LOS ANGELES -- Cross-channel encroachment on convenience stores' territory comes not only from within, by the likes of home-improvement retailer Home Depot with its Fuel concept, but also from without, by the likes of British supermarket chain Tesco, which is bringing its c-store concept to U.S. shores with its Fast & Easy concept in California and Arizona. And the West Coast is already the beachhead for Family Mart's Japanese grocery/c-store concept, Famima.
Tesco plans to open at least 100 stores during its first year in southern California, part [image-nocss] of its ambitious plans to expand in the United States, said Reuters, citing the Financial Times.
Quoting an advertisement published by real estate brokers Pacific Retail Partners, the newspaper said Tesco was looking for 14,000 square feet in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties for its planned Fresh & Easy c-stores.
Pacific Retail Partners said it was working with Tesco, but declined to confirm the contents of the advertisement, no longer posted on its website.
As reported in CSP Daily News, Tesco announced in February that it planned to enter the U.S. market through a West Coast c-store format, using a model it has refined in its home market. Using a smaller format, Tesco hopes to avoid the pitfalls that have blighted other European grocery stores seeking to expand in the United States and to avoid a head-to-head with retail giant Wal-Mart, which prefers large edge-of-town or out-of-town outlets.
The paper said Tesco planned to build a distribution center of up to 1.4 million square feet east of Los Angeles, adding that would support 300 or more stores in the competitive south California market. It added that Tesco was also seeking store sites and planning an additional distribution center near Phoenix to support stores there.
Tesco has said it plans to invest up to 250 million pounds ($456.53 million U.S.) a year in its U.S. chain. The first stores are due to open in 2007.
Famima
C-stores in Japan, known there as conbini, are upscale, tech-driven emporiums where customers can buy fresh sushi, book travel packages and order tickets to baseball games, movies and Tokyo Disneyland. Now one of the big Japanese players, Family Mart, is pushing into the United States with that concept.
As reported in CSP Daily News, the company has opened four outlets (without gasoline) in the Los Angeles area under the name Famima and has plans for 200 nationwide by 2009. We are trying to be a premium grocery, quick-service restaurant and convenience store in one, Hidenari Sato, who runs Family Mart's fledgling U.S. operation, told Newsweek magazine. But we don't want the image of the gas-and-snack convenience store that America is used to.
Newsweek visited the Famima store in West Hollywood, Calif. Wide aisles are neatly stocked with organic instant oatmeal, expensive artisanal teas and French stationery, alongside c-store staples like diapers and dog food. A huge prepared-foods section displays ready-made sushi, crab cakes and dishes like beef with curry sauce, that, to be honest, looked better than they tasted in a recent sampling. Customers can also take advantage of the digital photo-enlarging services.
Sato said the store targets people between 21 and 44 whose household incomes top $80,000.
The Japanese face tough hurdles in the crowded U.S. market, said the report. But they believe their edge lies in their mastery of information technology, which, at least at first, will be used mainly behind the scenes for managing inventory and tracking customer preferences. Family Mart is surveying its American customers to gauge interest in the sort of in-store web services it offers in Japanincluding a system that enables customers worried about identity theft to use cash instead of credit cards to pay for online services.
In the meantime, U.S. customers will have to settle for smiling faces behind the cash registers, soothing light and rigorous cleanliness, the report said. Family Mart actually turned away applicants for U.S. managerial jobs who said they would not clean toilets with the rest of the employees. We believe that everyone must be equally committed to offering hospitality to our customers, Family Mart executive Takehiko Kigure told the magazine.
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