As it prepares for its U.S. arrival in the coming months, global retail giant Tesco should live up to its promises regarding worker relations, the environment and access for lower-income consumers, according to a report issued Thursday in Los Angeles.
Researchers at the Occidental College Urban and Environmental Policy Institute issued a detailed, 64-page report on the potential social and economic impacts of the U.K. retailer's upcoming Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market grocery stores.
"Tesco has been especially adept at marketing itself as a socially responsible corporation," said Robert Gottlieb, a professor of urban and environmental policy at Occidental who heads the institute.
However, Gottlieb said, researchers' examination of the retailer's track record shows "significant gaps" between its promises for its upcoming U.S. stores and how it attained its position as one of the world's largest multinational operations.
The institute's report calls on Tesco to use more full-time rather than part-time workers, promote unionization and offer better pay and benefits. It also recommends that the retailer put more stores in lower-income neighborhoods and purchase more locally grown and produced products in the areas it serves.
Gottlieb said Tesco's existing buy-local and pro-worker policies in the U.K., where its employees are unionized, have already prompted its European competitors to make positive changes, which could also happen in the United States if those same actions are taken.
In a prepared statement issued Thursday afternoon, Tim Mason, CEO of Fresh & Easy, said Tesco officials had not yet reviewed the Occidental report in detail. But he said the company would "welcome the opportunity" to prove to customers that it will serve all communities and be a good environmental steward.
"Our employees, all of whom we intend will work more than 20 hours per week, will be compensated well above the minimum wage and receive a competitive rewards package that includes health care, a quarterly bonus and other benefits," Mason said.
Tesco, which researchers said has a 31 percent share of the U.K. grocery market, plans to open about 100 of its new U.S. neighborhood markets in the coming year, with 300 or more eventually planned in California, Nevada and Arizona.
Tesco officials have said stores will begin opening later this fall, with about 30 to be up and running by the end of 2007. Its western U.S. stores will be served by an 820,400-square- foot distribution center under construction off Interstate 215 near Riverside, which Tesco officials say will be operating by fall.
While it has not announced its exact Inland locations, Tesco has submitted development plans or applied for state liquor licenses for at least 18 locations in 12 Inland cities.
According to city officials, Tesco's plans for three Moreno Valley sites are under various phases of review, and the retailer is examining additional sites in the eastern part of that city. Riverside officials recently approved plans for a Fresh & Easy in the Orangecrest Towne Center, and the retailer and city are in discussions on a proposed store at Arlington Avenue and Madison Street.
Even as it recently announced its San Diego and Los Angeles locations, Tesco has been mostly silent on pricing and product offerings. But the new stores will range from 10,000 to 15,000 square feet -- about the size of a Trader Joe's -- and offer a mix of prepared and ready-to-cook foods, including basic grocery staples.
