Who does it help? Tesco? Definitely! The customer? Not so much.
For those that don’t know, this is Tesco’s little twist on their slogan used to advertise their 5p off per litre on petrol and diesel (providing you have bought £50 worth of groceries). If you shop at Tesco anyway, and would spend that much anyway, then any petrol saving is very nice. If you use it as a reason to shop at Tesco, think again.
If your Tesco is not in a major town, you can pretty much guarantee that the price of their petrol is much higher than everywhere else. It was always the way with the Tesco in Chard, and now it would seem they are doing the same thing at the Tesco petrol station in Ilminster. It’s normally 3p – 4p more expensive than the local Shell forecourt, so actually, you save 1p – 2p per litre. And if, like me, you already have a Shell Mastercard (with a 3% fuel cashback), then it’s still cheaper to buy your fuel from Shell – and you don’t have to spend £50 on shopping first or put supermarket grade fuel in your car.
For residents in smaller towns, this is not the great deal that Tesco claim it to be. There’s no reason why they have to be more expensive at the pump than everyone else. There’s no reason why Tesco petrol in Ilminster should cost more than Tesco petrol in Yeovil. They will claim that it’s down to delivery costs, but as Ilminster is closer to the A303 arterial route than Yeovil, this argument won’t fly.
The Tesco petrol station in Ilminster was originally an Esso station. Tesco closed the forecourt, whacked up a temporary fence for several months and put up signs boasting a new and improved petrol station for us lucky residents. When the hoarding finally comes down, we find that the Esso signs have been swapped for Tesco and everything else is as is. Same pumps. Same car wash. Same shop. They did add a new, very annoying and ugly one way entry/exit system, and of course they whacked the prices up, but otherwise, nothing has changed.
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