Fresh & Easy!

[ChampJames.]

Hi Guys,

I work for Tesco and I am looking into any possibility of doing a year-or-so in our US company, Fresh & Easy!

I just want to know if anybody has ever visited one? Or what their reputation is over in America?

Obviously I want to enjoy my time over there, if I can go, so want some views first?

Thanks.

[jackass]

I've done about them briefly in Business, and i'm pretty sure that they have had some difficulties integrating into the US due to a heavily saturated market. Despite them having currently having 168 stores, a few have closed/in the process of closing due to the recession in previous months.

These are only the lower grade stores though, not the big superstores raking in the money, so you should be fine over there. They are also very 'green' stores, so i'm pretty sure there reputation is somewhat respectable! I think you'd really enjoy it.

[ChampJames.]

Thanks for the response. Yeh I've read about a few troubles and some stores closing. So do they have big superstores too then? From all the images it looks like they're just convenience type stores.

[Misawa]

The Fresh & Easy launch was a complete and utter failure - blaming the recession was an easy and timely cover: supermarkets actually flourished in that period. No one knows what kind of store they are trying to be. I have a lot of friends in the States and they never mention Tesco USA. Tesco are an awful monopoly of a company, so I doubt they have much of a good rep over there as they do the rest of the world.

Regarding your question, I've no idea, but they'll probably shut down sooner or later.

[ChampJames.]

Thanks for your response, however I disagree that they will close down soon. They're not expanding as quickly as first planned, but have recently bought the suppliers who moved over to the USA at the same time, in order to continue growing. I think the original struggle would be down to a lack of research as tesco have a British man running their USA company, rather than an experienced American.

However, can I now have response from people who live in America, or who know about fresh and easy instead of what they haven't heard off friends.