Tesco Express

Overall, a great little store.
I’ve gotten to know this Tesco Express pretty well since November, stopping in a few times a week to get little things I run out of, like milk or junk food. This Tesco has it all! Everything I have come for has been in stock every time. And that means something to me.
Anyway, they are slightly more expensive than other Tescos I have frequented, which from my understanding has to do with the «express» part of the store. In other words, convenient = more expensive. Or at least I think that’s the logic of it.
The store itself is clean. There are always several people running around restocking shelves. There is a noticeable security presence at this location as well. Police often park out front. I have witnessed kids attempting to steal and getting busted on several occasions. Hence, why the police are nearby and there is a guard at the door.
The quality of this store is good to me, folks seem a bit down on it for some reason and I cannot figure out why. The place is clean, well-​staffed, secure, and keeps items in stock. Isn’t that what you want in a store? Besides that, they are open until 23:00, which in Edinburgh is rare as the sun. This alone has made the store great for me when I am getting more *milk at 22:30 on a Friday.
*Milk really means wine. Sorry.

It’s just a wee supermarket so they don’t have a great selection of fresh stuff but it’s handy if you’re having an impromptu picnic in Holyrood Park. I often pop in to grab ingredients for dinner as I pass it on my walk home from work. It’s got a cash line outside, has a coffee machine (I haven’t tried it) & fresh bakery items. I can get the essentials here & it saves me a trek to a bigger store. Does what it says on the tin.

There’s a Tesco Express at Fountainbridge that offers a wealth of variety for the local student population. The fresh sandwiches come in a vast range of unusual fillings, fillings I had no idea Tesco even offered. They have all the essentials and enough space to whisk around at a steady pace and get your weekly shopping done.
I wish Holyrood’s Tesco Express was more like theirs.
They’re like the Express that Tesco forgot, still packing sandwiches like Just Ham and Just Cheese. As a regular (and the Duke) it’s embarassing. The aisles are narrow, there are pillars everywhere and they don’t stock anywhere near what other Expresses and Metros in the near vicinity do. The fridges have the most random array of fresh meats and ready meals, the rice and pasta section is about two shelves big, woeful, just woeful.
Given the amount of colleges, universities, offices and residential areas around, it beggars belief why they didn’t buy a bigger space, or at least re-​design the space they have.

It does what every other Tesco’s does. It’s cheap (ish), it has loads of stuff that you might possibly want and it has very accommodating opening hours. But any time I have bought my lunch there, it feels like some kind of compromise of price over taste.
Still, just because the food is manky, it shouldn’t reflect badly on the shop staff who always seem nice, if a little harassed due to there being two tills, two self service tills (one frequently breaks) and not enough staff for a busy shop.