Britain’s Retail King: Tesco’s Next Chapter | Reimagining Retail

Summary

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Behind the Numbers: an EMARKETER Podcast

Episode Summary

Title: Britain’s Retail King: Tesco’s Next Chapter | Reimagining Retail
Air Date: June 3, 2026
Host: Susie Dava Kenyon
Guests: Karina Lam (Senior Analyst), Bill Fisher (Principal Analyst)

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Episode Overview

In this lively episode of "Reimagining Retail," EMARKETER's team analyzes Tesco—the UK’s grocery powerhouse—examining how its strategies around loyalty (Clubcard), retail media, convenience formats, data, and digital transformation are creating a blueprint for the future of retail. The conversation explores Tesco’s “superpowers,” what drives its staying power in a fiercely competitive environment, and where it may head next with AI and customer experience. The analysts also break down whether certain Tesco innovations should be kept, cut, or reinvented for continued dominance.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Tesco’s Secret Sauce: What Sets Them Apart

[02:27–12:01]

• Tesco is far more than just a supermarket; it’s a data-powered platform spanning food, retail, financial services, and more.
• The central question: Is retail just about stores & products, or about creating customer platforms that serve multiple aspects of life?
• Analysts play a “pie game” assigning percentages to Tesco’s strategic “superpowers.”
  • Main slices discussed: Clubcard (Loyalty Ecosystem), Retail Media & Data, Private Label, Convenience, Price/Value, and a Wild Card (e.g., instant delivery).

Karina Lam’s breakdown:

• Clubcard & Loyalty Ecosystem: 35%
  • “It powers its flywheel… it’s what keeps its market share so high.” [03:09]
  • 82% of UK sales go through Clubcard (if accurate, “absolutely staggering”).
• Retail Media & Data: 20%
  • Fuels price competitiveness and drives margin.
  • “They’ve even done ads on [scanners]. So you can do really personalized advertising. That for me is genius.” [04:33]
• Price/Value Perception: 20%
  • Competes with Aldi/Lidl via Clubcard pricing and Aldi Price Match.
• Private Label Strategy: 15%
  • Catering to all budgets with premium (“Finest”) and basic ranges.
• Convenience Formats: 8%
  • Express stores drive frequency and capture top-up/immediate needs.
• Wild Card—Whoosh (Instant Delivery): 2%
  • “Completes that mission coverage… whatever you’re doing, Tesco can now serve it to you.” [07:26]

Bill Fisher’s take:

• Clubcard + Retail Media linkage: Clubcard 30%, Retail Media 20%
• Private Label & Price/Value Perception combined: 25% (12.5% each)
• Convenience: 20%
• Wild Card: 5% (Focused on fulfillment infrastructure)
  • Highlights past attempt (Tesco Direct) as “brilliant but a massive loss leader.”

Memorable quote:

“It’s really powerful, the data that it has on its shoppers… it fuels the retail media ecosystem.”
—Bill Fisher [08:47]

2. The Tech Edge: Scanners, Personalization, and Scan As You Shop

[07:26–16:03]

• Scanner/Scan As You Shop technology explained:
  • Handheld device, linked to the customer profile via Clubcard—“they instantly know exactly who you are.” [07:47]
  • Not possible without logging in—“You do have to be a Clubcard member.” —Bill [08:32]
• Personalization opportunity:
  • Ad placements on scanner screens, tailored to real-time behavior.
• Analysts praise Scan As You Shop for reducing friction and aiding budget management.
• Key friction: Self-checkouts can be a “nightmare,” but scan as you shop is a “much more efficient way of doing it.” —Karina [15:20]

Memorable moment:

“I’m very privacy conscious with my online persona, but Tesco can have all my information because removing this friction—it makes my life better.”
—Bill Fisher [15:50]

3. Tesco’s Path Forward: Where Should They Go Next?

[12:01–19:05]

If you were Tesco CEO for a day, what would your big bet be?

Bill Fisher:

• Double down on retail media—extend personalization even more.
• Enable Scan As You Shop on mobile phones (like Waitrose): “Removes all that friction… this is where it can make all the money.” [13:38]

Karina Lam:

• Lean heavily into AI to develop an “intelligent grocery agent”:
  • An agent that “helps you plan, helps you become more healthy, helps remove friction”—using Tesco’s vast data [16:06]
  • “I just think if anyone’s going to do it really well, they have the potential to do it.”
• Sees inspiration in Walmart’s “Sparky” personal assistant.

Memorable exchange:

Susie: “Is it more of an AI shopping assistant, or a nutritionist, nurse practitioner, cook, all rolled into one?”
Karina: “Kind of neither—maybe a bit of the latter… like a household management agent.” [17:52]

4. Keep, Cut, or Reinvent? The Tesco Innovation Rundown

[19:05–25:17]

Self-Checkout & Scan As You Shop

• Keep but tweak, say both Bill and Karina.
• It’s critical for cost savings but has friction points.
• Potential: Mobile-based scan as you shop, but not everyone is ready to use their phone for that.

Meal Deals

• Unanimous KEEP (with Reinvention/Evolution).
• “It’s a cultural institution… obsessed with Tesco meal deals.” —Karina [21:53]
• Suggests multi-tiered pricing and more healthy/premium options: “Be braver.”

Retail Media / Digital Screens In-Store

• “Keep it. Tesco is moving really well in this space… If it can be on mobile devices as well, that would be amazing.” —Bill [23:24]
• Personalized offers, geo-targeted promotions, and “real estate” on handheld scanners is praised.
• “Win-win for consumers, brands, and retailers” —Karina [24:13]

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• [03:09] Karina Lam: “Its big superpower at the moment is that Clubcard and that loyalty ecosystem… it’s what powers its flywheel.”
• [04:33] Karina Lam: “…offering ads on… handheld scanners… so you can do really personalized advertising. That for me is genius.”
• [08:47] Bill Fisher: “…really powerful, the data that it has on its shoppers… fuels the retail media ecosystem…”
• [13:38] Bill Fisher: “Just imagine being in an aisle where your brand is and it has all this previous buyer information… it can serve you an ad that could potentially influence your purchase decision. Fantastic bit of real estate.”
• [15:50] Bill Fisher: “Tesco can have all of my information because removing this friction, it just, it makes my life better. Yeah, a lot better.”
• [16:06] Karina Lam: “I’d be really leaning into AI… build a really powerful grocery agent with a health intelligence layer… leverage all this amazing data.”
• [21:53] Karina Lam: “It’s… a cultural institution. Everyone’s obsessed with Tesco meal deals.”
• [24:13] Karina Lam: “It’s a win-win for consumers, for brands, for retailers. Retail media not only allows Tesco to be price competitive … but can now serve them with really personalized adverts.”

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [00:53] — Tesco’s diversified platform: From Clubcard to loans and insurance
• [03:09] — Karina’s breakdown of strategic priorities (“pie game”)
• [07:47] — Scanner tech and the mechanics of personalization in Tesco stores
• [12:01] — What should Tesco bet on next? (CEO for a day)
• [13:38] — Retail media’s potential: in-aisle personalization and mobile integration
• [16:06] — AI as the next differentiator—Tesco’s data advantage
• [19:37] — Self-checkout vs. scan as you shop: challenges and pains
• [21:53] — The meal deal: a vital, evolving Tesco touchstone
• [23:24] — Retail media and in-store screens: why it matters, how Tesco leads

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Takeaways

• Tesco’s Clubcard and data-driven ecosystem are foundational—powering both loyalty and a robust retail media business.
• Personalization and frictionless shopping are core to Tesco’s edge; scan as you shop technology is transformative but still evolving.
• Analysts agree: expanding AI-driven customer support and intensifying the retail media play are Tesco’s best bets for future growth.
• Institutional features like meal deals and convenience stores must adapt but remain essential parts of Tesco’s retail formula.
• Tesco’s integration of digital, data, and physical retail is a model others are likely to emulate worldwide.

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End of Summary.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign.

[B]

Hi, everyone. Today is Wednesday, June 3rd. Welcome to eMarketers weekly retail show, Reimagining Retail. This is the show where we talk about how retail collides with every part of our lives. I'm your host, Susie Dava Kenyon. On today's episode, we're talking about Tesco, the UK grocery giant that's quietly becoming a case study in modern retail because many of the biggest debates happening in the US right now around things like loyalty, pricing, retail media, convenience stores and using AI are already playing out at scale there. Joining me today is podcast regular senior analyst Karina Lam.

[C]

Hi, Susie.

[B]

And for his first Reimagining Retail episode, principal analyst Bill Fisher.

[A]

Hi, Susie. I'm very excited to be here.

[B]

And if you can't tell from their accents, they are both joining me from the south coast of England. Welcome, you guys.

[A]

Hello.

[C]

Hi.

[B]

So this week we're talking about Tesco. It may look like a traditional supermarket chain on the surface, but underneath it has built something much more sophisticated. A business powered by loyalty data, personalized promotions, convenience stores, multiple retail formats and services that stretch beyond just selling groceries. And increasingly that's becoming the big question for retailers globally. Is the future of retail simply about stores and products or about building platforms customer interact with across multiple part of their lives? Before we get started, I wanted to ask each of you, what is the last thing you bought at a Tesco? Karina?

[C]

Oh, that's a really good question. It's, it's very specific. I bought a Tupperware container for my tack cleaning equipment for my horse.

[B]

Oh, wow, they have a horse section.

[C]

No, it's not horse specific. It's just I just needed a Tupperware, a big enough Tupperware box that I could fit like my sponges and saddle soap and stuff in there. Yeah.

[B]

Bill, what about you?

[A]

Groceries, Take your pick. Beef, chicken, vegetables, everything.

[B]

That's how I think about Tesco. Until I did a lot more digging When I was in London last, I went to a Tesco Express in the city near where my friend lives and I was hunting for Blake. One of our colleagues and a podcast regular needed this very specific chocolate bar which I found at the Tesco Express, which I was very pleased because technically it's supposed to be a much like smaller assortment. So that was kind of cool.

[C]

Yeah, Tesco's pretty good at having what you need.

[B]

I love that. So maybe that's their real superpower. I don't know. Let's talk about that. If you think about Tesco, what is their reason for being Their real superpower. We'll do the usual pie game. So we'll deconstruct what makes Tesco most successful by attributing percents to each of these slices that I have chosen. These are I think, the secret ingredient. But I have of course left a wild card in case you have something else you wanted to surface. So the slices could be Club Card, they're loyalty ecosystem, their private label strategy, their convenience formats, their price value perception, their retail media and data ecosystem or the wild card. So Karina, I'm going to start with you.

[C]

For me, Tesco's kind of big superpower at the moment is that Club card and that loyalty ecosystem and that kind of powers a lot of other things and a lot of other things feed into that and it's what kind of powers its flywheel and I really think that's what keeps its market share so high. So Tesco is not just a big grocery retailer, it's a massive UK retailer generally. And Clubcard, it's its loyalty program and it's something that it started many, many moons ago and it bought the data provider that helped it set up the loyalty scheme, Dunhumby. And that has come back around now to being an extraordinarily powerful part of its business because we've got retail media on one side and then we've also got people the kind of credit crisis. There's people are struggling financially and it's enabled them to be really clever with their pricing strategy. So everyone was going out and trying to beat Aldi on prices but it's very hard to be price competitive with Aldi and Tesco has done a kind of Aldi price match. But what it has done with Clubcard is it has lowered prices specifically for Clubcard members. So if you're a member you get lower prices and that then gives it a huge amount of first party data which it can use for retail media and that retail media income helps it the Clubcard discounts. So it's kind of created a really clever loop there. So I would say Clubcard is 100% the biggest slice of the pie. I would say about 35% something, I think something like 82% of UK sales go through Clubcard I read somewhere, which would be absolutely staggering if it was true retail media. Like I said, that's really important because it has helped Tesco stay price competitive and kind of maintain a margin in this kind of difficult financial situation in the UK and against discounters like Aldi and Lidl. So I would give that 20%, it's not something necessarily that shoppers are really sort of aware that's happening to them, but strategically it's a really important part of their business. And they've done things like offering ads on. We have a thing called Scan and Go in the UK where you can scan your shopping as you go and we have handheld scanners and they've even done ads on there. So you can do really personalized advertising. So that for me is genius price and value perception. I would also give 20%. Tesco's done a really great job, like I said, of kind of competing with Aldi and Lidl through Aldi Price Match Club Card prices. And it's kind of still viewed, I think, quite competitively. So it's not seen the big loss that some of its competitors have in market share.

[B]

So you're at 85%.

[C]

85%. Oh, crikey. So private label strategy, I would give 15% and I think again, this is kind of part of its.

[B]

Oh, I just don't know how to do math. I'm sorry, you're at 75%.

[C]

Okay, good. Yeah, I was worried then. So, yeah, private label strategy, I would say 15%. Its Finest line has its sales growing like 15% or something in the past year, I think, according to its financial results. So it's really capitalized on people trading down away from brands and into private label, but wanting to still have that kind of premium feel. But it also has kind of more basic lines. So it's really enabling every shopper, no matter what their budget, to shop at Tesco and find products that they can afford and that suits them. Convenience, that's something else it's kind of leaning into. It's opening more express stores. It's a really good frequency engine and it really captures that kind of top up, shop, lunch, mission impulse occasion. So I think that's a really important part of this business too. And then my wild card is going to be. Oh, you're.

[B]

But you're at a hundred.

[C]

No, sorry, convenience was 8%.

[B]

Oh, eight. Oh, okay.

[C]

Yep.

[B]

Oh, I'm sorry, I missed that. Tell us what your 2% wildcard is.

[C]

Whoosh is 2% and it's my wildcard. So Whoosh is its kind of instant delivery format that it's used to take on the likes of Deliveroo. It's seen 51% sales growth over the last year. It's over 400 million. That's still pretty tiny in terms of the business as a whole, but I think the strategic value is kind of bigger than that. Because it completes that mission coverage. So it means that Tesco has you covered whatever you're doing. Big weekly shop top up, you know, emergency lunch, pop out to the shop to get something late or, or oh my God, I need something in the next hour. Tesco can now serve it to you.

[B]

That's cool. Before I toss it to you, Bill, I wanted to ask Karina about the scanners and the personalization. Is it like a bridal registry scanner where you're given like a little scanner gun thing and you are touching the skus, the like barcodes or is it your phone and the app? Because I am not clear on the personalized aspect of that.

[C]

Yeah, so this is specifically the handheld scanner. So it's quite a big thing in supermarkets in the UK generally. It's not just Tesco that does does it. All of the major supermarkets offer it. So you get a little handheld scanner and it's like a barcode scanner and you get one and you have to log into it so it knows who you are. You have to log in for Tesco. It's connected to your club card so they instantly know exactly who you are.

[B]

Can you use the doohickey without logging in?

[C]

Not as far as I'm aware. Like I have to give it. I don't think you have to be a club club member, but you have to tell it who you are.

[B]

It's kind of like I'm thinking about, you know, on the back of airplane seats. You can log in to the TV but you can also not log in and no, no.

[C]

So yeah, I think you have to and I'm not 100% sure whether you have to be a club card member but you definitely have to identify yourself.

[A]

You do have to be a club card member.

[C]

You do. Okay, fine.

[B]

Bill, on to you.

[A]

Yeah, I'm going to talk about scanners. You shop a bit more in this episode because I love it, it's brilliant. But anyway, let me see if I can add up.

[B]

I'll do the bad math for you, don't worry.

[A]

So I think that the, the club called loyalty ecosystem and retail media data ecosystem are intrinsically links actually because it's really powerful the data that it has on its shoppers and it, it fuels the retail media ecosystem and I, I think the club card ecosystem stuff is really, really important right now. I think the retail media stuff is becoming increasingly important. So if I can, I'd give the two of them 50% but maybe slightly, maybe 30 club card 20 retail media like Karina. Oh, is that the same 35 and

[B]

20, but still very similar. The bulk of their. Yeah, their secret sauce is the data loyalty play.

[A]

Yeah, I think the private label strategy. What did Karina say? I've gone for 20% here. Is that higher?

[C]

That's a little bit higher than mine. Yeah.

[A]

Just, I mean I don't disagree with it. I think everything that Karina said makes a lot of sense. I just think it's quite a big part of its costs.

[B]

Perception.

[A]

Perception, yeah. And so that kind of leads into the price value perception bit as well. So actually I'll combine the two of those and give the two of them 25% and let's go half and half. So 12 and a half percent each for that and private value price value perception. Convenience formats I think are really important right now. I think they might need to adapt which we will talk about in a later segment of the show. But at the moment I, I think that they're really important. As you said, Susie, you can go and get these chocolate bars that you want. The convenience aspect is amazing. So I've given that 20%. What does that leave me with? 5%.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So that's the wild card. And kind of, it's kind of piggybacking on what Karina said. Actually she went for Whoosh. I, I was talking, we're going to talk more about just its general fulfillment infrastructure which Whoosh is kind of part of that. You know, it's because it's got a vast physical infrastructure and if it can really leverage that to do things like Whoosh. Historically it's failed in this regard. So there used to be something called Tesco Direct. I don't know if you remember this Carina. It was like an Amazon competitor. Tesco just wanted to be everything and everything retailer for everyone and you could order online, collect at either the big Tesco Direct, huge out of storm out of town hypermarkets or at these Tesco Express stores. And I thought it was brilliant but it was a massive loss leader and they just couldn't compete with Amazon so it kind of failed. But I think tweaking that fulfillment would be a good area where it could gain some ground. So that's the 5%.

[B]

I love that. Thank you. So very similar for me I think what I found most interesting and you guys talked about it in different ways is that because at the root of their business it's grocery which is high frequency and then they figured out how to deal with the different types of missions. So depending on your trip purpose there's like smaller stores, they're gigantic stores. It looks like they have club stores now with like wholesale sort of prices or pretend to be. It's like they figured out the entire grocery ecosystem and the consumer needs and from that have branched off into. I was telling you guys before we started, I saw clothing lines, I saw all kinds of things, insurance, loans. I mean it all roots into that club card data.

[A]

Probably it does.

[B]

So with that we know what some of their secret ingredients are. But what should they bet on next? If you were CO for the day, what would you change or what strategy would you extend? Would you go into a new vertical? This is a like a wild card sort of pie in the sky, if you will, thinking, what would you do next? Bill, I'm going to start with you

[A]

this time I'm not going to go too pie in the sky and I'm going to stick to what I know and spot the ad marketer guy in the room. I think it's retail media play is really, really good but it's got so much data it could be so, so powerful. I think it could extend that and be even better. So Karina mentioned the scanners you shop thing, right? Fantastic bit of real estate. So we've explained how they work. You're in a store, you have this screen that you are constantly using. It's in your eyeline pretty much all the way around the store. Just imagine being in an aisle where your brand is and it has all this previous buyer information on you, knows what you like and it can serve you an ad that could potentially influence your purchase decision. Fantastic bit of real estate however, and we didn't quite get to this, I was going to interject but I thought I'd wait and mention it. Now scan as you shop in Tesco, it doesn't allow you to revert to mobile. If you, if you're in Waitrose, you can use your mobile device to scan and shop. Now I went into Waitrose not that long ago and the scanners you shop tech was all down, it wasn't working and I was like I can't cope if scanners shop isn't working. But we reverted to the mobile app and it was as seamless as the scanners shop terminals. But it's on your mobile device, it's this personal device, all of our data is in there and I was just happy to do it because it removes all that friction. So I think, and when I'm saying retail media, I'm only talking shop stuff but there's all the stuff in store as well that it's doing really, really well. But I just think in some areas it could, it could ramp up on, on it and do it slightly better because this is where all the margins are, right. This is where it can make all the money.

[B]

We've had some app sort of scan and go sort of. Amazon has tried different trials and iterations of like palm scanning, all kinds of different things here. Well, here, over there in the uk when you do scan, like scan to go, is the payment already processed or do you still need to go cashierless checkout or some sort of. Because you guys are also very well known for cashierless checkouts.

[A]

Yep, cashierless checkout. But it's really painless. You just scan a QR code on the screen.

[B]

Got it.

[A]

Pay and go. But the thing about scanning your shop, you can see what you're spending all the way around as well. So it really helps with budgeting, which I love, which scares me when it doesn't work because I don't know what I'm spending.

[C]

Yeah, I was very late to the scan as you shop party. I don't know why. I just hadn't really used it and now I've started using it, I'm like Bill, I have a complete meltdown if it's not available to me because it just saves the biggest pain point. Actually self checkouts are a massive pain point because barcodes won't scan or you've got an unexpected item in the bagging area or you know, it's a nightmare and they'll have loads of assistants on trying to run around helping people. But it doesn't always work. This isn't just Tesco, this is like supermarkets generally. So the scan as you go is seems to me a much more efficient way of doing it and it just saves you all of that kind of checkout nightmare at the end.

[B]

Well, what I heard from this was sometimes it takes a minute to get consumers to try and adopt a new technology. But once they do, if you've really removed a real friction point, you've listened to your consumers, then maybe you will have them hooked and so then you will have explained to them why it's so critical. And it helps the retailer too because they probably have better, you know, they better understand their inventory, they have better control over what's where, when, who data. You know, it's like a win win for everybody. The hurdle is getting people to use it.

[A]

Yeah, I'm very privacy conscious and data conscious with my online Persona, but that Tesco can have all of my information because removing this friction, it just, it makes my life better. Yeah, a lot better.

[B]

Carina, what would you do if you're CEO for the day?

[C]

And that was literally the most perfect segue into my CEO for a day idea that you'd think that we'd actually kind of planned it. So if I was Tesco CEO of the day, I think you can predict what I'm going to say because I'm just obsessed with this whole area at the moment. I'd be really leaning into AI and doing something like, like building a kind of really powerful grocery agent, perhaps even with a kind of health intelligence layer on top, and just make something that no one else, you know, leverage all of this amazing data they have and create something that no one else in the UK market can replicate. And I really think that they could do that. And if you look at kind of where Walmart is with Sparky, I think it's already driving something like a 35% increase in average order value. And I think Tesco just has, has a similar opportunity, it's in a similar kind of leading position, has a really strong foundation because of Club Card and Dunhumby and it has so much information on household products, what people are buying. It knows probably more than about what they eat than the NHS does. It knows, you know, who's shifting to high protein, who's buying alcohol. I just think they've got this extraordinary data position and they could create something that's genuinely useful for their customers and helps them plan, helps them become more healthy, helps them remove frictions in their shopping. And like you said, it would also then deliver back for the business and it would drive higher order values, it would drive more loyalty. So I just think with their kind of data depth, their footprint, the kind of expanse of Clubcard, it has such huge penetration.

[B]

Karina, for you, is it more of a AI shopping assistant, like a Sparky, or more like a nutritionist, nurse practitioner, cook, sort of all rolled into one that helps you really get organized.

[C]

I think it's kind of neither actually, like, well, kind of maybe a bit to the latter, I don't know. I think it's like a kind of household management agent. You know, it helps you, it knows when you're going to run low on things, but it can also then help you with, you know, planning healthier meals or indeed just planning meals generally if they're not healthier. I mean, I haven't mapped it out yet exactly, but I just think that they have such a kind of strong market position to really lean into this and I think if anyone's going to do it really well, they have the potential to do it really well. But like you said, I think think it would take a moment to get people to use it. But I think it could be one of those things that once people do use it, they can't imagine how they ever lived without it.

[B]

I fully support making my life easier, especially if it comes with a virtual cook that can plan everything for me and tell me what I have and what I need. Which leads me to I wonder if one day they'll also get into I know this is a beat from the past, but the Internet of things I think with AI should be coming back and that we should have smart appliances that tell you because with the Dunhumby remember the like like big example was I know how often you buy milk, I know how often you buy cereal. If you haven't bought it at that rate I'm going to give you a coupon for cereal. So you come back to me and buy your cereal. I feel like a smart fridge would really help with that as well.

[C]

Yeah, for sure.

[B]

Well, that was fun. Now for our last segment I want to talk about some of the other things that they're really well known about. We've touched about some of them already but I thought we could think about each of these different pieces that make Tesco magic and think about it in a Do we keep it? Do you cut it or do you reinvent it? A tiny tweak and what would that be? So I'm going to throw out some very Tesco Y features and you tell me do they stay? Is it time to move on or do we tweak them? Bill self checkout people hate to use it but it sounds like most people use it. What do you think?

[A]

So scan as you shop. Are we classifying that as self checkout because that we keep 100%. It's incredible for the big out of town stores works a treat. It's a little bit clunky. If you're going to the Tesco Express you don't. I mean even for the store there's not a lot of real estate so you don't want to hold wall of these terminals. So scanning your shop is great but self checkout there are problems with item in the bagging area as you mentioned earlier. Karina does my head in. It's so annoying that I, I think I rarely go into a Tesco Express and don't have to have someone help me because something hasn't been weighed correctly. So something needs to be tweaked, but I don't have an answer to it. But I, I think keep but tweak.

[B]

Karina.

[C]

I'm guessing, yeah, I completely agree with Bill there. I mean, I think they have to keep it just the kind of, you know, there's a reason that all the supermarkets move to self checkout and as much as they'd like to say it's customer convenience, it's not. It's cost convenience on their part. Right. Like that's why they're doing it. But I think it is a friction and I think it can cause big friction for consumers. It is really frustrating. I don't really know how you fix it. I think that kind of scan as you shop is great. They have been doing some kind of self checkout, computer vision, AI trials. We know from kind of Amazon in the UK that that's also not always that popular. So I don't know what the answer is, but I think there needs to be a reinvention that makes it just what it just needs to work better.

[A]

You know, I wonder, we've spoken about this. I wonder if we had mobile scanners. You shop, so then it takes away all that real estate that it would need for the terminals and you just use your mobile phone, go into the store, scan.

[C]

But I think not everyone wants to be using their phone for scanning when they're in the shop because they might want to use their phone to call their mum to ask if they want. You know, I think that's the only problem with a mobile.

[B]

Well, I'm surprised that you just can't pay like on the Whole Foods terminals here. When you do self checkout, you can press the button for it to use your own credit card. That's in your profile. So if you have to be a club card member, then they should have your credit card information and so that should be an easy button. I'm going to move us on to meal deals. Karina. Cultural institution, I think for most of Europe, I would say, but definitely in the uk where you get to bundle and save, take away decision making. What do you think about that? Keep, reinvent or cut?

[C]

So this is a reinvent. It's absolutely a keep. Like you said, it's a cultural institution for people that don't know what a meal deal is. You'll have a selection of sandwiches, snacks that can range from kind of crisps or chocolate bars or there are some healthier options now and then drinks and you get to choose, you know, one each for. Is it £3 60 now? If you're a club card member. Bill. I don't know, something around like $5.

[B]

It's not.

[C]

Yeah. For a fairly low price point. So it's a culture. Everyone's obsessed with Tesco meal deals. They absolutely can't get rid of it. It's a really good footfall driver for the express format and it's especially important in that kind of cost of living environment. But I would say it probably needs to reinvent it a little bit into more of a multi tiered ecosystem. So they do offer some premium options and they have done some healthier snacks but I think they could kind of p further into that and offer a bit more variety and maybe a kind of tiered pricing structure to reflect that. So they're kind of doing it a bit but I think they could be a bit braver with it.

[B]

Bill.

[A]

Yep. Agree 100% keep. And I was going to say exactly the same thing about tweaking towards this trend around healthy eating but I, I think that's relatively easy to build in. Right.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

My last one for you guys is we talk a lot about retail media. We talk a lot about digital screens, interactive screens in the store. Sounds like Tesco has, has figured it out. Retail media, screens in store. It's integrated into the shopping experience. Seems like it's personalized, takes up not a lot of space. I'm not sure tell us keep, reinvent or cut.

[A]

Bill Keep. We spent. I kind of made my opinion clear about the retail media side of things particularly this real estate on this Ganachi shop devices and if it can be on mobile devices as well that would be amazing. The in store stuff as well, the end caps and the big screens. I mean the UK is pretty good on this, right? Karina, you know this better. You track it closer than I do. But some, some of the stores in the, I mean my local big Tesco Direct, the big out of town hyper store has big screens all over the place and it's, it's really engaging. I, I notice it. You know it's, it's, it's bright, it's bold. If you want to get your brand out there people are going to see it and I think Tesco is, is moving really well in this space. As I mentioned earlier. I think it can do a little bit better but it's, it's already doing great and definitely keep it.

[C]

Yeah. 100 agree. It's a win, win for consumers, for brands, for retailers. Right. Like the retail media not only allows Tesco to be price competitive and keep prices down for consumers, but it also can now serve them with really personalized adverts. So maybe not so much the kind of big digital screens, but as Bill said, those handheld scanners, they're even kind of of geoing it now so it knows where you are in the store and can give you very relevant promotions. I think, you know, for the shopper that's great because who doesn't want to have an offer on something that you're about to buy. You were going to pay a pound for a pack of biscuits and you're going to get an offer for 50p. You know, why wouldn't you love that? It's great for Tesco because it enables it to keep its margin and it's great for brands because as Bill said, there's no better way to get in front of people in the uk. You know, retail media we know know is in store. Retail media is really important in the uk. Grocery penetration, kind of E commerce penetration is lower than other categories. So in order to really have that scale you need to have the in store piece. So 100% keep.

[B]

This is the retail ecosystem that I want to keep talking about. They have, we didn't even get to banks and they have a joint venture with mobile phones with Virgin Media. I mean this is is the store, the brand, the platform that everybody should be paying attention to. But unfortunately that's all the time we have for today. Thank you Bill.

[A]

Thanks for having me.

[B]

Thanks Karina.

[C]

Thanks Susie. Always good to be on and thank

[B]

you to our listeners and to our team that edits the podcast. Please leave a rating or review and remember to subscribe. I'll see you for more reimagining retail next Wednesday and on Friday join Marcus for another episode of behind the Numbers and Emarketer podcast.