when you add in all the other non-food services Tesco sells, the data can generate a very good picture of their shoppers. The brunt of all that is that Tesco is very good at finding patterns in sales, predicting what new products will take off (and in what areas), and when something will be popular. From this, at least if you live in the UK, it's likely that Tesco has a better idea what you're going to buy when you walk into a supermarket than you do.
fcjqbuvjxpxml 18y ago
They are a lot smarter than Sainsburys. I lived in Belfast when Sainsbury opened their first NI store. Their planning obviously just went Belfast=Capital=London so they stocked exactly the same high-end products they would in Earl's court, so 18 brands of extra-virgin olive oil but no bacon. Tesco's system is smarter. There are 4 Tesco in Cambridge in different parts of town and all have a different type of stock to fit the local market even in such a small town.
- bonaldi 18y ago
  Tesco is expert at tailoring their ranges to exactly the sorts of local customers. Most big chains try to standardise ranges across the entire company in search of non-existent efficiencies. Tesco realises that what a shopper in the poor area of Belfast wants is quite different to a middle-class Glasgwegian, and it profits accordingly.

axod 18y ago

I don't think Tesco is up market enough for Earls court. Waitrose and M&S etc are always going to do better there really. Tesco is a great middle-class supermarket for most people.

JimmyL 18y ago

I think that's more a symptom of poor intra-company communication than a lack of data. In several other publications from various pro- and anti-Tesco sources, I've seen pretty much universal agreement that the datasaet generated by all users of the Tesco loyalty/frequent-shopper card is about the best data of that type in the world, and certainly the best in the UK. Since they make such a big deal out of using the Tesco card, they have a unique ability to track Tesco shoppers across locations and times, and see who's buying what and where they're doing it - and when you add in all the other non-food services Tesco sells, the data can generate a very good picture of their shoppers. The brunt of all that is that Tesco is very good at finding patterns in sales, predicting what new products will take off (and in what areas), and when something will be popular. From this, at least if you live in the UK, it's likely that Tesco has a better idea what you're going to buy when you walk into a supermarket than you do.

fcjqbuvjxpxml 18y ago

They are a lot smarter than Sainsburys. I lived in Belfast when Sainsbury opened their first NI store. Their planning obviously just went Belfast=Capital=London so they stocked exactly the same high-end products they would in Earl's court, so 18 brands of extra-virgin olive oil but no bacon. Tesco's system is smarter. There are 4 Tesco in Cambridge in different parts of town and all have a different type of stock to fit the local market even in such a small town.

bonaldi 18y ago
Tesco is expert at tailoring their ranges to exactly the sorts of local customers. Most big chains try to standardise ranges across the entire company in search of non-existent efficiencies. Tesco realises that what a shopper in the poor area of Belfast wants is quite different to a middle-class Glasgwegian, and it profits accordingly.