Tesco is one of the most successful grocery chains in the world. The store is based in the UK but has recently ventured into the U.S. market. Tesco has created Fresh and Easy Supermarket stores that are a close relative of a Tesco Express in the UK.

These stores are modeled on the idea that they are smaller in size than your average grocery store, but provide someone the opportunity to quickly run in and out while still receiving quality items. Most are found in busy city centers and shopping centers in residential areas. According to Tesco, “Our Express stores offer customers great value, quality and fresh food close to where they live and work. We opened our first Express store in 1994. They sell a range of up to 7,000 products including fresh produce, wines and spirits and in-store bakery.”

The concept of Tesco Express may be a big hit in the UK where the number of stores is currently over 800, but in the U.S. Fresh and Easy markets have been struggling.

For this blog I have decided to look at demographics in London and compare them to the Tesco Express locations throughout the major city. The type of demographic that is prevalent in areas in London that have a high amount of Tesco Express locations might be able to give us a idea of how to decide which cities in the U.S. might be the right location for Fresh and Easy markets to be established.

The map above is a dataset that I have created on Finder! that I have called Tesco Express Density. This basically is the area of the Borough divided by the number of Tesco locations that are located within the Borough. A darker color indicates a higher rate which indicates that more Tesco Express’s are fund within the Borough than other Boroughs. After looking at different demographics of the area, I have come to the conclusion that these darker colored boroughs exhibit some similar trends.

I put together and mapped the following demographic datasets:

• Office for National Statistics, Socio-Economic Classification Populations by Boroughs, London, 2001
• Office for National Statistics, Population Density by Borough, London, 2001
• Office for National Statistics, Weekly Income: Model-Based Estimates at MSOA level by Borough, London, 2001
• Office for National Statistics, 18 to 30 year old populations by Borough, London, 2001
• Office for National Statistics, Hours worked (range) by Borough, London, 2001

I then looked at the five boroughs that have the highest Tesco Express Density and compared their demographics with the other boroughs throughout London. The ranges of the top 5 boroughs exhibited somewhat similar trends in the above categories. All five boroughs placed in the upper third of the following categories:

• Highest percentage of residents with lower managerial and professional occupations
• Population Density
• Weekly Household Incomes
• Percentage of residents who worked between 49 and 59 hours
• Age range between 18-30

Below are demographic maps for population density (first) and percentage of residents working between 49 and 59 hours (second). The two maps are somewhat similar to the Tesco Density map that is posted earlier:

From the gathered information on London Borough demographics and Tesco Express Density it seems that Fresh and Easy Supermarkets will be best suited in areas with high populations of young, successful people that have little time to shop because they work long hours.

Fresh and Easy Supermarkets are currently located throughout California, Arizona, and Nevada. They have had little success where they currently are. Using the results from Finder! and Maker!, new locations can be determined when looking at demographics throughout major cities in the U.S.. Finder! currently has demographic data for several major cities in the U.S.. One such dataset that could be used is: CTPP, Hours Worked per Week by Residence, Houston Texas, 2000. This dataset could be used to look for places in Houston that might be a location for a Fresh and Easy Supermarket to be located.

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