Tesco has been transforming itself.
For some time they have added specialist delicatessen, butcher, bakery and fish counters.
More recently they have opened separate shops within their big shop for pharmacies, opticians, travel agents, mobile phones, and shoes menders.
Tesco have even added wood fittings to give their trolley shelters a more natural look.
Recently they bought a Giraffe to win their battle with the other big supermarket chains.
Giraffes are being added close to lots of Tesco supermarkets including the one in Abingdon.
The Giraffe restaurant opens on 2nd Dec.
Tesco bought family friendly, London trendy, restaurant chain, Giraffe for £48.6m back in March.
They want a slice of every pie in Abingdon, from key cutting and now to a restaurant. It’s the big G.
there’s been a restaurant at Tesco since day one….
There has been some sort of Cafe’ at Tesco, Giraffe is a modern ‘trendy’ restaurant chain. In Oxford popular with Students.
Supermarket group Tesco buys the restaurant chain Giraffe for £48.6m as it moves into … Tesco effect: How big firms quietly own little brands.
Asyou say Colin, Tesco has owned the One Stop shop chain for some years so has been in the corner shop trade before anyone noticed Tesco Express cropping up.
I think this is a really smart move from Tesco. Giraffe is a popular and quality restaurant brand, and it’s bound to be more appealing to people than a supermarket cafe. And from what I’ve seen, they’ve done a good job with the one in Abingdon – it improves the store, even if that’s only by upping the quality of the toilets.
That said, I’m not sure how I feel about it in terms of Abingdon. Enticing shoppers to use the restaurant is smart, but being out of town means that it will probably detract from town centre activity, both economically and in terms of community.
I got the impression that it will open late. Will it be open all the time the store is open? (This not a ‘wish’ on my part by the way!).
Tesco could easily do all this under their own brand but no one would come. They had to find someone who was doing a good job and buy the brand, then they can ride it until they run that into the ground as well.
Wonder if they’ll serve tiger bread, penguin biscuits and the like 😉
Giraffe do a mean curry sauce by the way (I recall from the Reading one) 😉
Also Harris and Hoole coffee shops.
Tesco’s stake has been reported at 49%, but the coffee chain will only say it is “up to 49%”.
Giraffe promise all their products are ethicly sourced and use ‘local’ ingredients. On their web Abingdon site opens
Monday 2nd December.
Things slightly different there. Bacon and Eggs on Sourdough Toast, or scrambled eggs on Foccacia. End of the bacon butties at Tesco??.
The idea of a large national restaurant chain forgoing bulk purchasing opportunities and buying locally (to anything more than a token extent) sounds a bit unlikely to me!
I suppose having a decent coffee shop might persuade some non-Tesco shoppers to go there but with all the lovely coffee available in town it wouldn’t sway the balance for me.
I hope none of their horsemeat will be locally sourced.
It’s the wrong restaurant in the wrong place. People who are doing their shopping at Tesco are generally looking for something cheap and cheerful, not £10 burgers. And a supermarket is not an attractive location for those who want to go out for a nice meal.
Probably good news for Subways across the road though!
A friend and I went to your restaurant today for the first time I had chicken and ribs which was tasty enough but a very small portion for £14,95 . My friend had a quesadilla dish which cost a maximum of maybe£1.50 to produce for which you charged£9-95 , I tasted some of it, I’ve had better toasted sandwiches at a roadside burger van.Needles to say we will be going to one of the excellent gastro pubs in the Abingdon area, you won’t see us again. It was rubbish over all.
Disappointed
Martin Lamprecht