Debut Could be Tough for Fresh & Easy

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Britain’s largest retailer may not find much of a welcome mat Thursday when it opens its first stores in Southern California, the Los Angeles Times reports.


The first six of what could become hundreds of Tesco’s Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets face a rocky reception in the Southland.


Community organizations plan to protest the lack of stores in poor neighborhoods. A labor-oriented group says it will distribute leaflets discouraging shoppers. And the newcomer’s large, well-entrenched competitors say they are ready for the challenge.

“We have a business to protect and we have a strategy that will protect it,” said Steven Burd, chief executive of Safeway Inc. which owns the Vons and Pavilions chains.

Fresh & Easy is a $2-billion concept that could either revolutionize grocery shopping in California with its Trader Joe’s-sized stores — heavily dependent on house-brand goods and prepared foods — or flame out like previous British forays into the U.S. supermarket industry.

The new effort combines a belief that consumers think shopping at big stores is inconvenient and that the region’s roughly 2,000 supermarkets and ethnic grocers don’t offer enough fresh, healthful food.



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