British retailer Tesco plans to open store in poor Los Angeles neighborhood

British supermarket giant Tesco PLC plans to capitalize on the critical need for grocery stores in South Los Angeles by opening a Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in the economically depressed area.

It will be one of about 50 stores the chain intends to open in three western U.S. states by the end of the year.

Tesco expects to do good business in the area of Los Angeles that other retailers have abandoned as economic quicksand.

Major U.S. supermarket chains had promised to open more than 30 new stores in South Los Angeles, which was ravaged by the 1992 riots, to spark economic development and provide cheap and healthy alternatives to fast food. The promise was never kept.

While the site of the South Los Angeles store has not been finalized, Tesco chief marketing officer Simon Uwins said he was confident it would open with others in San Diego, Phoenix and Las Vegas before 2008.

Tesco's stores will offer gourmet-prepared foods along with staples such as milk, bread and organic meat and vegetables. The company's Web site says the stores will be environmentally friendly, using solar panels and specially designed freezers to reduce emissions.

The opening of another healthy market would not cause many people to look up from their plate of balsamic-drizzled heirloom tomatoes in wealthier parts of Los Angeles already saturated with Trader Joe's and Whole Foods outlets.

But South Los Angeles residents, who overwhelmingly shop at smaller, more expensive corner markets and discount stores, have clamored for more mainstream supermarkets for decades.

Music store clerk She'ra Randle, 24, applauded Tesco's willingness to invest in her neighborhood. Aside from easing the dearth of food options, the new market will highlight the area's economic potential to other retailers, she said.

"We've had a lack of big companies being around," she said. "It will show people we are moving in some kind of positive direction."

Amanda Shaffer, author of a 2002 report titled "The Persistence of L.A.'s Grocery Gap," said bringing healthy meat and produce to "food deserts" like South Los Angeles benefits everyone.

"People suffering from diet-related illnesses because they don't have a healthy diet affect everyone's taxes and health care costs," said Shaffer, a researcher at Occidental College's Urban and Environmental Policy Institute.

"I think that's why Tesco has gotten such a warm welcome. People are just so excited and happy that some supermarket is coming in," she said.

Shaffer said Tesco has a mixed record in poor communities outside the U.K. Her research found that some large Tesco operations in other countries faced criticism similar to Wal-Mart in the U.S.

Such superstores on the outskirts of cities that offer discount goods have siphoned bargain-hunters from neighborhoods and forced the closure of smaller retailers unable to compete, she said.

Tesco has more than 1,800 stores in the U.K. But less than 20 are part of its "Regeneration Partnership" _ its campaign to open stores in low-income areas, according to the company Web site.

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