Tesco goes for the ultimate check-out

YOU can shop there for your groceries. You can buy clothes, cutlery and cosmetics. Tesco offers just about all life's necessities.

But now Britain's largest supermarket group is negotiating a deal that would allow shoppers to make plans for death.

The retail giant is in talks with the Co-op, Britain's largest group of undertakers, to allow Tesco shoppers to use points built up through the supermarket's Clubcard loyalty scheme to help meet their funeral expenses.

Tesco refuses to confirm the negotiations, but Steve McArdle, who puts together deals for holdersof Tesco Clubcards, said: 'You can see why putting Clubcard points towards a big expenditure such as a funeral makes sense.'

A Tesco survey of 3,000 Clubcard holders showed that more than half would like to be able to use accumulated points to help pay off their mortgages.

And almost 10% said they would be interested in using the points to pay funeral expenses.

McArdle said: 'We are looking into ways of making this a reality. We hope we're going to be able to do a deal on funerals later this year.'

Co-op Funeralcare handles about 85,000 funerals a year. The group is in dispute with staff over a 3.5% pay offer. Unions trying to secure an increase on the basic wage of £12,000 a year are to ballot for strike action.