It was this day in 1996 that saw the opening in Hungary the first Tesco hypermarket, which was unique in the region. On the opening day, the store in the Pólus Center shopping mall was visited by so many people that they waited in queues of hundreds of meters long for hours to get in.
Since then, Tesco customers have been able to shop in nearly 200 stores across the country and from the comfort of their own homes, and can also request home delivery, according to a Tesco press release,
The first shopping center in East Central Europe, the Pólus Center, opened on November 8, 1996, with the first hypermarket in Hungary and the region. On the day of the opening, people arriving by bus even from across the country's border to do their shopping.
"On the opening day, there was a huge crowd. After a while, the gates had to be closed because there was no room for more people. We had two cashiers at each checkout to keep up with the pace, and the bakery was like a small factory 24 hours a day," Martin Coulam, Operations Director, who started his career at Tesco Pole in Hungary and has been with the chain ever since, recalls the events of 25 years ago.
Tesco has changed a lot in 25 years. A few years after the opening of the Pólus store, the first 24-hour shop was opened, and in 2005, the first Tesco Express was launched. Since 2010, there has been a loyalty card, which rewards customers with discounts, and in-store shopping is now supported by self-service checkouts and a Scan&Shop service, which allows you to put products directly into your shopping bag.
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