EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Comments to the Sunday Times of London by the head of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Stores here — to the effect that Tesco has been operating under mistaken assumptions in the U.S. — were taken out of context, a chain spokesman told SN yesterday.
“We’ve been very clear from the beginning that Fresh & Easy is continually evolving,” Brendan Wonnacott explained. “Making changes is something we’ve done from the start and will continue to do. That shouldn’t be surprising — that’s just being a good retailer.”
The newspaper had quoted Tim Mason, chief executive officer of Fresh & Easy, as saying, “We may have assumed certain elements of the Fresh & Easy brand would do the work for us, and we would not have to go down and dirty on price. That may have been a mistake.”
According to Wonnacott, “The economic environment has changed immensely over the past several months, [during which] we have heard consistently from our customers that they are more conscious of price, and like any good retailer, we are responding. We rearranged our flier a few months ago to highlight a few key products at great prices. We have simply turned up the volume on price communication so people know we offer high-quality products at great prices.”
Since the onset of the recession, for example, Fresh & Easy has launched a 98-cent produce pack that has helped increase produce sales by more than 11%, Wonnacott said; and it has continued to introduce more national-brand products in its stores and added larger sizes of detergents — all in response to customer requests for help stretching their budgets, he explained.
“We continue to evaluate different categories where we may complement the existing Fresh & Easy product range and help customers make their dollars go even further.”
Read More of Today's Headlines