If you are one of the few people that enjoyed buying your meat, fish or cheese from a person at a counter in your nearest Tesco supermarket, you're going to have to go without that personal touch and head for the refrigerated foods section where you will find these products in plastic packets.
The supermarket whose slogan is 'every little helps' said 317 of its supermarkets where they have seen the 'lowest demand' for meat, fish and deli counters will be affected, along with quite a few jobs too, impacting 100s of workers. Staff affected will be offered alternative roles.
The move comes after noticeable changes in customer shopping habits.
After the closures are complete the company will have only 279 stores with meat, fish and deli counters.
What will replace the meat, fish and deli counters?
According to the supermarket chain, they will "repurpose" the counters across the 317 stores impacted.
The rise of vegan diets may be a reason for the change in consumer behaviour
Over the past several years, the vegan movement has picked up pace and more and more people are choosing to eat less meat and animal products such as cheese.
Take part in our poll: Would you go vegan to save the planet?
More articles for vegans
Will other supermarkets follow?
It's quite possible that other supermarket chains will follow in the footsteps of Tesco.
When the pandemic broke out deli counters were among the first to get the chop, due mainly to the fact that these counters are manned by staff who will be touching the goods but also because all supermarket counters are experiencing less and less footfall.
This could be the driving factor behind the move from Tesco. Sure people are still buying meat, fish and cheese but consumers are eating animal products with less frequency which results in less footfall at meat, fish and deli counters.
Jack's discount brand to also close
In further restructuring, Tesco announced that they will also be closing seven of its 13 Jack's discount stores which will impact 130 jobs across the sites, including the head office. The remaining six Jack's stores will become Tesco stores.
What is Jack's discount store?
The Jack's brand launched in 2019 is Tesco's answer to competition from German discount rivals Alid and Lidl.
Tesco said it had "learned a tremendous amount" from the business, but would rather focus on delivering "great value" in its core business.
Read more about Tesco deli counter colosures on the retailgazette.co.uk website.
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