Despite using every trick in the book to get maximum publicity for the new Tesco Extra in Oxford Road, opening day fell a little flat as offers of free champagne failed to garner the new store front page coverage in the local press.

Tesco had high expectations after seeing that donating a dizzying £1,000 of the £42m cost of the development to a local charity and a pledge from local MP Martin Salter that he was going to dump Waitrose in favour of the global behemoth had provided a month long supply of free publicity. However, despite such a masterful campaign, a single column item on page three was all that the marketing budget had to show for itself on opening day.

Store manager Jez Butwell hid his disappointment, but promised to pull the situation out of the fire in time for the Tuesday editions. Minutes later the store was evacuated when alarm bells rang as frenzied hacks fought amongst themselves to cover the story and smoked bacon was reduced by 20% for one day only.

More on the new store opening tomorrow on page one, two, three, five, seven, sixteen and seventeen. And don't forget the free pullout on Wednesday.