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Fresh & Easy's Stateside Flop

Francesca Bessey |
March 21, 2013 | 3:57 p.m. PDT

Executive Producer

The chain has experienced an estimated two billion dollars in losses. (Eurofruit, Asiafruit, and Americafruit, Creative Commons)
The chain has experienced an estimated two billion dollars in losses. (Eurofruit, Asiafruit, and Americafruit, Creative Commons)
Five years after opening up its first Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in California, British supermarket conglomerate Tesco is considering cutting its losses and selling the unproftable grocery store chain.

According to the L.A. Times, Tesco executives were disptached to live with American families, in order to observe their food purchasing and eating habits and revolutionize how Americans did their grocery shopping.

Five years later, however, the 200-store operation spanning California, Arizona and Nevada has experienced an estimated two billion dollars in losses.

The Times cites problems for the chain, including expanding too rapidly, failing to customize merchandise by neighborhood and persistent targeting by labor rights organizers. An email recently sent to Fresh & Easy shoppers said that the grocer does not know "if Tesco will continue to own the company."

 

Read the full story at the L.A. Times.

Reach Executive Producer Francesca Bessey here; follow her here.



 

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