Tesco Jargon

Welcome to the Tesco jargon buster.
Just choose a letter (or 123) below to get started.

A B C D E F G H I
J K L M N O P Q R
S T U V W X Y Z 123

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C is for…

C grade

See Customer Assistant pay grade.
People

Cage

A metal unit on wheels used to transport cases of stock. Available with two sides (two-sider), with straps, or four sides (four-sider), with gates.

Distribution

Cage manifest

Report showing each product held by a cage UOD.

See also unit of delivery (UOD).
Distribution

Call Mr Robinson

A checkout prompt indicating that the card used may be blocked, or requires authorisation.

Checkouts

Capital expenditure

Funds used to buy or upgrade physical things.

Capping

The process of temporarily restricting Dotcom delivery slots, before customers have booked them. This may be due to equipment issues, van damage, severe weather or lack of staff.

Dotcom

Capping shelves

The shelves that sit on the top of a single shelving unit. It is the top shelf above all other shelves on which we sell no products. Often capping shelves are used to store excess items of a product that will not fit on the shelf. Stock should be placed directly above the product it relates to wherever possible.

Stock control

Cardboard display unit

A unit that only needs the top taking off to display it on the shelves. This saves time as staff don’t have to transfer all the products on to the shelves.

Stock control

Cardinal card

See colleague room card.
People

Career break

One of Tesco’s fexible working options open to staff with a minimum of two years’ service. A career break is between three months and five years. The reason for this may include bringing up a family, further education, caring for a sick relative or travelling abroad. With a career break employees are effectively resigning from the company and there is no guarantee of a job on their return.

People

Career discussion

A conversation between a member of staff and their manager about where they are in their career and how they can progress.

People

Case

A box containing a number of single products.

Stock control

Case measuring

Determining the height, width, depth and weight of cases of product so they can be stored, assembled and transported safely and efficiently.

Previously known as Cubi scan.
Distribution Stock control

Case size

A term to describe the number of products within a deliverable case or carton. A case size greater than 1 will reduce packaging and handling costs, aid in more efficient supply chain, store replenishment and help to improve service levels.

Distribution Stock control

Cash return on investment

The return on a one-off cash investment calculated by dividing the cash return by the average investment.

Catchweight

Prepacked item with a variable weight.

Category (products)

A grouping of similar products, for example, the frozen category.

Category (stores)

A grouping of stores based on sales and complexity that is used to determine Store Manager pay and benefits. Categories range from the smallest category 5 to the largest and most complex category 10 store.

Catering partners

Third-party companies who run some of our cafés on behalf of Tesco. These are traditional cafés, often with food, and cater for Tesco staff or customers.

CBCL

Cash, bank, coupon and lottery report. Details finance performance figures for each store on a weekly basis, along with the dishonoured sales report (DSR). Published on G drive each Friday.

Previously known as CBL.
See also G drive.

CBL

See CBCL.

CBO

See checkout back office.
Checkouts

Central file

See NBS.

Central file maintenance (CFM)

See price integrity (PI).

Central labour planning

See warehouse labour planning.
Distribution

Checkout back office (CBO)

System used in-store to control the progress checkouts. CBO maintains the list of operators and their privileges, and logs all transactions in the electronic journal.

Also known as MFS.
See also back office and electronic journal.
Checkouts

Checkout Team Support (CTS)

See Team Support.
Checkouts People

Chiller

Fancy word for a big fridge.

Stock control

Class

The fourth level of the merchandise hierarchy used by NBS.

Previously known as product group.
See also NBS.

Click and collect (C+C)

Service allowing Dotcom and Direct customers to order products online and then collect them in-store.

Direct Dotcom

Click and learn

Online learning system for operational and legal training. Replaces know your stuff.

See also know your stuff (KYS).

Click to Order (C2O)

The system used for ordering products that are used by stores but not sold to customers, for example, stationery and food wrapping.

Clip strips

A strip of plastic which hooks on to a shelf to display things customers wouldn’t buy unless they saw it. For example a potato peeler displayed next to potatoes.

Stock control

Clocking card

See T&A card.
People

CMS

Cash management system.

Code 10

A situation when any department in a store (or petrol filling station) is unable to serve customers for any reason, including power cuts and natural disasters.

Coffee operator

A company like Costa or Starbucks who run some of our cafés.

Colleague Clubcard

Staff discount card that entitles staff to a 10% discount when shopping at any Tesco store in the UK or Ireland or with Tesco Direct and Tesco.com. Staff are automatically sent a Colleague Clubcard after six months’ continuous service with Tesco.

Previously known as Privilegecard.
People

Colleague room card

A card which staff in stores can load money onto and use instead of money to buy drinks and confectionery from vending machines. Replaced the cardinal card.

Previously known as colleague room payment card, staffroom card and cardinal card.
People

Colleague shop

Opportunity for in-store staff to take end-of-life products that have not sold, at no cost, in the evenings. Intended to reduce food waste from stores. Usually located in staff reception.

Previously known as the penny shop.
People

Combined service desk

Service desk providing both customer service functions and tobacco/lottery kiosk. Part of the services department, most service desks are of this type.

See also customer service desk (CSD).

Commercial

A head office department responsible for sourcing and ensuring the quality of the products we sell.

Compactor

A piece of equipment to dispose of waste in stores and distribution which is located in the warehouse and feeds the waste into a skip outside.

Compliance

Only to be used when referring to Health and Safety or legal matters. For example, to comply with the law or to comply with health and safety instructions. Compliance should not be used in another context, for example “you must comply with the merchandising guidelines”.

Confidential office

Room back-of-house used for storing confidential records, such as colleague personnel files. Often also used as the managers’ team room.

Consumables

Products that are used by stores, for example, stationery, till rolls and food wrapping, but are not sold to customers.

Continuous replenishment (CR) system

See store ordering system.

Core products

Products that most customers buy every shopping trip, including milk, tea, coffee, eggs, bread, and potatoes.

Core skill

A basic skill everyone in Tesco should have received training on. The core skills training involves the following: emotional cycle of change, effective meeting management, plan do review, roles and accountabilities, rapid action team, root cause analysis and problem solving/team building.

People

Corporate

Corporate should only be used as a noun to name specific departments or areas of the business, for example “Corporate Purchasing Team” or “Corporate and Legal Affairs”. Corporate should not be used as an adjective to describe things, for example a corporate way of doing things.

Corporate discontinuing

When we stop selling a product across the entire business.

See also discontinuing and un-orderable from the supplier.

Corporate Purchasing Team

The team responsible for sourcing and buying the best goods and services (not sold to customers) at the best price.

COSHH

Control of substances hazardous to health. These are government regulations that require employers to assess, control and manage exposure to hazardous substances at work to control risk of injury and ill-health.

People

Cost-benefit analysis

The method of measuring anticipated benefits against anticipated costs.

Countback

Technique used during big seasonal events, mostly for fresh food, when you forecast how much stock you’ll need by comparing last year’s sales with this year’s predicted sales.

Stock control

Count

The process of counting stock.

Stock control

Critical count

A count the system tells you that you have to do, for example, because it has identified an error in the stock records in stores.

Stock control

Critical success factors

The nine behaviours a Tesco leader should demonstrate:

CRST

Commercial ranging support tool. System that allows merchandising and buying teams to range the right products in stores, by communicating with space, range and display team system.

CSLA

Customer Service & Loyalty Assistant. Dotcom role responsible for making customers feel welcome and helping them to understand the service.

Dotcom People

Cube

See shelf capacity.
Stock control

Cubi scan

See case measuring.
Stock control

Customer Assistant (CA)

Job role in stores. Specialised in one department, though likely multiskilled.

See also multiskilling.
People

Customer Assistant pay grade

Pay grade for Customer Assistants in stores and customer fulfilment centres.

Also known as B grade and C grade.
People

Customer assistant menu

Soft-key option on progress tills (labelled Cust. Asst. Menu) to access common functions, such as till pick up.

Customer decision tree

The way that customers decide what they are going to buy. For example, if they are buying baked beans, they will consider different brands at different prices.

Customer Delivery Driver (CDD)

The member of staff responsible for delivering Dotcom orders to customers’ homes using Dotcom vans.

Previously known as Customer Delivery Assistant (CDA).
Dotcom People

Customer fulfilment centre (CFC)

A Tesco store set up solely for picking and delivering Dotcom grocery orders and not open to in-store customers.

Previously known as Dotcom-only store.
Dotcom

Customer question time

A meeting involving customers and staff to get feedback about Tesco and a particular store, often prior to refurbishing a store.

Customer service desk (CSD)

Service desk at the front of the store responsible for helping customers with queries and complaints. Part of the services department.

See also combined service desk.

Customer service desk system

Secondary till system used at the customer service desk to complete a variety of processes, including: processing hardlines, reporting price errors, recording lost property and issuing VAT receipts. Accessed by clicking F11 on a CSD progress till.

Also known as F11.
See also hardline.

Customer service level

See availability measure.
Distribution