Tesco review

Tesco is the UK's largest retailer, and one of the largest in the world. There are currently more than 3,700 Tesco branches in the UK, but are they any good?

In the annual Which? supermarkets survey, more than 1,300 Tesco customers rated the retailer on everything from queuing time to the quality of its food and value for money. 

This enabled us to work out star ratings for different factors as well as an overall customer score.

Are Tesco supermarkets any good?

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Is Tesco's online delivery service any good?

As well as accessing the supermarket scores, logging in or  joining Which? will enable you to see how Tesco fared when we reviewed items from champagne and cheese to washing-up liquid and dishwasher tablets.

How fresh is the food in Tesco deliveries?

We went undercover to find out how the different supermarkets compare for freshness, using a team of mystery shoppers to order more than 1,000 groceries in the first – and biggest – comparison of its kind in August 2021.

During the course of the investigation, our mystery shoppers took delivery of items that were already out of date by the time they were delivered, groceries that were within their use-by date but looked too manky to eat, and one item with a completely illegible use-by date.

Log in or join Which? to discover which supermarkets will deliver the freshest produce - and which ones could leave you with past-it produce that's dangerous to eat. 

How safe are Tesco stores in the pandemic?

When we surveyed Tesco shoppers in October 2020, 74% rated its in-store COVID-19 measures as good or excellent. Find out how this compares to the other supermarkets in our survey by visiting supermarkets compared.

At the time of publishing this page (Feb 2021), like many other supermarkets Tesco is refusing entry to anyone not wearing a face covering unless they have an exemption.

You are asked to shop alone if possible and numbers in stores are limited to ensure social distancing. There's a traffic light system at more that 1,300 stores to let you know if you can safely enter or whether you need to queue outside. Tesco says it previously had a one-way system in stores but has now removed them as they were causing bottlenecks.

There are hand sanitisers around stores and cleaning products to wipe down the basket or trolley you're using.

Fresh food counters, such as for salad, fish and meat, are currently closed although bakeries are still open. Makeup testers have also been removed.

For the latest on the measures supermarkets are taking in the pandemic read our coronavirus supermarkets news story.

Tesco in the news

In January 2021, Tesco reported a surge in sales over the Christmas period, up by 8.4% in total over the six weeks to 9 January compared to the previous year. However, it expects the pandemic to cost it £810m in 2021.

Former Tesco boss Dave Lewis received a knighthood in the 2021 New Year's Honours list for turning around Tesco's fortunes and making it profitable, as well as for his efforts in helping to keep the nation fed through the pandemic.

Also in January 2021, Tesco, along with Boots, said it would help to distribute the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine across the UK through its distribution company. 

Tesco said in December 2020 that it had removed 1 billion pieces of plastic from its UK business in a year, including plastic shrink wrap around multipacks, plastic wraps on greetings cards and plastic bags used for loose fruit and veg, hitting its target. 

Which? research on Tesco's plastic packaging

In April 2019, we investigated how much supermarket plastic packaging is recyclable. We ordered 46 of the most popular own-brand items from 11 major UK supermarket chains. 

We found that 60% of Tesco's packaging, by item, was widely recyclable at the kerbside - the joint-highest proportion of all the supermarkets.

We also looked at how accurately the packaging was labelled for recycling information. We found 57% of Tesco's packaging was correctly labelled. See how Tesco compares with other supermarkets and find out more about supermarket plastic packaging.

Find out more

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