From the point of view of a customer and from my own semi-invented anti consumerist stance. All of it's products are packaged like the "value" ranges of other supermarkets.

we (as a fam) boycott it cos they chopped down some trees to build a new one up the road.
BOO YA

"Off we go to Tescos
Where Barry buys his best clothes
La laa la-la
La laa la-la"

their food is much better tasting then other supermarkets at the same price, also toasters for 2.50 etc.

cheap.

and took off by moving out to the 'burbs

Tesco used to be a right scummy place well behind Sainsburys or Asda then all of a sudden they took over the whole country and everyone started buying everything there.

I still don't think they're as good as Sainsburys Morrisons or Asda.

It employs practically everyone I know. We live out in the sticks, ten minutes away from an out of town tesco extra. We used to go there every lunchtime from school and steal 30p packets of value swiss rolls.

and we used to sing "Craig shops at tescos, it's where he gets his best clothes, they're very nifty, for one pound fifty" on the bus.

that was probably 11 or 12 years ago.

the ones I have used in London have been uniformly utter shit because the fruit and veg is all rank and goes off within 2 days. Doesn't seem worth it just to save a bit of money as the fruit in even Lidl is better.
In other places, I have heard this isn't always the same because they source the stuff from somewhere else so I'm sure it varies a lot.
Everywhere you go though it is too ubiquitous and far too crap in everything from packaging to advertising to corporate strategy.

All supermarkets were grubby in the 80s and early 90s.
They were just brown and smelt a bit funny.
Tesco was never behind Asda in the cheap scale.
Tesco did something right and managed to expand massively in the mid and late 90s. This coincided with Brits becoming a lazy bunch of cunts and offered said cunts (can't cook, can't do grocery shopping) an easy life. Sainsburys stagnated, though is now on the up.
I think Tesco were the best about 5 years ago but Sainsburys are back with a bang.

and its got the worst own brand out of the supermarkets I believe, Sainsburys and Asda own brands can be really good, George clothes range is decent and Tu is getting better whilst Tescos remains terrible. Durabrand (asdsa electronic range) is superb value for money, I got a 5.1 surround system 180watts for £30 there and whilst it didnt sound BRILLIANT it sounded better then most soundsystems priced at 3x that value.

that Tesco used to be seen in such a bad light. Obviously before my time.

waitrose <3

by which I mean primary school, anyone who admitted to shopping at Tesco was a prime target for a good rinsing. Sainsbury's was the only acceptable option, otherwise you were clearly a pikey and a leper. My family shopped at Tesco, obv.