East Rotherhithe: New Tesco Express

If you're on the eastern side of Rotherhithe, there's a new Tesco Express located in somewhat splendid isolation in the middle section of Plough Way, near the southern end of South Dock (map here, on the Tesco website). 

Marine Wharf

It is located at the base of the new "Marine Wharf" residential complex, which makes it easy to find.  My loathing for the giant and frequently re-organized Tesco at Surrey Quays (why are the cucumbers and lettuces kept on different aisles??) prompted me to go and have a look at the bite-sized version, which a friend who lives over there told me about yesterday.  It is very clean and tidy, and has a good mixture of products for such a small space. The staff who were in there today were busy packing shelves and were friendly.  As you would probably expect, the wine selection is very feeble and buying bread on a Saturday night is always a mug's game so it's difficult to assess what they might have on a good day.  The range of products are firmly positioned towards the middle of Tesco's range of offerings, as you would expect with limited floorspace - there are very few items from the Finest range, for example, and I didn't notice anything from their Basics range either.  The great news is that the lettuces and cucumbers are located side by side!

It is difficult to tell if it will take away business from the Costcutter further down Plough Way, near to Lower Road.  I hope not because although it is such a silly name for a chain of stores, and is located in a rather tatty, albeit useful row of shops, it is friendly, well organized and has been doing a good job for a very long time. More to the point, its wine selection is head and shoulders above that provided by the Tesco Express and I've always preferred the fresh bread from the Costcutter to that provided by other supermarkets in the area.

Apparently a Waitrose has opened just on the other side of Deptford Creek too, in one of the new residential developments there, which is a 15 minute or so drive away.  The address is Dreadnought Wharf, 1 Victoria Parade, Greenwich, SE10 9FR for anyone who wants to check it out on an online map.  The Waitrose website says that there's a carpark.

Whether it's the Costcutter, the Tesco Express, or the Deptford Waitrose, it's always good to have options that don't involve Surrey Quays shopping centre.