carcajou

What was Tesco's point of differentiation with the other supermarkets in the US?

I never went into a US-one.

The ones I go to in Europe, all seem wholly interchangeable with American or Australian chain supermarkets, or Carrefour in the Middle East.

Daily vs weekly shopper seems weird, it's all the same stuff.

The US grocery scene is cut-throat and customers get very loyal, and the market can fragment along regional lines with local quirks (Florida, for instance, is famously difficult for companies of all sorts to crack - Publix is one of the few that have done it, and they've become something of a state icon). If they were undercapitalised and tried to go national right away it would have been tough going.

AdobePinon

scrubbedexpat091

Canada is only marginally better.

They did get the $1 dollar coin to work, and eventually brought the $2 coin, and of course was able to successfully remove the penny from use.
Tipping isn't going anywhere though, even in a couple years when servers will be making the same min wage as any other min wage worker, I bet tipping will still persist.
There is controversy around self check out's, they exist but if stores try to push them too hard they get negative press, so cashiers still exist in most stores.
We don't have an issue with chip and pin though
Cash is still popular with low income folks that can't get credit or bank accounts.
Cheques, don't know any store that takes them, but they are still popular when it comes to paying rent.

robtuck

The card technology issue is not about human interaction, but more to do with the fragmented retail, banking and card processing industries in the USA combined with who picks up the tab on fraud. It's why Chip and Signature was allowed rather than PIN in many cases, because the banks could produce the cards for less money than having to add the costs of distributing PIN's when most of their fraud loss is not from people using stolen cards. The costs to transition the entire country was something like $7bn to full Chip and PIN. Then you have to upgrade it all again for contactless. No one part of the industry had a compelling reason to change - it's other countries placing pressure on Visa/Mastercard that has started to shift the game more recently (the magnetic strip is only really needed for USA transactions, so banks, processors and retailers are keen to get rid of that cost if they can).

It was fun going back at Christmas and having to present a Chip enabled card and having to advise the member of staff that it will print out a receipt for me to sign. Some had never seen it before!

Pulaski

Yes, that's always fun - last Christmas I even had one or two people who tried to tell me, after I told them that it would create a paper receipt, that it wouldn't print a paper receipt. But certainly as I ventured out into the wilds of Worcestershire and Shropshire, far beyond where Americans normally travel, my card certainly surprised and entertained a few people!

scrubbedexpat091

I hate the zip code thing the gas stations use in the US, few in my experience will take a Canadian card because of that, some can be tricked but they are getting smarter...lol

Giantaxe

It's a joke anyway. The vast majority of purchasers are using one of a few local zip codes, so it's hardly difficult for a thief to guess.

Steerpike

Surely the UK vs US fridge size (and to a lesser extent) overall kitchen size must have a bearing on this? In the UK you are somewhat forced to buy smaller batches more frequently. I've been staying with my brother and mum over in UK several times over the past 12 months and I'm always shocked at how small their fridges are. It's a good job people in UK don't like cold beverages 'cos there's no room to put anything in the fridge! My beverage of choice these days is sparkling water, and I like it 'fridge-cold' but without ice; no chance of that in UK. Today I was at Sprouts and bought 3 1-gallon cartons of milk, because the particular 'type' I like (organic, lactose free, 2%) is not always in stock so I buy it when I see it. I was at Costco the other day and picked up a couple of racks of lamb, even though I have no specific plan to eat them ... because I know I can just toss them in the cavernous fridge and let them sit for a while (they are vacuum packed and last several weeks).

In AZ and CA, I don't think 'any' of the produce is available in plastic bags; it's all loose and you pick just what you want. I'm sure there are some 'bagged' stuff, but it's certainly not the most predominant by any means. Actually, the cauliflower is always in a bag ...

I LOVE pictures of produce like that Food Porn ....

The fresh and easy near me was NEVER that busy!!!

The 7-Eleven's around me in CA are dodgy places, mainly selling lots of beer and milk. If they do sell produce, I wouldn't want to eat it! They also seem to pride themselves on selling rather hideous looking hot dogs and such. Walgreens out west are a strange phenomenon indeed - they are popping up everywhere, in high-end areas, and I can't figure out why. They are basically a pharmacy, with lots of cosmetics and row-upon-row of medications, etc, and then aisles of weird stuff like pool toys and beach goods. A few sell produce but again, I wouldn't even think of buying any there. Dollar General - don't think we have those.

I'd say F&E was really just a smaller scale grocery store. I went there for one thing only - shepherds pie! They were also pioneering 'self checkout only' ; lots of stores are now doing self-checkout as an alternative, but F&E gave you no choice.

I like the analogy with TJ's - best analogy so far. For some reason, I always feel happy to be in TJs even though I don't go very often, but I never got that feeling in the F&E's. TJ's has a 'hippie' / organic / quality vibe, while F&E had an 'austere' / cheap / utilitarian vibe.

Steerpike

Wow, had to google that one! https://sf.curbed.com/2019/3/20/1827...allie-brown-sf Interesting.

scrubbedexpat091

The photo of the Fresh & Easy was on opening day, one of the first stores to open, I am sure the crowd is mostly due to the novelty factor of it being new, the one I went to a few times was a ghost town.

I can't say for the rest of the US, but So. California people have always for the most part been loyal to whatever grocery chain they prefer making it hard for new arrivals to break into the market.

That location is now a Walgreens and its busy and seems to do well.