People are only just realising what Tesco stands for and it’s blowing their minds
MILLIONS of people shop at Tesco each year, but have you ever stopped to wonder where the name comes from?
Tesco was founded in 1919 when Jack Cohen, who was the son of Jewish migrants from Poland, began selling groceries from a stall in Hackney, London.
He previously had been in the Royal Flying Corp at the end of the Great War and used his demobilisation money to buy his first day’s stock for the stall.
The Tesco brand name first appeared in 1923 after Jack bought a shipment of tea from a man named Thomas Edward Stockwell.
Jack decided to make labels using the supplier initials (TES) and then added the first two letters of his own surname (CO) – and hence Tesco was born.
By 1929, Jack was able to open his first Tesco store in Burnt Oak, Edgware, north London.
At the time, the store sold dry goods and its first branded product, Tesco Tea.
During the 1930s, the brand continued to grow and expand, and by 1939, Jack owned 100 stores.
HIs first supermarket opened in Essex in 1958.
Their website states: “The new format store included a counter service selling cheese, butter and meats weighed by sales assistants.”
Founder Jack Cohen passed away in 1979, but today there are over 4,000 Tesco stores around the UK.
Many people have taken to Twitter to share their discovery of the name, and many had no idea of the history.
We previously shared where the name Asda comes from, and people were left baffled at the answer.