The Food Scout

Some people call Boston Market a failure. I call it an inspiration, because it got a lot of complacent grocery store chains to start building instore prepared foods programs in the mid-90s. Many of those programs weren't that great, but it was a step in the right direction. The same goes with Dream Dinners and all those struggling meal assembly stores out there today (435 units and shrinking, according to one source). Ultimately, they may go belly up, but they continue to point to a meal preparation need that is going unfulfilled with consumers that supermarkets need to address (witness Publix' Aprons concept). A year ago, Tesco's Fresh & Easy hit the ...

Okay, so Fresh & Easy doesn’t cut the mustard for me, and I don’t think it’s going to revolutionize grocery after all, perhaps because it’s too American (except for the major private label part). But it’s not just Tesco that’s evidently bringing British-style, fresh products to the American market. It’s America’s biggest coffeehouse chain.

On a recent trip to Los Angeles I had a chance to experience firsthand the British invasion on the West Coast that started last November in the form of Tesco’s Fresh & Easy grocery concept (See “The British are Coming”). I also had a chance to experience a quiet American-led counter-revolution being waged by Starbucks that actually, possibly unintentionally, is aimed right at the market that Tesco hopes to exploit.

Considering the monster popularity of energy beverages (a $3.2 billion category last year) like SoBe and Red Bull, it was only a matter of time before packaged goods companies started dipping their toes -- or their chips, that is -- into caffeine and other stimulating ingredients. Witness the already prolific gum & candy category, including Jolt, Blitz, Penguin, and Stay Alert gums, Buzz Bites energy chews, Javapops, Bawls Mints, and various brands of chocolate-covered espresso beans, like Crackheads. But until recently, these were the only solid caffeine/energy hit sources (complete with gritty aftertaste), unless you were interested in rubbing it on your lips via Spazzstick lip balm or rubbing it on via Shower Shock Caffeinated Body Wash (no, I’m not making this up).

Well, the British are attacking the West Coast, staking claim to corner after corner of property, but there seems to be little mention of it in the mass media. Mark my words, Tesco’s new Fresh & Easy concept, which is now opening in Calif., Nev., and N.M. in the next couple of months, will have the revolutionary effect on the retail food industry that Boston Market and Starbucks have had in the past 15 years. And it will be covered in the mass media some day - possibly when it’s too late for anyone to do something about it, though.