When Tesco was planning its foray into the US grocery market five years ago, the unlovely box of a building it took over in Hemet, in the far eastern suburbs of Los Angeles near the Mojave desert, seemed the embodiment of everything it hoped to achieve.
The plan was that Fresh & Easy, the brand Tesco launched in America, would spearhead economic revival in a ruggedly unfashionable stretch of exurban boulevard known mostly for its panhandlers and streetwalkers. The closest competitor was a couple of miles away.
At the same time, Tesco would put itself on the map across the western United States, its chosen market, as a new force to be reckoned with.
It has not worked out that way. Fresh & Easy has since dropped its plans to move into California's "food deserts": mostly struggling communities without easy access to food stores. The fanfare the company hoped for became an impossibility as the economy first faltered, then melted down in late 2008.
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