Fresh & Easy : spin cycle

Tesco has attached some numbers to the Fresh & Easy rollout in the U.S. Here is some coverage (and unavoidable spin) found on the Web:

Fresh & Easy reports $135 million in sales From AZcentral.com

Wonnacott said his stores' "sales densities are building well" and have average weekly sales of $11 per square foot. "Our best stores are now running at more than $25 per square foot," he said.

Grocery analysts and Britain's Tesco PLC, Fresh and Easy's parent company, say a typical U.S. grocery store averages $9 to $10 in weekly sales per square foot during the first year of operations.

"I would say they are hitting the target," said Jim Hertel, managing partner at Willard Bishop, a food-retailing consulting firm in Chicago that has studied the small grocery trend in Phoenix.

Tesco encouraged by progress at Fresh & Easy From IGD Retail

Tesco also reiterated that its fresh food focused strategy and private label products have been well received by customers. Sales of fresh food and Fresh & Easy branded goods represent 60% and 72% of total sales respectively


PP

One thing that did come out from the report is that Tesco owes a lot of people, including the Pundit, an apology.


TK: Being a dominant world retailer means never having to say you are sorry, so naysayers may never get their apology even if they were more right than wrong about Fresh & Easy.