British food retailer Tesco is facing one of its first major setbacks in opening one of its Fresh & Easy stores, as the city of Van Nuys has denied the market a permit to sell liquor.
The decision came after a local watchdog group complained of over-saturation of liquor licenses in the Los Angeles community. Fresh & Easy spokesman Brendan Wonnacott said the denial has forced the El Segundo-based grocery chain to “try to figure out” what to do next.
He confirmed one option could be to scrap plans for that location, one of about 200 proposed in the California, Arizona and Nevada. So far, Fresh & Easy has opened six markets in Orange County.
In the meantime, Wonnacott confirmed London media reports that it is bringing in an American-born executive to beef up its fledgling United States supermarket operation. The move comes as industry insiders and analysts claim that Fresh & Easy stores are not meeting sales expectations set by the British giant.
Jeff Adams, currently Chief executive of Tesco’s Lotus grocery stores in Thailand, is transferring to California to “strengthen” the Fresh & Easy executive team, Wonnacott said. It has not been determined what title Adams will hold, he added.
Related Fresh & Easy stories:
- Fresh & Easy’s first 100 days off to rocky start
- Comments: Readers rant and rave about Fresh & Easy
- Wal-Mart planning Fresh & Easy copycat
- Profile: Tesco set to open Fresh & Easy concept in Southern California
I wonder who the “local watchdog group” was and who funds them.
Anecdotally I see traffic picking up when I’m at the F&E in Orange.
The name of the group is Alliance For Healthy & Responsible Grocery Stores. Sorry, I should have given the group’s full name.
Nancy,
That is a shell organization funded by these groups:
Action for Grassroots Empowerment and Neighborhood Development Alternatives (AGENDA)
Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE)
Coalition for Clean Air
Plaza Community Center, INC.
Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO
Coalition L.A.
Community Health Council
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance
California Food and Justice Coalition
Community Coalition
Instituto de Popular Educación del Sur de California (IDEPSCA)
UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education
Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates
L.A. Voice PICO
Livable Places
Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy
Iraq Veterans Against the War
Community Services Unlimited, Inc.
Service Employees International Union MFTS
Northeast Democratic Club of Los Angeles
United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770
West Los Angeles Democratic Club
Alliance for Democracy- L.A. chapter
Urban and Environmental Policy Institute - Occidental College
California Association of Professional Employees
Community Services Unlimited, Inc.
Service Employees International Union MFTS
Northeast Democratic Club
and most important:
United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770
During the last strike I didn’t cross a picket line. Not once. I support the union. But this is a straight up attack on F&E by the union. This Alliance For Healthy & Responsible Grocery Stores organization has one objective and one only - attack and obstruct F&E.
I can’t know for sure, but I think it’s because the F&E employees have better wages, benifits, and work rules than the UFCW members do under that really super contract that they negoiated a couple of years back.
no vaseline:
i work at tj’s and am studying the grocery industry for my degree.
actually F&E pays similar to starting post at union (or tj’s or whole foods or starbucks for that matter), not better, but the benefits are a lot more expensive than if you’re a union worker (especially if you have a family).
also, F&E has no published retirement benefits where tj’s, whole foods, and union grocers all have pretty decent retirement packages if you work there as a career (i.e. over 5-7 years in most cases).
also, most F&E employees only get around 20 hours a week, whereas most grocery workers get more like 35-40.