An in depth report of the history of Tesco supermarkets and possible future business strategies they could use.

Essay by baidoHigh School, 12th gradeB, November 2005

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Introduction.

The purpose of this report is to review the growth of Tesco over the last 80 years. The history of Tesco will be briefly explored. Then, this will be related to the Tesco of today. The possible future strategic action the business could take to maintain its success and achieve growth will be outlined and conclusions will be drawn.

The History of Tesco.

Tesco supermarkets have been a complete success. When the first Tesco opened in 1929 it introduced a whole new method of shopping. It was custom at the time for a shop assistant to, in a way do your shopping for you. The customer would tell the shop assistant exactly what they wanted and they would find it, bag it and hand it to you.

This method of shopping meant that the business could only deal with one customer at a time, unless they hired extra staff, which would reduce the profits.

The founder of Tesco decided that instead of using shop assistants they could make a system where the customer would help himself or herself to whatever products they required then pay for it at the end of there shopping visit. This new method of shopping allowed the store to deal with many customers simultaneously.

In 1947 the company was already a well-known public brand and had grown to many high street stores across the country, they were on the stock exchange valued at 25p per share. Due to its popularity it was able to take advantages of commercial economies of scale such as supplies purchased in bulk. However they could not complete with the prices of other supermarkets because the current trading standards restricted selling below a set price. To combat this problem Tesco developed other ways of keeping customers loyal to the brand, one...