Quinnsworth is remembered for its choice of store sites, its most memorable act was the addition of the phrase Yellow Pack to the retailing lexicon.

Quinnsworth was also remembered for its advertising campaigns featuring its marketing director (and later chief executive) Maurice Pratt, who would personally introduce new product promotions, ending each advert with the company slogan, "That's Real Value".

On 6 May 1997, Tesco acquired the retailing and supply chain operations of Associated British Foods - with the sole exception of Primark - for £643 million.

The changeover was at first relatively slow, with the Quinnsworth and Crazy Prices names continuing to appear on adverts for some time after the launch of the new company identity.

In 2001, Maurice Pratt, who had been the public face of Quinnsworth, left the company to become chief executive of C&C, later taking up a post as chairman of Bank of Scotland (Ireland).

The company opened its first Irish "Tesco Extra" hypermarket at the Clare Hall Shopping Centre in Coolock, north Dublin in 2004, and has also branched into filling stations.

[13][14] Tesco Ireland was one of seven shops fined for failing to display prices properly by the National Consumer Agency in July 2008.

[15] Tesco Ireland decided in 2019 not to make home deliveries in Tallaght due to a anti-social behaviour incidents in the area.

Sheikh Dr Shaheed Satardien, head of the Muslim Council of Ireland, said this was effectively "polluting the minds of impressionable young [Islamic] people with hate and anger towards the Jewish community".

[19] The supermarket refused in 2002 to stock any of the million postcards which were aimed at closing the controversial nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield in Cumbria, in England.

An internal document said that ensuring its policy of taking deliveries directly from UK suppliers went unnoticed and "invisible to the Irish customer" was a key objective.

[24] Tesco used the slogan "Change for Good" as advertising, which is trademarked by Unicef for charity usage but is not trademarked for commercial or retail use which prompted the agency to say "it is the first time in Unicef's history that a commercial entity has purposely set out to capitalise on one of our campaigns and subsequently damage an income stream which several of our programmes for children are dependent on".

[25][26] Large supermarket chains were accused by Fine Gael of putting up to 100,000 Irish jobs at risk by forcing suppliers to pay €160 million a year in "hello money".

A bestseller, which sparked the controversy over the revelation about Sean FitzPatrick's golf meeting with Taoiseach Brian Cowen, was published in secret and distributed directly to Easons and selected bookstores—but not to Tesco or other supermarkets.

[31] In January 2012, a former Tesco employee was awarded damages at the Employment Appeals Tribunal where he claimed there was a link between his dismissal and his HIV status.

[32] In February 2013, it was reported that staff at a Tesco warehouse were made to wear digital arm-band devices that monitor their performance.

[37] The Food Safety Authority of Ireland, has on a number of occasions ordered the recall of Tesco branded products, including a case of glass contamination.

[38][39][40][41] Environmental Health Officers served a closure order on Tesco's store in Prussia Street, Dublin, the day after they inspected it, for a number of breaches of Food Hygiene Regulations.

[42] Most food is imported from Britain, where the BBC's Whistleblower programme showed undercover footage showing the sale of products after their sell-by date; allegations that the company illegally sold 'back-labelled' products after their use by date; falsification of temperature records; and the sale of partially cooked mince mixed with uncooked mince.

[43] In May 2012, it pleaded guilty to selling "gone off" (decayed or rotten) meat[44] and the next month was prosecuted and fined for breaches of consumer law.