Running a shoddy store in the heart of media-savvy Hackney hipster land has proven a PR disaster for supermarket giant Tesco, after a blog set up by an exasperated customer cataloguing why it was the “worst place on earth” went viral.
James Allan was promted to write the hilarious Tumblr page about the Haggerston Tesco Express after being driven to despair by the shop’s burglar alarm keeping him awake “all night, every night”.
The blog about the shop in Kingsland Road features pictures and comments about its empty shelves, piles of cardboard boxes littering the shop and unmanned tills galore, as well as complaints about the fridge doors which never close.
“It was 1:30 in the morning, I was knackered, it didn’t stop going off and I had a passive aggressive social media wob-out,” said Mr Allen, who works as director of strategy and planning for PR agency Mission.
“I’d been taking pictures of ridiculous sights from inside the store for a month or so with no real intention of ever doing anything with them but suddenly they became comic ammunition to be heard so the alarm would get fixed.
“I never thought for a second it would take off like it has.”
Among the pictures posted by Mr Allan is one of the empty cleaning products shelf, with the comment: “This must have been the cleanliest panic buy ever. I just want some cleaning products, why is that too much to ask?!”
He posted it online before falling asleep and thought nothing more about it until the lunchtime the following day when a friend sent him an email saying, “Have you seen this? Isn’t this your Tescos?!”
“Its gone bonkers,” said Mr Allan.
“The submissions and comments people have fed in shows that a lot of locals were less than happy with the place so I’m glad it has been seen as more than just a p***-take.
“It has been tweeted and shared by writers and comedians that I’ve always admired and respected too, like Grace Dent and Russel Kane - that is just crazy.”
Many other infuriated customers have now contributed their own experiences to the web page.
“I’m so glad someone set this up,” someone has written.
“Every time I have to go in there I get worked up into an infernal rage, they only sell things you don’t need, and the most expensive version. And there’s always like a bottle of squash broken on the floor leaking somewhere so you can get all nice and sticky while buying the jar of pilchards you don’t need cos you really wanted a tin of tuna.”
Yesterday the store’s shelves were full to bursting after workers spent the whole night restocking them.
A Tesco spokesperson said they were aware of the blog and agreed the store has not met their “high standards”.
“We are working with the store to make sure we offer the best possible service for our customers,” he added.
To see the blog go to http://haggerston-tescos.tumblr.com/.
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