Tesco store was a trailblazer

0 - 0 • Published 21 May 2009 10:00

GREENOCK holds a special place in the history of supermarket development north of the border.

Back in 1972, Tesco opened its first Scottish supermarket in the town"s Westburn Street.

Greenock was chosen as the trailblazer for a chain of supermarkets Tesco planned to launch in Scotland in the early seventies.

Prior to the local store"s opening, a company spokesman said: 'It is in fact more than just a supermarket.

'It is a prototype of the retail shopping centre of the future, where most of the everyday needs of a family, from food and drink to clothing and hardware, will be obtainable under the one roof.

'The store itself is beautifully appointed, with the most up-to-date equipment for maintaining hygenic conditions to ensure the freshness of the merchandise it sells, and seven multi-lane checkouts will help to speed shoppers through after they have completed their purchases.'

Familiar brand names were stocked plus the company"s own labels including the Delamare range of merchandise, named after the road in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, where the firm had its head office.

By 1977, Tesco had outgrown its Westburn Street premises and moved round the corner to a new building in West Stewart Street, above which Greenock"s first multi-storey car park was built.

The new store was four times bigger than the Westburn Street operation.

In subsequent years Tesco were to take over the former Wm Low supermarket in Inverkip Street, open the Dalrymple Street superstore and build a massive outlet on former shipyard land in Port Glasgow.

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This article appeared in Greenock Telegraph 21 May 09

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