Is there a Tesco store in every postcode in the UK?

16 January 2012

As Tesco issued grim financial data towards the tail end of last week and its share price headed for the bargain basement, scrutiny of the fortunes of Britain's largest supermarket stepped up a notch.

On Thursday, Channel 4 claimed that there is a Tesco store in every postcode in the country. Several people contacted Full Fact to query whether this was actually the case, often citing examples of their own postcodes which did not have a Tesco store.

Further searching revealed that multiple news organisations have mentioned the claim in the past, including the Telegraph, the Guardian and the BBC. This was purported to have been the case since Tesco purchased several Somerfield stores in 2008, leaving Harrogate as the last remaining mainland postcode without a Tesco. A few months later, the Scotsman reported that Tesco had opened stores on the Northern and Western Isles.

The veracity of the claim depends on the definition of "postcode", and what is covered by the term "store". Postcodes, for instance, can be categorised into districts (the first two to four characters) and areas (the first one or two).

If the term is used to mean postcode district, then there are numerous examples of postcodes in which Tesco has yet to build a store. Using Tesco's own store locator, we can determine that Sheringham in Norfolk (postcode NR26) has no Tesco branch, as is the case for the neighbouring postcodes of Holt (NR25) and Cromer (NR27).

However, Aylsham (NR11) does contain a Tesco branch, and hence it can be argued that Tesco does have at least one branch in the NR postcode area if not for every district within.

Further, the term "store" may only refer to Tesco superstores and Tesco Extra stores. Harrogate does currently have two Tesco Express stores, and according to a BBC report, plans for a superstore were approved in November 2011.

If postcode is defined as postcode area rather than district, and the claim is deemed to include Tesco Express outlets, then it seems that the claim that every postcode in the UK has a Tesco is accurate.

However, according to Tesco there are 2,715 Tesco stores across the UK, and Tesco's store locator limits results to 100 stores. Without a comprehensive list of their postcodes being made available, it is difficult to entirely verify the claim.

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