Tesco coming to the States

I would not have thought this a very good idea, but then I noticed that "Tesco has a knack for playing Johnny foreigner and making a meal of it. The chain boasts operations in 12 Eastern European and South East Asian countries. International units account for 20% of all its sales." If you want to make a jump into a savvy but relatively less-regulated and lower-taxed environment, I suppose you could do worse than the U.S. -- maybe California looks like a regulatory paradise compared to the U.K. (?) Is the convenience store model a foot in the door to test and then bring in the supermarket model? It'll be interesting to watch, that's for sure . . .

Westward Ho! Leahy's Tesco Heads To The U.S.

Go west young man. It's been a long time coming, but the chief executive of Britain's biggest supermarket has finally put rumors to rest that Tesco is heading, saddles blazing, into U.S. territory. CEO Terry Leahy announced that the new terrain would be filled with wealthy go-getters who thrive on convenience, a place where arch rival Wal-Mart Stores is said to be comparatively underrepresented. It is of course, the west coast. Leahy said that starting next year, Tesco would be opening a chain of convenience stores in the area, similar to its Express chain in the U.K. [my emphasis]