IntroductionThe use of information technology or information systems has defined the way business is conducted globally over the past few decades. The Internet has led to a high rate of globalization; this is of particular importance for different industries (Reponen 2003). Goods and services can now be offered or sold on a large scale and in various regions around the world. The consequence is the growth of the customer base of many commercial entities, notably supermarkets (Reponen 2003). Due to the scale of the markets, various business entities have found it more practical to adopt the use of information system and information technology to both manage the voluminous customer data and reach out to the global market (Burgess, 2002). This report focuses on the use of information technology/information system in Tesco supermarket. It begins by giving a brief overview of the supermarket and discusses the benefits and challenges that the supermarket faces when using the information system (Burgess, 2002). Description of the Tesco supermarket. The Tesco supermarket was founded by Jack Cohen; he began selling groceries in the End of East London market from 1919. The Tesco brand first appeared in 1924 after Jack Cohen purchased a large volume of tea from TE Stockwell (Blythe 2008). He came up with the name Tesco by choosing the first two letters of TE Stockwell (TE)S from Stockwell; he then combined these letters with the first two letters of his last name (Co) to form Tesco. The first Tesco store was opened in 1929. This was followed by the opening of the first self-service store in 1948 in St Albans. Subsequently, in 1956, the first Tesco supermarket was opened. Tesco Supermarket has since established numerous subsidiaries throughout the paper world. Training technology has helped Tesco Supermarket to establish linkages with its subsidiaries spread across a wide geographical area (Nag & Sengupta 2007). The supermarket has also managed to engage in electronic information exchange with its business partners and customers. The information system allowed the supermarket to reduce the costs of its operations, increase its efficiency and gain the trust and loyalty of its customers. However, Tesco Supermarket has encountered some challenges related to the use of information technology. These challenges are due to, among other factors, system failure and the need to retrain the workforce each time a new technology is introduced. In some cases, these challenges have resulted in reduced profit margins and increased overhead costs. Moreover, during such challenges, the supermarket experiences a slower pace of work (Singh, et al. 2005).