Unhappy shoppers from the West Midlands turn backs on Tesco

Described as 'eye-watering' in the city, the £6.4bn loss is one of the biggest in UK corporate history.

And to lunchtime shoppers in Wolverhampton city centre it came as little surprise, as they criticised the once all-conquering chain for offering poor quality food at more expensive prices.

Its famous and well-worn slogan is 'every little helps'. And Tesco will need all the help it can get as it recovers from an eye-popping, almost-unfathomable £6.4billion loss.

The figures are a shock, but the fact Tesco's star is waning isn't.

Personally, I abandoned the Tesco ship a good while ago, tired of its increasingly faceless service and overbearing populating of our high streets, side streets and any old street it could find an unused building to build yet another Tesco Express.

There's a scene in The Simpsons when Bart wants to get his ear pieced.

The guy in the shop tells him: "Well better make it quick, kiddo. In five minutes this place is becoming a Starbucks."

Replace Starbucks with Tesco and you've got a scene replicated up and down the land in the past 20 years. In my neck of the woods, Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham, there are three within 0.6 miles of each other. Three.

When Aldi and Lidl are cheaper, why shop at Tesco? When Asda offers similar prices but better products, why shop at Tesco?

And when, for a bit more cash, you can get some gourmet-standard grub at Marks & Spencer or Waitrose, why shop at Tesco?

In particular, Aldi and Lidl have cornered the market that us Brits can't get enough of – food and drink of a wide variety which is decent quality.

Their food tends to be fresher but, far more importantly, it's cheaper. As households continue to struggle to pay the bills, the cheaper option will always win.

And while they don't offer the most heart-warming customer service you'll find, they never promise as much either.

Tesco's cuddly adverts suggests a friendly, personal service which you just won't find when you go shopping there.

When it came to the weekly shop, most said they opted for convenience and price and said Tesco was only chosen if it was close to home or work. Discount stores Aldi and Lidl were rated highly.

Most people couldn't pinpoint why Tesco was losing billions of pounds but those who avoided it raised the same concerns: The fruit and veg isn't as fresh and the use-by dates are shorter than other supermarkets.

Out buying lunch in Wolverhampton city was Pinky Sohal, aged 27, of Oxley, who found that the food at Tesco 'goes out of date really quickly', sometimes that very day, so she now goes to Marks & Spencer.

Subreen Chopra, aged 24, agreed: "I usually get my fruit and veg at Aldi, I find it fresher. The Metro is also more expensive than a normal Tesco."

Her household's weekly shop was usually done at Morrisons or Aldi, and Miss Sohal's was bought at her local Asda, where she said the prices are good and food fresh.

Also opting for the 'fresh is best' approach is Rhianna Carter, visiting from Derbyshire, who swapped Tesco for Aldi because the food is cheaper and lasts a lot longer.

In January, it was announced three Tesco stores in the Black Country were among 43 stores nationwide marked for closure, with a total of 83 jobs to be cut across the Smethwick Metro, Bearwood Express and Walsall Wood Express.

The news came around the same time Tesco confirmed it was pulling out of its plan to build a £60 million long-awaited superstore at the old Royal Hospital site in Wolverhampton.

Additionally, the lease on its Mander Centre Metro store expires in February, and despite speculation Tesco will pull out of the city altogether next year, bosses earlier this year pledged to continue in Wolverhampton 'for many years'.

Working in the Mander Centre, Michelle and Andrew Hemming often pick up bits and pieces from Tesco Metro during the day because it is convenient, but do their main shop at Asda.

Mr Hemming said if the Tesco Metro were to close it would be 'a big loss' as a lot of city workers got their lunch from there, or 'nipped in for bits and pieces'.

Mrs Hemming said she had 'no idea really' why Tesco was struggling.

It is the good deals that keep Shirley Coles, aged 69, coming back to Tesco. She has shopped at the city store for several years as it is 'a nice shop'.

She added: "I am quite happy with it. It has quite a lot of offers – they also have vouchers and not many stores do that."

She did not know why the chain was struggling, as she said it does more offers than any other supermarket, but wondered if people preferred to shop at supermarkets with better car parks.

Margaret Scofield, of Wolverhampton, said while she shopped at places like Morrisons when she was first married, now she finds she shops more like her mother did, going to different places for things. Asked why she does not shop at Tesco, she said: "I just don't like anything about it."

If the new Royal Hospital Tesco had gone ahead she may have shopped there, as it would have had a bus stop right outside. Her childhood friend Linda Webb, who lives in Bloxwich, shops at Tesco because it 'is really the only big store in Walsall'.

In the wake of the company's announcement, new chief executive Dave Lewis said Tesco had 'drawn a line under its past', which includes an accounting scandal, and was now seeing some encouraging signs.

He said: "The market is still challenging. Our priority is to improve consistently for customers. The changes we have made put us in a stronger position to do this."