We have had a Tesco Express a street away from our home for a year. The location is Oldfield Lane North, a few doors along from Greenford Station. It took over from a family run mini supermarket that had been there for over twenty years. Oldfield Lane is parallel to Greenford Road and both feed traffic to/from the A40. Deliveries from large vehicles take place several times a day and make it difficult for deliveries to reach other traders. They also take up parking spaces that, in theory, are for visiting shoppers. Traffic sometimes backs up to Greenford Flyover because of problems caused by deliveries. Convenience is not a word I would use in relation to this particular Tesco Express. Yesterday they were out of stock of three of the five items I needed. I almost fell over a member of staff who was rushing to restock shelves from trolleys that all but blocked the narrow aisles. I then spent quite a long time at a self service till trying to scan items - an impossible task given that the glass through which it was trying to read the codes was dirty and smeared. One member of staff called to assist me tried to clean it by wiping it with a receipt that had been left behind. The self service tills break down repeatedly, work very slowly or don't work properly. There is often a queue of really irritated people waiting to use them but no one to supervise/troubleshoot as in larger stores. My card was very inconveniently blocked after the wrong pin was entered thanks to a worn button and the failure to allow me any more attempts. When I mentioned this a staff member said "Oh! That's the third time I've seen that happen on that till today!" He had a huge smile on his face. I hope you don't enjoy fresh bread. Tesco had quite a good range for a while, stocking things like olive bread. This has now gone because of the introduction of Euphorium Bakery/the Bakery Project, whose failings merit their own post on this forum (take a look at the comments on their Facebook page). Suffice to say that I can no longer buy a baguette that is not undercooked and stodgy. It might as well be offered as part cooked and I don't know how some of it makes it onto the shelves. Until this Tesco Express opened I was able to buy baguettes from the bakery in the same street but this has closed down, in theory after a small fire, but it was suffering from the loss of customers to Tesco. Unfortunately Tesco now dominates the area so that is the only bread of that type available other than the sliced prepacked stuff, with the exception of that sold by an Afghan shop in Greenford. I hear the same people who were looking forward to having a branch on the doorstep complain because they cannot buy the range they expected to see. It is not the same as a regular branch, the prices are sometimes slightly higher than you would pay for the same thing at a larger branch. For those concerned at the impact on a conservation area - make a fuss about the neon sign. I can see it from the end of our street.
Albertina McNeill ● 4192d