The British are leaving, the British are leaving!
Fresh & Easy stores in California and beyond will soon be sold or closed, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
Owned by Britain's Tesco, the 199-market grocery chain never quite caught on with American consumers.
Analysts said the recession was partly to blame -- Fresh & Easy debuted in California, Nevada and Arizona in 2007, just as the economy was tanking. But, ultimately, shoppers didn't warm to the concept.
"Though it attracted a small group of loyalists, Fresh & Easy largely failed to capture the imagination of American consumers who proved unaccustomed to British-style ready meals, self-service cash registers and unfamiliar store layouts," the Journal said.
Tesco's CEO told the paper: "It's likely, but not certain, that our presence in America will come to an end."
Offers to buy all or part of the chain are already trickling in, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
In Orange County, Fresh & Easy's locations include Lake Forest, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Hills, Seal Beach, Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley and Westminster.
Yes, and in mom and pop owned/family stores, owned and operated by a family, everyone gets their "fantastic" benefits. Which is why small mom and pop stores remain small and not become a large chain. Not enough family members to run large chains. Not enough profits and benefits for everyone else to start working there. Unless you are Trader Joe's. "Maybe if enough people do it the large chains will come back to their senses and stop ripping off the consumers." Indeed, it is something executives of large chains do not understand while they are making millions in compensation. All they have to do is starve the register punchers, and pass the savings on to the customer. That'll work. What we need is a real race to the bottom.
Jobs were always supposed to be compensated based on the education and skill level needed for said job. Let's face it. One doesn't have to be a rocket scientist to punch a register. Somebody with a GED could easily do the job. The fact that a register puncher at a big unionized chain store makes $25-$30 an hour while a convenience store (non-union) register puncher only makes $9 an hour shows who the kings and queens are in our society and what a disparity we have. If a register puncher wants to make more money than $9 an hour then go get more education and do a job that requires a higher skill level and attracts a higher compensation. This is the logical way the world should work, Fred. It's called 'equity' and 'fairness' in the workplace.
Several years later, a Lake Forest Patch reporter uncovers that they built the grocery store structure on a haunted Native American burial ground. Any business that opens up there was doomed to fail.
All the F&E's in California are packing up and moving out. Were they all built on burial ground? heh. (Oh, I know. You were being funny). To me it's obvious. At F&E fresh salmon would probably cost me $8/pound. I can buy fresh salmon (right off the boat) at the asian stores for $2.50/pound. Why would a little independent asian market with limited ability to store inventory and buy in super large quantities be able to sell salmon @ $2.50/Ib. while the big boys charge us $8/lb. or more, Mr Friedrich, in a business with tight margins? Use your imagination, Mr. Friedrich.
I'll miss the size and convenience, but not products.
LOL! In the olden days, they'd suck you through the TeeVee or just burn the place down.
Chance
Just prior to Thanksgiving I had performed multiple searches in the local South County area and couldn't find any that were close by. One store that continually made the top of the search had recently closed. I would really appreciate someone sharing with me the locations of any around here~as I only hear good things about quality of the food and prices. Thank you in advance for your suggestions
Andromeda, nice way to throw in a 'race card' when relating your experience at such a specialty store. Did you happen to consider the demographics of the adjacent neighborhoods as you observed the customers?
It's amazing that we pay so little for food here, people have no idea how easy we have it.