From dream prices to the Price Guarantee: the first rural Tesco hypermarket is 25 years old

By: Trademagazin Date: 2023. 07. 19. 13:05

Tesco’s first rural hypermarket in Kaposvár is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The country’s third Tesco department store opened in 1998. In the same year, the first MP3 player was launched in Japan, the first episode of Sex and New York was released, Titanic won an Oscar and France beat Brazil 3-0 in the World Cup final, winning the trophy for the best. . The “dream store with dream prices” of that time still offers many affordable shopping opportunities, and celebrated the milestone anniversary with a charity cookout, in the framework of which volunteer colleagues prepared 500 portions of food for the benefit of local needy people.

On July 22, 1998, Tesco opened its first rural hypermarket in Kaposvár, which has now become the dominant shopping destination in the region. On July 18, the employees and invited guests of the Kaposvár department store celebrated 25 years of operation with stories of old times, memorable relics, jubilant colleagues and a birthday cake embedded in an all-day charity event. The deputy mayor of the settlement, Tamás Dér, was also present at the event, where he thanked the Tesco colleagues for their decades of work.

On the day of the opening, more than 7,500 customers came to the store, who packed more than HUF 40 million into their baskets in the 5,000-square-meter store from the shelves that extend for a total of about 2.5 kilometers. Martin Coulam, the operations director of Tesco in Hungary, remembers what happened like this:

“I had the honor of receiving our first Kaposvár customers 25 years ago, whom I and my 320 colleagues waited for excitedly and served them at 26 cash registers. By the way, 11 of our employees from that time have been working here ever since. Customers waited in a long, snaking line to get in, because until then they could only buy basic products within a 30-kilometer radius. In accordance with our dream store with dream prices slogan, we sold bone-in chicken breast for HUF 489 per kilo at that time, and despite the strong inflationary effect, we still support our customers with many discounts in the smart allocation of household expenses.”

In its Price Guarantee program, Tesco keeps the prices of 600 basic food and household items permanently low and constantly monitors them. With a Clubcard, you can typically get 20 popular products at a bargain price per week at the store chain, several of which can be purchased with a big discount of up to 50 percent. And more than 1,000 products are available at a significant discount per week under the “Cheaper with Clubcard” program. Pensioners also receive a 5 percent discount on the total amount of their purchases every Tuesday if they use their loyalty card.