Tesco Express Opens New Store On Queen Elizabeth Park

Published on: 16 Jan, 2021
Updated on: 19 Jan, 2021

By Hugh Coakley

Tesco opened its new Express store on Thursday (January 14) at Queen Elizabeth Park, Stoughton.

Tesco Express opened in Railton Road on the Queen Elizabeth Park.

Occupying part of the former Budgens’ store on Railton Road, the new store was welcomed by shoppers on the first day of trading.

Local resident Ian Curtis, said: “The building has been empty too long. It’s a good addition to the local area.”

Another customer was enthusiastic about having a local supermarket. She said: “It’s brilliant. We missed having the old supermarket here. It was just so handy.”

A Dragon reader wryly commented on hearing the news of the new shop in the area: “What we actually need round here is a pub.”

Store manager Ionut Hentea said: “We’re extremely excited to be opening our Guildford Railton Road Express store.

“We are investing in the community by employing and training local people, and it’ll be a pleasure to see them develop and improve.

“It was hard work making sure we had enough stock in this new store but we succeeded. We opened on time and that’s great.”

Store manager Ionut Hentea was “extremely excited” to be opening the new store.

By store numbers alone, 11 stores in and around the Guildford area, Tesco would appear to be beating other supermarkets in the locality.

Apart from the large Tesco supermarket in Ashenden Road near the Royal Surrey County Hospital, there are now two Tesco Express’s and the other Tesco-owned brands, Premier stores, Budgens, Londis and One Stop, make up a further eight.

The new store will employ 15 staff.

Asked why it would succeed when the Budgens store on the same location had to shut down, a spokesperson said: “The new Tesco Express offers a different proposition for customers and will operate from a smaller unit.”

The store will be involved in the Tesco Bags of Help scheme, which has provided more than £170,000 to 51 groups across Guildford over the last five years.

This includes Stoughton Infant and Nursery School that received £4,000 to build a shelter for its outdoor learning area, and Surrey Wildlife Trust who’s £2,000 grant went towards buying equipment for volunteers to look after and maintain local wildlife areas.

Organisations can apply for grants at www.tesco.com/bagsofhelp.

Responses to Tesco Express Opens New Store On Queen Elizabeth Park

Sharon Stokes Reply

January 16, 2021 at 11:10 pm

I live across the road and have popped in a couple of times. The store is well stocked, well laid out and pretty well priced, and it’s great to have a local shop on the estate again. I’m therefore rather sad that I’ve been disappointed with my experience so far.

The first evening the young lady at the counter was really lacking in any sort of customer service skills, and today (January 16), at about 4pm or so, the store felt as though too many people were in there. It was not helped by young couples and family groups shopping together. I’m sorry that although I wish to support my local store I need to feel as safe as possible and appreciated as a customer.

I will therefore stick with M&S and Waitrose, for the time being.