Tesco Extra

Promoting businesses that had originally let me down is something I really like to do, so I am pleased to announce that this Tesco store has been upgraded from 1 star, to 4 stars, with the improved gluten free range and the huge store being the main reasons in the promotion.
This store is in Horwich, near enough directly behind Middlebrook and the Macron Stadium, and probably is the better place to shop in the area, beating ASDA by a mile!
The store is so big, they even have a part of it dedicated to designer beauty brands, becoming a little like a Debenhams, so they might be some overpowering smells close to that, but it shouldn’t be much of a problem if you are doing your standard grocery shop.
The free from range here is very good, with a good amount of products stocked, both frozen and non-​frozen, which puts most other branches, including Middleton to shame.
The range of most other items is good, however some do need to be improved, especially for a store of that size, for example the iced Starbucks coffee beverages.
This store is also one of the few stores to do fresh, gluten free bakery bread which is cooked in a bag to avoid no cross-​contamination, the bakery staff were great, and made one fresh for me, with them being none on the shelves, and he even reduced them down to 40p, which meant I got 2 loaves for 80p, which is a fantastic price even for normal bread, nevermind freshly baked bread which should have cost £4, so this was a great gesture.
This store also has a clubcard printing machine, where you can print off your coupons for clubcard, as well as even joining, which is great, and I hope these machines are introduced across more Tesco’s.
Overall, this is a very good Tesco store and definitely one of the largest I have seen, and they also have scan as you shop facilities, although they is a few minor problems, such as stock of certain items, which can even be beaten by the smaller extra stores like my local Middleton branch, but still it is a great Tesco, with good staff and deserves 4 stars.

After having breakfast and stopping at a couple stores at Middlebrook Retail Park, we headed over to Tesco to see what they offer. Since the Tesco in Swindon has a huge selection of American items, I thought that this store might offer the same. I am planning to make a Thanksgiving dinner and need some American items to ensure authenticity :).
There is a large car park, however, if there is a football game on, you may want to stay away from this area due to traffic. The store is huge and was quite busy on Saturday afternoon. There are ATMs outside of the store, as well as a dry cleaning service. Walking inside the store actually made me feel like I was in a Wal-​Mart Supercenter. It is huge! There is a café, salon, electronics section, beauty counter like those in a department store, bakery, and a health store.
We continued straight on and went through the toys, home goods, and electronic sections. If you head to the right you’ll eventually find the food section. Of course we did get a bit sidetracked and ended up getting a slow cooker since it was on sale (we will be returning it as when we plugged it in, it blew the fuse for everything in our apartment). I also got to look at Christmas decorations and saw a nice laptop for a reasonable price to replace my iBook dinosaur.
Eventually we got over to the food section. The problem with me trying to do a shop in a new store is that I get distracted trying to look at everything on offer. Unfortunately this is not compatible with Mr. Snarky and I should have sent him back over to the electronics. What I like about the store, is that while it is very busy, it is very spacious so it doesn’t feel like sardines in a can and making shopping a little easier.
While they do offer a lot and all of the usual items, I was a bit disappointed with their World Foods Area. The first was the rice aisle which consisted mainly of Basmati rice with a couple bags of glutinous rice. For a ‘World Foods’ section, they should have more selection of rice and as a result I didn’t get the rice that I was looking for. They do offer a lot of European foods, but the selection from other countries is not as large, including the American section. I did get the pumpkin for my pumpkin pie and pumpkin roll, but the other items that I was looking for and stocked by the Tesco in Swindon were not available. I did like that they have a ‘Free From’ section for those with intolerances or allergies… and it seems fairly extensive.
Check out was a bit slow, but no massive queues. Besides self-​checkout, they do have the scan-​as-​you-​shop scheme as well. It is a nice store, though, very clean, well stocked, and has almost everything you could want.

One of the best Tesco stores in the country now that it’s had a recent huge overhaul and extension. The new ‘World Foods’ area is particularly impressive.
It also has a café, a salon, a Timpson dry cleaner/​key cutter, and a petrol station, as well as an on-​site recycle centre.
As it is quite a large and busy store, there can be quite a problem with queuing at the tills, and due to being a 24 hour store, late night shopping can see many internal lights turned off, as well as lots of cages of stock all over the place down most aisles, making access tricky.
NOTE: On Bolton Wanderers match days, there is a three hour limit to be parked in their car park, after which, you can receive a £70 fine.

There adding an extension at the moment