Attack of the Tescos
I grew up in Los Altos, a suburban part of Long Beach, California. In my childhood Los Altos consisted of streets and avenues full of single-storey 1950s homes that were accommodated by an uncovered shopping mall and Hiram's grocery store, which was situated on the corner of Palo Verde Avenue and Spring Street. As I grew up Hiram's was eventually taken over by Lucky Supermarkets, while another supermarket called Alpha Beta appeared kitty corner, and eventually on a third corner of the same intersection National Lumber was erected.
After being away for a number of years I wasn't too surprised to discover on a visit that Lucky had become an Albertsons supermarket, Alpha Beta had transmogrified into a Spring Farms supermarket, and National Lumber had joined the supermarket glut by turning into a Stater Brothers. Fair enough -- change happens.
But I was a bit shocked to learn from a friend that one of Britain's Big 4 supermarket chains, Tesco, is infiltrating not just America but my childhood neighbourhood with their new line of Fresh and Easy Neighbourhood Markets. Yes, they have knocked Spring Farms out of the competition and set up shop at Palo Verde and Spring, only a few metres away from my old high school and a mere 1.3 miles from the house where I was raised.
The opening of this new Los Altos Tesco is to be followed in a matter of days by 5 more Fresh and Easy openings, which seems like extremely rapid expansion to me. When I checked out the Tesco website I discovered to my surprise that their first US store opened in November in Hemet, California, an inland town 90 miles from Los Angeles where my grandparents, as well as many other grandparents, lived in trailer parks when I was young. Now that Hemet has expanded into a thriving metropolis of 66,000, I suppose it seemed an appropriate launch pad for a viral explosion of Tescos, as in 4 short months 50 Fresh and Easys have opened in Southern California, Las Vegas, and Phoenix, Arizona. And next year there are plans to open 19 more in and around Sacramento, discreetly infiltrating the California seat of government with their stocks of baked beans, crumpets, and Marmite. Can the Terminator stop this? I doubt it...
It was only last year that the citizens of my local Sheffield neighbourhood succeeded in stopping Tesco from moving in. Commonside was adequately supplied with a corner shop and a Co-Op, with several other small shops and news agents within walking distance and a large Tesco just down the hill. When Tesco announced its plans to install a shop on an abandoned corner previously home to a petrol station, a petition was quickly drawn up against it. In one of many recent examples of the strength of ordinary Brits against Tesco, we won!
And to think that my Southern Californian mother may be doing her weekly shopping at Tesco...
SUNDAY UPDATE: I read in yesterday's Guardian that the Fresh and Easy chain is in trouble, missing sales targets by 70%. So their plans to open 1000 outlets all over the western United States may be in trouble. Locals in Los Angeles have described the Fresh and Easy “convenience stores” as too middle-market, eg. not cheap but not gourmet, while the self-serve checkout machines turn a lot of customers off.
On second thought, I doubt my mother will be shopping there much.
