Author: Daft Old Duffer
Daft Old Duffer: From Small Beginnings
Tuesday, 2nd February, 2010 at 1:38 pm, Isle of Wight
Business, Opinion Piece, Overseas, Writers
I thought readers might be interested in a story – a true story – and old boy told me a long time ago.
He was a van and truck salesman in the twenties and thirties of last century and his tale concerned a Jew named Cohen who lived in the East End of London and earned a living selling off a barrow in the street.
A ‘costermonger’ in fact.
Cohen had a bright idea. He realised that the English labourer was sustained in his drudgery by above all else, bread and tea. But the wives could not always find sufficient pennies to buy the 1/4lb packs of tea, and hubby was often forced to go without.
So one day Cohen trundled his barrow down to the docks, to the warehouse of a tea importer, and purchased a wholesale chest of tea. He and his wife spent evenings and nights spooning the tea into twists of paper which he then sold at the side of the street for a penny each.
The idea was highly successful.
Now the women could buy the necessary tea each day and hubby could enjoy his cup or two when he reached home in the evening. What’s more,the family could re-use the leaves throughout the following day for themselves.
Soon Cohen was able to employ girls to do the spooning, and then other mongers to sell the penny twists off other barrows.
He branched out into doing the same with butter,and then jam.
But Cohen always did the buying himself, getting the best quality at the lowest price.
Came the day when a barrow would not suffice – and that is when my storyteller sold Cohen his first van. Followed by others as Cohen moved onto shops and took his sons and sons-in-law into the business.
If you haven’t realised it already, the ‘Co’ of Cohen’s name today forms the last part of’ ‘Tesco.’
Image: RomainGuy under CC BY-SA 2.0
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So who was Tes?
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i think i smell shaggy dog lol
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The Wikipedia article on Tesco states:
“The Tesco brand first appeared in 1924. The name came about after Jack Cohen bought a shipment of tea from T.E. Stockwell. He made new labels using the first three letters of the supplier’s name (TES), and the first two letters of his surname (CO), forming the word “TESCO”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesco
There is also a story that Jack named the company after his wife, Tessa Cohen – perhaps that’s what he told her!
The word is a portmanteau, as described above. In the same way that a ‘motel’ is a motor hotel, Tesco is from TES(tockwell) and CO(hen).
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An interesting and offbeat tale, but what is the significance of his religous orientation in this tale?
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None Big Ears.Anymore than if he was a Scot or Welsh or Irish. If anyone is finding a slur in the noun ‘Jew’ then I’m afrais it’s in their mind,nowhere else.
It is an interesting fact of history that at this time very many Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe moved in to the East End of London.And many of them,and their children went on,like Mr Cohen to make a huge success in their businesses of choice.Just check a random selection of managing directors in any area.You will be suprised atjust how much Britain’s success is down to these people.
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INtresting so why does everyone call it TESCOS ….WITH AN S ON THE END .
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It’s a quirk of the English language I suggest.
We also say ‘we’re going to Sainsburys , or Morrisons,or Somerfields.Even Sainsbury themselves use the phrase ’shop at Sainsbury’s’
Perhaps it comes from ‘Tesco’s store’,Morrison’s store’ etc
As for thje ‘Tes’ part of the title I have a vague – very vague – memory of being told it came from the name of his daughter
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