Tesco Express. Pic: Edinburgh Greens

 An angry customer’s hilarious online rant has pushed supermarket giant Tesco into taking action, raising the dismal standards of a Tesco express on Kingsland Road in Haggerston.

Hackney resident James Allan, 30, started the Tumblr photoblog Worst Place On Earth at 1am this Tuesday morning, simply out of sheer frustration at the stores security alarm, which he said was going off “every night, all night” and keeping him awake.

The blog went viral in a matter of hours after being highlighted by BuzzFeed and tweeted by celebrities such as comedian Russell Kane.

The site showed pictures of empty shelves, piled up rubbish and unmanned tills to which Allen commented, “Where are the people? Oh that’s right, running around trying to fix the machines” before adding, “this isn’t iRobot.”

The supermarket giant’s social media team were quick to get in touch with Allan, contacting him via Twitter within 12 hours of the blog going live.

Tesco sent the regional manager to the store immediately and a spokesman for the supermarket said: “We are aware of the blog and agree that this store has not met our high standards. We are working with the store to make sure we offer the best possible service for our customers.”

The effect of the interest in the blog has already affected the store, according to the sites readers.

One reader commented: “Walked in this morning and can you adam and eve it, they’ve actually hired a team of staff and the place is full. I actually laughed out loud when I walked around in amazement.”

However, not all are pleased at Tesco’s speedy response to the issues. One person who hunted out the store after reading the blog commented, “I was disappointed, everything was in order and I was expecting chaos.”

Allen, who works at a central London PR company called Mission, has expressed his joy at the changes in store, posting “mission accomplished!” on the blog.