Tesco considers closing fresh food counters as part of new cost-cutting drive
Tesco is poised to call time on the supermarket butcher and fishmonger as shopper interest in them wanes.
Britain’s biggest supermarket is the only member of the current “Big Four” – Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Aldi – to still offer fresh food counters, which sell deli products in 279 of its stores.
For years, staff in pork pie hats have sold portions of meat, fish, cheese and even olives to measure from the stands.
But Tesco announced more than 300 would close earlier this year due to changing customer habits – and the remaining ones are now said to be threatened as well.
Bosses are considering closing all the remaining fresh food counters as part of a new cost-cutting drive, The Sunday Times reported. It could lead to hundreds of further job losses, on top of the hundreds already axed in the last round of cuts.
A Tesco spokesman declined to comment on the claim.
The move away from deli counters comes as data shows many consumers no longer use them.
A survey by retail analytics firm IGD showed that fewer than one in ten of shoppers visited supermarket fresh food counters in the final three months of 2021.
Many sell products that are now commonplace in fresh food aisles, from quiches, cheeses and salamis to dips such as hummus and salsas – only minus the plastic packaging.
Matt Oliver / Telegraph
Read full article Share on twitter