Vocal Cast of Critics and Advocacy Groups to Attend Tesco's Annual General Meeting On Friday, June 27

Joseph Hanson, the Washington, D.C-based president of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, which represents 1.3 million American supermarket industry workers, including those working at the major chains in the U.S. states of California, Nevada and Arizona where Tesco has its 61 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market grocery stores, will be attending Tesco's three hour Annual General Meeting (AGM) on June, 27, according to the union.

UFCW spokesman Michael Bride says the U.S. supermarket clerks' union has requested several meetings with Tesco's senior exectutives, which they've thus far declined. Therefore, Bride says union president Hanson and some of his aids have decided to show up at the Tesco AGM, which we be held at the UK Birmingham Motorcycle Museum this year, "in order to get their voice heard."

"We're using the AGM as one opportunity to let the various stakeholders know about our strong desire to work with the company (Tesco on union issues in the U.S. with Fresh & Easy)," says union spokesman Bride.

As we wrote about here on June 4, the UFCW has launched a major campaign, with a member of Britain's Parliament (MP) on its side, in the UK, which is designed to bring pressure on Tesco to come to the table and meet with union leaders in order to discuss unionization of the retailer's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market chain in the U.S.

This campaign comes on the heels of various ongoing UFCW organizing activities in the U.S. states of California, Nevada and Arizona, where the Fresh & Easy stores are located, that the UFCW has been conducting since the first of the small-format grocery stores opened in November, 2007. [You can read some of our coverage of those activities here.]

Fresh & Easy Buzz has learned the UFCW-UK Tesco campaign group plans to hold a press conference outside the annual meeting on June 27, as well as maintain a presence out front of the Motorcycle Museum, site of the meeting, all day with pickets and protestors urging Tesco to meet with union president Hanson.

Tesco's public position is the UFCW is free to organize its Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA store-level employees per-U.S. labor laws, saying the decision to join or not join the union is the workers' choice.

The retailer hasn't offered any public statement as to why its refused to meet in a corporate capacity with the union's leaders and isn't required to do so by any U.S. labor law.

The American UFCW union won't be the only Tesco critic or advocacy group attending this years AGM on June 27. Far from it.

As we reported in this series of stories two weeks ago, UK chef and animal rights activist Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has placed a formal, written shareholder resolution on the agenda for the AGM. The resolution, if approved by shareholders, would force Tesco to change its current chicken welfare policy for the produced-in-the-UK chickens it sells in its stores.

The resolution if passed would no longer allow Tesco to sell "cheap chickens," which are birds raised in small battery cages, also called intensive chicken farming.


Tesco sells free-range and free-range organic chickens in its stores alongside the cheaper intensively-farmed birds. However, like at all supermarkets, the free-range and free-range organic chickens cost much more per pound. Tesco is famous in the UK for being the originator and biggest seller of the ~1.99 (British pound) per-Lb. chicken, which is in the price range most middle and lower income British consumers can afford.

If passed, Fearnly-Whittingstall's shareholder resolution could put Tesco at a serious competitive disadvantage when it comes to chicken selling vis-a-vis its food retailing competitors in the UK, as the resolution applies only to Tesco, leaving the other supermarket chains like Wal-Mart-owned Asda, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Aldi and others to sell the cheaper chickens, which comprise the vast majority of birds purchased in UK supermarkets by British consumers, although sales of free-range birds is growing.

Foodie and chicken welfare advocate Fearnly-Whittingstall has become at master at public relations behind the chicken welfare issue and his shareholder resolution, generating tons of press and publicity in the UK's newspapers and on television about the resolution to be voted on at the AGM on June 27.

In fact, we've learned he will be gearing up that PR media machine for the Tesco AGM, bringing a group of supporters with him, along with his own television crew, to record and broadcast the day's events.

Fearnley-Whittingstall also has lined up some afinity groups to support him and his shareholder resolution. These groups include The UK's RSPCA animal right organization, who's chicken welfare guidlines Tesco says it adheres to, and the animal welfare group Compassion for World Farming, which says it will hold a major protest or action outside the Motorcycle Museum while the AGM goes on inside.

Additionally, the chef/chicken welfare activist has lined up the support of UK institutional shareholder advisory group PIRC, which advises the UK's public sector pension funds--government, schools and the like--on corporate ethics and governance issues. The PIRC is advising public sector pension funds that hold Tesco PLC shares to vote in favor of Hugh Fearnley-Whittisnstall's Tesco chicken welfare resolution.

Despite this coalition of support, the word on the street in the UK is that the chef/chicken welfare activist's shareholder resolution is likely to fail at the June 27 AGM because the majority of institution and major indivisual investors, who hold the majority of votes, will vote against it.

However, there is some concern within Tesco, as well as with its major investors, that with the PIRC on board, along with the growing popularity Fearnley-Whittingstall has generated for the chicken welfare issue and his resolution in the UK, that although it isn't likely there will be enough votes to pass the resolution, there could be enough votes to create significant embarrasment and negative publicty for Tesco on the issue.

Competitors like Wal-Mart-owned Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons has been very low-key on the issue, although they are privately relishing it a bit, according to UK industry analysts. However, since all three are publicly held companies, and subject to the same UK law which allows such shareholder resolutions, they know they could be next.

In addition to the UFCW union and Hugh Fearnly Whittigstall, and their supporters, a number of other groups plan to attend the June 27 AGM to voice their respective criticisims and points of advocacy regarding various Tesco practices and policies.

These include:

>Animal welfare group Care for the Wild International. The group says it plans to protest what is says are instances of cruel and inhumane treatement of live turtles in Tesco's Chinese stores. Live turtle is a popular item among Chinese consumers.

>The non-profit organization War on Want, which says it will have a representative from one of Tesco's factories in India at the AGM to deliver what it says is a less than positive report about worker conditions in that factory.

>Compassion in World Farming, another non-profit group which also said it will address what it says is less than positive treatment by Tesco of workers at factory's the retailer owns or contracts with.

>The environmental group Friends of the Earth, which says it will be at the AGM to call on Tesco to do more in terms of its commitment to the environment and global warming.

Meanwhile, there is concern inside Tesco that this year's annual meeting does "not turn into a carnival or three ring circus," a UK source close to Tesco told Fresh & Easy Buzz. He added Tesco CEO Sir Terry Leahy "does not want to be the ring master either." He might not have a choice?

There's also expected to be considerable discussion about Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA venture and perhaps a litle breaking news from the company about it. However, Tesco has no plans to release any sales data about Fresh & Easy at the annual meeting on June 27.

It's suggested by our UK source that Tesco executives get a very good night's sleep on June 26, as he says the 2008 AGM on June 27 is likely to be the most intense annual meeting in company history, and he's been to a number of them.

Fresh & Easy Buzz will be offering extensive coverage of the June 27 AGM. Stay tuned.

Tesco, the Chef, and the Chickens: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall Plans to Put Tesco's Chicken Policy Under the Broiler At Upcoming Annual Meeting

Popular British celebrity chef and ethical foods activist Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall last month bought one share of Tesco PLC stock so he could attend the United Kingdom-based retailers next annual shareholders meeting, which will be held on June 27.

The chef's plan: to author a Tesco shareholders resolution calling for the retailer to create what he and other activists say needs to be a higher ethical standard for chickens sold in Tesco stores.

Fearnley-Whittingstall and fellow British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver have been campaigning in the UK for better treatment of chickens by the nation's farmers, as well as arguing that UK supermarket chains like Tesco, Sainsbury's, who Oliver is the TV pitchman for, Wal-Mart-owned Asda and others should raise their standards for the birds they sell in their stores, which would then require chicken farmers to change their methods because those three retailers are the top buyers of chickens in the UK. In other words, get the retail leaders to change and the others will follow.

The focus of celeb chef Fearnley-Whittigstall's campaign has been to get chicken farmers to increase the sizes of the cages they rear the birds in, but even more significantly and vocally to get them to raise more chickens outdoors, free-range style.

The campaigns of both Fearnley-Whittigstall and Jamie Oliver, have convinced more UK consumers to switch from chickens raised traditionally in small cages to organic and free-range-reared birds. In fact, earlier this year both Sainsbury's and the upscale Waitrose supermarket chain reported sales of free-range chickens were nearing the 50% mark in their UK supermarkets.

But it's Tesco, the UK's largest supermarket chain with a 31% share of the market, that Hugh Fearnley-Whittigstall, chef and animal rights activist, has set his sights on.

Last week Tesco informed shareholder Fearnley-Whittingstall that if he wanted to put his ethical chicken sales shareholder resolution to stockholders at the annual meeting, he would have to come up with ~86,888 British pounds in order to pay for "the cost of distributing the relevant papers to the shareholders."

The celebrity chef and activist initially cried fowl, since Tesco has in the past waved such fees, usually much less by the way, to others wishing to discuss various issues and even submit resolutions to stockholders at the annual meetings.

Fearnley-Whittigstall's discussion and resolution isn't a typical one, as its accompanied by his ongoing campaign to get UK consumers to change Tesco's chicken-selling policy in any form they can, which includes boycotting the stores.

It seems Tesco likely figured the celebrity chef and activist would simply drop the stockholder resolution issue rather than pay the princely sum of ~86,888 pounds.

Hugh Fearnly-Whittigstall almost did just that. Last week he said he had ~30,000 pounds to pay Tesco if they insisted on making him pay, but lacked the rest of the money to meet the ~86,888 total.

However, not one to be placed under a hot broiler by anybody, the chef came up with a marketing and PR brainstorm to raise the remaining amount of money, which is far from "chicken scratch."

Fearnley-Whittigstall has launched a website named, "Chicken Out; Campaign For A Free Range Future."

On the website, along with all sorts of information about free-range chickens, his ethical chicken campaign, a link to "Chicken Run: The Musical, and even recipes for chicken dishes, the celebrity chef is launching "Hugh's Tesco Chicken Check Out Challenge," which includes an online fundraising campaign to help him obtain the remaining ~56,888 pounds he needs to add to his ~30,000 to pay Tesco's ~86,888 fee in order to get his resolution before the retailer's stockholders at the June 27 meeting just three weeks from now.

The chef is using an online auction system to raise the money from supporters or just those who want to do something with Hugh. For example, there's an online auction item for a chicken dinner with Hugh. Starting bid: ~5,000 pounds.

There's a day at Fearnley-Whittigstall's River Cottage chicken farms with Hugh and the chickens, which currently has a bid of ~3,000 pounds and is still being bid on.

There's "Dinner Ahoy: You hook 'em, we cook 'em," in which Hugh and his team will take seven people out on a fishing boat, then cook the fish for the group back at River Cottage Farms. Current bid: ~1,800 pounds.

That's just a few of the creative items the celebrity chef has up on the website for auction. You can view these items and all the others on the website here.

We have a feeling the chef-activist will raise much more than the ~56,888 pounds needed to pay Tesco its ~86,888, minus the ~30,000 pounds Fearnley-Whittigstall says he has out of his own pocket to pay. Although we have it on good authority the well paid chef could write a check for the full amount easily.

But that looks to be the point of the website scheme; as any monies over that amount will go to his campaign to convert the UK's chicken-producing industry to a free-range one. We're told ~6,000 pounds has already been pledged just today on the website.

By telling the celebrity chef he must pay the ~86,888 pounds to get attention at the annual meeting for his ethical chicken-selling resolution, the Tesco has handed Fearnley-Whittigstall a million dollar angle for his overall free-range chicken campaign, and the ability to garner more publicity and raise more money than he and his fellow activists could ever have done without Tesco's help.

Tesco's position on the chef-activist's resolution and campaign to get the retailer to change its chicken procurement and selling policy is that the company has a fine and reputable policy in terms of the chickens it sells. The retailer says Fearnley-Whittigstall is essentially using the campaign against Tesco for publicity, which he denies. He says he simply wants the nation's leading retailer to change so that others--including chicken farmers--will follow. The chef's ultimate goal is to have as many UK farmers raising free-range birds as he can, he says.

Tesco has yet to make a statement of any kind regarding the chef's website or aonline fund-rasing auction.

"Tesco is the biggest retailer in the country and they can make the biggest difference to the lives of hundreds of millions of chickens. And so I’m determined, along with my fellow supporting shareholders and Chicken Out campaigners, to pursue this resolution," Fearnley-Whittigstall said today. " So I’m putting my money where my mouth is to take this issue all the way to the Tesco AGM (the stockholders meeting) on June 27.”

It should be an interesting annual meeting on June 27.

Tuesday (Fresh & Easy) Tidbits: New Store Opening Gala; A Real Estate Transaction of Note; Cheap, Good Eats; Reno 411...Tesco, Hugh and the Chickens

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market

Manhattan Beach new store grand opening tomorrow: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market will open its first new store tomorrow (Wednesday, July 2) morning in a shopping center in Manhattan Beach (Southern) California since declaring a three month new store opening pause in April. The store's address is 1700 Rosecrans, Manhattan Beach, California.

There will be a grand opening celebration and ribbon cutting at the Manhattan Beach store tomorrow morning from 8am -to 10am, with various events planned during those two hours.

The Fresh & Easy is located almost next door to a Trader Joe's grocery market in the shopping center. The Trader Joe's market is at 1800 Rosecrans. The F&E and TJ's even share the same parking lot.

Read our June 6 story and photo essay, "Manhattan Beach First Look: Fresh & Easy Buzz Has First Photos of First New Fresh & Easy Grocery Store Set to Open After the Three Month Pause."

Read this piece from yesterday, "Breaking News: UFCW Union Launches Preemptive Anti-Tesco Fresh & Easy Brochure Distribution Drop on the Eve of Manhattan Beach Store Grand Opening," about the UFCW union campaign targeting the Manhattan Beach Fresh & Easy grocery market opening tomorrow morning.

Fresh & Easy Real Estate: From the Costar Commercial Real Estate Group: Turner Island Farms purchased the Fresh & Easy grocery store in Norwalk, (Southern) California from a private investor called Amsted Residuals LLC for $4.75 million, or about $339 per square foot. The sale included the land, in a leased fee interest.

The 14,015-square-foot building at 10930 Rosecrans Ave. is in the Mid-Cities submarket. The tenant, (Tesco's) Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, has an absolute triple-net 20-year lease and generates a cash flow of $285,000. This is the second Fresh & Easy store sold in Southern California.

The sale was the buyer's upleg in a 1031 exchange. There were 8 offers submitted on the property. Shaun Riley of Faris Lee Investments represented the seller. Jeffrey Douglas of Colliers Tingey International, Inc. represented the buyer.

More San Diego Fresh & Easy markets on the way: Tesco will open at least two more new Fresh & Easy grocery markets in the San Diego County region in far Southern California in the next few months, Fresh & Easy Buzz has learned from a commercial real estate source in the market.

These two new Fresh & Easy grocery stores will be in the San Diego County cities of Point Loma and in Mira Mesa. Tesco already has one store in Point Loma.

There currently are six small-format (10,000 -to- 13,000 square feet) Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market combination basic grocery and fresh foods stores in San Diego County. The two new, additional units will bring the store count in the County to eight.

Fresh & Easy offering A 4th of July cookout for the frugal: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is promoting a special mixed meat grill pack and a 12-pack of beer for ten bucks for the upcoming July 4th Independence Day holiday.

Fresh & Easy's mixed grill pack includes a mixture of eight hand-trimmed and lightly chili-seasoned chicken thighs and drumsticks, four freshly ground mild Italian pork sausages and four quarter-pound, 80 percent lean beef patties.

The 4th of July special runs from July 1 -to- July 8th

Also included in the cookout promotion is a 12-pack of Taurino Cerveza, Fresh & Easy's specially selected Latin-style beer. The Latin-style beer is traditionally brewed and is a Monde Section award-winner. [Raise your hand if you know what a Monde Section award-winner is Independence Day celebrants? Monde sounds French to Fresh & Easy Buzz. Good angle though actually: After all, were it not for the French, America may not have defeated the Brits in the war of independence, which we celebrate on July 4.]

Five pounds of combined chicken parts, beef and pork sausage patties, along with a 12-pack of quality beer, is a hot deal though, no matter how you slice it.

For example, $5.99 would be a firecracker-hot buy for a 12-pack of similar quality branded beer at any supermarket or beverage store. And, of course, there's the tax on that 12-pack, which adds about 50-cents or so, depending on the state and city. This means shoppers are getting the five pounds of chicken parts, hamburger and sausage patties for under $1 dollar a pound. As Paris Hilton says: "That's hot." Of course, non-beer drinkers are a bit out of luck.

If we created the mixed grill meat pack and beer promotion, we likely would have changed a couple things. Instead of including the sausage patties, we would have just gone with the chicken parts and hamburger patties, since sausage patties aren't one of America's top grilling choices for the 4th of July, or for summer grilling in general for that matter. However, at that price, perhaps Americans will bite the bullet and grill the pork anyway for their holiday backyard celebrations.

Additionally, we probably would have offered a good old American beer rather than a Latin or Hispanic-style beer, since it is American Independence Day after all.

However, since America took a good chunk of the Western USA, the states where Fresh & Easy does business, from Mexico, it is somewhat fitting in a geopolitical way to offer a Latin-style beer as part of the promotional package. Plus, Latino's or Hispanics are the largest ethnic population group in California, Arizona and Nevada, so there's a logic to the offer from that angle as well.

And yes, we get the chili seasoned chicken parts and Latin-style beer tie-in. But perhaps that would be better for Mexican Independence Day, celebrated by Latino's in the U.S. in September. But, the America as a melting pot scenario should go both ways...so why not a bit of Latin accent--and flavor--for the 4th of July.

Either way, it's a good value...and you can always take the sausage patties out, grill the chicken and hamburger patties on July 4th, drink all the beer too, and then prepare the sausage with some eggs and toast for your July 5th breakfast. That's even stretching the ten buck value over two meals.

Reno 411: Upcoming Reno Fresh & Easy: Grocery store or Sandwich shop?

Fresh & Easy Buzz reported in this May 22 piece that Tesco plans to open its first Northern Nevada Fresh & Easy grocery store in Reno, Nevada. The store, in a new mixed used commercial/residential development named North McCarran Crossing at Northtowne Lane & McCarran Blvd. in Reno, will likely open early next year.

Not everybody in Reno is clear on the Fresh & Easy as a grocery store concept though. Among the confused include the construction project manager of the firm that's building the Fresh & Easy grocery store, along with the writer (and editors) of the Carson City, Nevada Carson Times newspaper. Carson City is next door to Reno.

As you can see in the two paragraphs highlighted in bold in the June 19 Carson Times which is reprinted below, the construction company project manager and the reporter describe the Fresh & Easy grocery store as a 14,000 square foot sandwich shop. Imagine how many sandwiches a day one would have to sell to make the sales per square foot numbers for 14,000 square foot sandwich shop?

Reno 411: Perhaps Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market needs to make a couple calls: One to the construction company manager who's heading up the building crew (after all they don't want to find a sandwich shop instead of a grocery store next time they check the site out); and a call to the reporter (and editor) for the Carson Times. Although, since Fresh & Easy stores devote a good deal of store square footage to fresh, prepared foods, including ready-to-eat sandwiches, we don't fault either the construction firm project head or the reporter all that much. It happens to the best of us.

Carson Times, Carson City, Nevada - Jun 19, 2008

Northtowne work causes woes

BY VICTOR CALDERONvcalderon@rgj.com

A detour outside a shopping center on Reno's Northtowne Lane is causing headaches for motorists, business owners and shoppers said Wednesday.

The detour is caused by road work and construction on a commercial project across from the center, which is anchored by Wal-Mart and WinCo Foods and includes smaller businesses.

For the past month, the detour on Northtowne has closed an entrance to the center near the intersection with North McCarran Boulevard, leaving one entrance and exit for cars at Lund Lane.

Signs slow traffic to 15 mph on the street around the project, which has closed sidewalks and blocks a covered bus stop. Shoppers outside WinCo say they have no other choice but to deal with the detour.

"We put up with it," said Clark Leedy, as he loaded groceries into his vehicle on Wednesday with his wife, Pat. The couple drives down from Mogul every week to shop at WinCo.

"What a pain," Pat Leedy said.

The project under construction is a retail/residential center with a business called Fresh and Easy, according to a public notice hanging on a fence at Northtowne and Lund. Plans call for a 14,000-square-foot commercial building on a 6-acre site, with more space available for lease.

The applicant is North McCarran Crossing, LLC. The project also includes 118 planned housing
units, according to a Web site for commercial real estate firm NAI Alliance.

Lucas Olive, a project manager with United Construction, described Fresh and Easy as a sandwich shop. The detour is scheduled to be removed by early July, Olive said.

In the meantime, business is down at shops such as Dollar or Plus, said store owner Mohammed Muhaimin.

"We are hurting right now," Muhaimin said. "People are saying it's hard to come in, and I've seen cars almost getting into accidents."

Alma Stankevicne of Sun Valley said she too will deal with the inconvenience in order to shop for groceries.

"There's nothing you can do if you have to come shop here," Stankevicne said.

Note: The Reno Fresh & Easy grocery market in the center will be directly across the street from a Wal-Mart Supercenter and a WinCo Foods supermarket. WinCo, an employee-owned supermarket chain, operates large, deep-discount yet very fresh foods-oriented supermarkets.

This is going to be a very price competitive corner of Reno once the Fresh & Easy store opens, since all three retailers--Wal-Mart, WinCo and Tesco's Fresh & Easy--position their respective chains as being low-price leaders.

Speaking of Wal-Mart: In addition to looking to open one of its new small-format Marketside combination grocery and fresh, in-store prepared foods community grocery stores in Reno, as we wrote about here on June 6, the mega-retailer also has created a new Supercenter store design prototype. The design has earth-tone colors instead of the traditional grey and blue, has some curves and lines to it rather than the traditional square big box edges, and looks far more upscale then the current basic Supercenter design.

Additionally, the new Supercenter design prototype incorporates what will become Wal-Mart's new corporate logo this fall. The food and grocery industry publication Natural~Specialty Foods Memo has a story, along with an artist's rendering of the new Supercenter design, as well as a picture of the new Wal-Mart logo, in this recent June 27 piece.

Page Ender: A Word or Two About Tesco, Hugh and the Chickens:

It seemed--as one of our UK-born and raised regular readers who now lives and works among the elected officials (who often exhibit chicken-like behavior) in Washington D.C. reminded us in an email today--ironic more people were talking about chicken rights than human rights at Tesco's Annual General Meeting (AGM) last Friday, June 27.

As you may recall, British celebrity chef and animal rights activist Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall placed a shareholder resolution, which he paid for from supporter donations along with his own money, on the AGM agenda Friday, which if it had passed would have required Tesco to sell fewer broiler chickens raised in small or battery cages and more free-range-raised birds. Fearnley-Whittingstall's resolution failed by a 90% against, to 10% for. Very few big, institutional shareholders attend the AGM's these days, which means the 90% against vote was cast primarily by mid-range and smaller Tesco shareholders.

We strongly support larger cages for both broiler chickens and egg-laying hens. The battery cages currently used in nearly all cases in the U.S. and to a lessor but still majority extent in the UK are just to damn small for the birds. The chickens can't move in the cages at all.

We also support free-range chicken farmers and the retailers who sell the birds We buy free-range as often as is economically feasible, especially when we find a retailer who realizes it doesn't need to mark the birds up an additional 10% or more margin points just because the birds are free-range. Yes, we all know retailers like to take higher margins on free-range chickens.

However, at the risk of offending some readers, were we a Tesco shareholder, which we are not, we would have voted against Mr. Fearnley-Whittingstall's chicken welfare Tesco-specific resolution for a few reasons.

First, we don't believe in retailer-specific restrictions. Although if the majority of shareholders would have voted for the resolution, we would support it. We do believe in majority consensus by democratic vote.

However, in terms of changing industry behavior, it does no good in our view to have only one food retailer--even if it's the largest one in a nation--have competitive restrictions on it that allows it's competitors an advantage. We particularly believe this to be the case when it comes to ethical issues like chicken welfare and similar issues.

Now, were Tesco to announce that say beginning in 2010, it would only procure and sell broiler chickens raised in larger cages (which is a trend among UK chicken farmers by the way) and free-range birds, and do so for a competitive advantage, that would be interesting. It also would cause many UK farmers to rapidly get rid of their small cages and use the larger, more roomer ones.

[Note: Tesco and all the top UK supermarket chains have agreed to only sell eggs from hens raised in the larger cages beginning in 2012.]

Second, is the issue of price. We love free-range chickens and love the farmers who raise them that way. However, the fact is both in the U.S. and the UK, free-range birds are just to darn expensive for middle and lower income consumers to buy and eat on a regular basis. They even can be a bit too high priced for upper income folks to buy regularly in many cases.

In the UK, Tesco is famous for being the first food retailer to offer the $1.99-British pound "cheap chicken," which if you do the conversion to dollars wouldn't be considered a cheap chicken in America. But then we complain about $4 a gallon gas, while most Brits alive today can't even remember when gasoline was that price, since a gallon of the precious fossil fuel currently sells for nearly three times the U.S. price at the pump in the UK.

Last week in the U.S., Safeway Stores was promoting a brand (a California grown chicken) for 69-cents a pound. The birds are all natural, nothing added, and are raised in small cages like nearly every chicken in the U.S. is raised, except for free-range, which makes up about 1% of all chickens sold in America.

As we stated, we support chicken producers moving to the use of larger cages. We've told many of them we know so.

However, we can't tell you how pleased the 200 low-income families we were a part of buying 200 of these 69-cent per-pound chickens for were when a group of us presented the birds (five pounders) through the local foodbank--along with all the other fixings for a family of up to five: fresh corn on the cob, salad greens and salad dressing, potatoes, beans, milk and other beverages, charcoal briquets, a mini bbq grill, a gourmet apple pie, and cookies for the kids--for their surprise Father's Day gourmet cookout meal about a week ago.

We believe an industry-wide move in both the U.S. and UK to larger cages, and the elimination of the battery cages, could be done without adding much to the per-pound cost of chickens. The key is industry-wide. California will have ballot initiative on the November, 2008 statewide ballot that would create a law to do just that--eliminate the use of small, battery cages by 2015. We support the measure.

Regarding free-range, the birds taste better and we like allowing the chickens to roam free. However, the price has to come down.

When shoppers go into a supermarket they don't look at the cheaper chickens and think to themselves: 'Lovely, I think I will buy one of those ~1.99-p per-pound Tesco chickens (or 69-cent per-pound Safeway birds on sale) raised in the tiny cages. Rather, most consumers say to themselves: 'I can buy a ~1.99-p per-pound Tesco chicken, some fresh vegetables, potatoes and a few other things, provide my family with a nutritious and tasty dinner, and still hopefully have enough money left over for gasoline, the kids dental appointments, some new school clothes, and the like. We didn't even mention the health insurance premiums, houshold utilities and other regular bills.

In other words, policy changes need to be industrywide, not piecemeal. We also suggest those advocating free-range-only birds start talking more about making the cost of such birds more reasonable. Yes, increases in consumer demand (increased sales) will help. However, in the UK, the Waitrose and Sainsbury's supermarket chains recently reported free-range broiler chicken sales were nearing the 50% - 50% mark vis-a-vis conventional birds. (That was before the food inflation spike started hitting the UK severly though.) However, despite the huge sales growth in free-range chicken sales in the UK, the per-pound price of the birds hasn't come down in any appreciable way.

Lastly, the timing of Mr. Fearnly-Whittingstall's shareholder resolution couldn't have been worse. The UK like the U.S. is in the midst of bad economic times, including a very bad period of soaring food inflation. Human rights--preventing people, including hard working people, from going hungry is the more appropriate focus riight now rather than chicken welfare (which is important) in our analysis and opinion.

In fact, Tesco should give a couple hundred thousand British pounds (money not weight) worth of it's ~1.99-p per-pound chickens to UK food banks this week, as a way of showing it appreciates its shareholders voting down Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall's chicken welfare resolution. That would be walking the walk, as well as talking the talk. Even more important, it would help feed numerous British consumers having problems making ends meet, just like their American brothers and sisters are experiencing.

Make no mistake about it, we respect Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall for having the courage of his convictions and proposing the resolution. The publicity he's garnered will go a long way to elevating the chicken welfare issue, as it should. The chef also is a great cause marketer, which we appreciate.

For us, we want to see the chicken and egg production industries on both sides of the pond--and elsewhere in the world--get the chickens out of the tiny battery cages and into larger cages where the birds can move around in.

Imagine living in your bathroom full time as an analogy. Even if its a tiny bathroom, at least you could lay down on the floor and stretch a bit. The chickens can't. Nor can they exhibit any natural behaviors in the battery cages. That's wrong; and the industry needs to move to the larger cages even if it takes legislation to get them to do so.

As for free-range, it needs work; although we see it growing and encourage it with our wallets at the supermarket when we can. We would like to see folks like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and others also spend some time working on the economic issue of free-range birds--finding ways to bring the price down, as part of their advocacy. Fresh & Easy Buzz will give them as much ink as we can on the issue.

Of course, there's also the pure form of animal welfare, which isn't eating living creatures at all. That, like most everything else, should be a personal choice.

In these times, liberty isn't something we should allow to deminish any more than we already have, after all. That's something important to think about--for both Americans and British--just three days before here in the U.S. we celebrate a holiday--Independence Day--which rather than casting the UK and America farther apart, as it would most nations, has actually brought us closer together in a special relationship.

Think about that as you grill your chicken--free-range, organic, or conventional--on Friday, July 4 , in the U.S., and on any day this week you do the same if living in the UK.

Sunday Snapshots: Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market News and Happenings; Tesco PLC News Roundup...and More

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market

Sunday Snapshots: Photographs of Tesco's first Northern Nevada Fresh & Easy grocery market in Reno: Since the title of this piece is "Sunday Snapshots," we thought it only appropriate to start off with a few photographs.

On May 22 we reported Tesco plans to open its first Fresh & Easy groecry store in northern Nevada in a now vacant retail building beign remodeled in a shopping center in the Reno/Sparks Metropolitan region. You can read that report here.

The building became vacant as a result of a remodeling of the Dollar Tree discount store next door, which was moved farther to the left as part of its construction. You also can read this July 1 item we wrote about a bit of confusion going on among the construction project manager and a local newspaper as to what actually is going in the building being remodeled in the shopping center. Hint: it is a Fresh & Easy grocery store.

Fresh & Easy Buzz roving correspondent Reno Tom, who makes Reno his home when he isn't traveling throughout the U.S., particularly the Western U.S., on various business persuits, made a trip over to the shopping center where the building is being turned into a Fresh & Easy while home over the July 4 holiday weekend.

The photograph above shows construction workers working on the building between a Dollar Tree store (left) and a Radio Shack store (right) that will be the future home of the Fresh & Easy grocery store in the shopping center.

The photograph below offers a closer look at the building being turned into the first Northern Nevada small-format Fresh & Easy grocery store.

The Dollar Tree discount store was moved farther to the left (it originally took up the space where the Fresh & Easy store will be) as part of the overall remodeling project in order to make room for the Fresh & Easy store, which will be about 10,000 -to- 13,000 square feet, as well as do expand and remodel the Dollar Tree.

The photograph below shows the brand new Dollar Tree store, including the new entrance. The facade that says "Dollar Tree" next to were the construction workers are tearing off materials for the Fresh & Easy store in photos one and two, also will come off. The Fresh & Easy store will take all that space since the Dollar Tree is now relocated farther to the left, as pictured below.

Food Deserts and Fresh & Easy: Fresh & Easy Buzz has been reporting on and writing alot about the "food desert" issue in the United States, especially as it pertains to the Western USA states of California, Nevada and Arizona ,where Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood market has its current 62 small-format, combination grocery and fresh foods stores.

As we've written about often, Tesco's Fresh & Easy has as one of its key strategies the opening of Fresh & Easy grocery stores in urban, inner city neighborhoods, which are neighborhoods undeserved by food stores that offer a selection of basic groceries and fresh foods at afforable prices.

Thus far, Tesco has opened two of its 62 Fresh & Easy markets (both in Los Angeles) in such neighborhoods, with current plans to open a third store in a low-income South Central Los Angeles "food desert" neighborhood, along with a fourth store in a San Francisco "food desert" neighborhood, and a fifth store in an underserved neighborhood in Sacramento.

Unlike Fresh & Easy Buzz, the mainstream press hasn't been reporting much on the food desert issue of late, especially in its coverage of Tesco's Fresh & Easy. Therefore, we were pleased to see a story in yesterday's edition of USA Today on the issue. Here is the USA Today piece: Urban, rural communities lack supply of affordable produce.

New Store Openings: Phoenix, Arizona: The next new Arizona Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood market grocery store to open will be in central Phoenix, opening on July 30, Fresh & Easy Buzz has learned. the new Phoenix Fresh & Easy grocery market will be at 635 West Indian School Road. It will be Tesco's sixth Fresh & Easy small-format combination basic grocery and fresh foods store in the city of Phoenix. There currently are 19 Fresh & Easy stores in Arizona, all located in the Phoenix Metropolitan/East and West Valley region. Tesco currently has 62 of its 10,000 -to- 13,000 square foot Fresh & Easy grocery stores in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona, and plans to open at least 30 new stores in the next 90 days.

Snapshots: Tesco PLC News

UK planning scheme to favor small shops over mega-stores: Although Tesco operates lots of its small-format Tesco Express banner convenience-style grocery stores at home in the United Kingdom, and continues to open new ones, it's building far more new, larger format stores like it's combination grocery and general merchandise Tesco superstores and hypermarts (a similar but smaller version in the UK of a Walmart Supercenter in the U.S.) than the more petite Express versions currently. These are mega-stores for the UK at 50,000 -to- nearly 80,000 square feet, even though they are less than half the size of a U.S. Wal-mart Supercenter or SuperTarget store, which average about 180,000 square feet.

However, new powers for local municipalities in the UK are being introduced which would make it more difficult for retailers like Tesco, Wal-mart-owned Asda, Sainsbury's and others to build these larger stores. The new city planning powers being drafted are said to target directly what are called "Tesco Towns" in the UK, named after the fact the nation's leading retailer has or soon will have a Tesco store--and in most instances multiple Tesco stores--in every city and town in the UK.

The new planning tools will allow municipalities to favor smaller format stores over larger ones, and are designed to provide an advantage to local small shops over the out of town mega stores. Read about the new planning scheme being developed in the UK here

Two of Tesco's key competitors for higher-end, premium food and grocery segment sales in the UK are the venerable Marks & Spencer (M&S) and the ultra chich Waitrose. Marks & Spencer has long been Britain's top retailer market share-wise for the higher-end food dollar. However, under the leadership of managing director Mark Price, Waitrose, which is owned by the John Lewis Partnership which also operates department stores, Waitrose has ben making significant inroads on M&S. Meanwhile, even though Tesco is a discount supermarket, it's offerings include substantial selections of specialty, premium, natural and organic food and grocery products across all categories. Tesco also is a leading specialty and premium wine retailer in the UK.

This week, M&S issued a profit warning. In the 13 weeks to June 28, sales at its British stores (open more than a year) fell 5.3 per cent. At the same time it announced the departure of Steven Esom, head of its food business. Marks & Spencer chairman and CEO Sir Richard Rose also is coming under heated pressure from all stakeholders to turn food and grocery sales around fast.

Click here to read more. Read the UK Daily Telegraph's take on M&S, which once was the UK's biggest and most profitable retailer before the rise of Tesco, in this thoughtful, lively and informative opinion piece.

Meanwhile, Tesco is looking to M&S's misfortune to increase its slaes in the premium, high-end retailing segment despite the souring UK economy. M&S is famous for its store brand specialty and premium food products. However, both Tesco and Waitrose are making strong moves to rest sales away from M&S and its priovate label brand, with there own higher-end store brands. If the current M&S numbers are any indication, it looks likes it working, although numerous other factors are a at play, including a big shift by shoppers to small-format, no frills German disount grocerys Adi and Lidl's UK stores.

Booth's; England's last remaining independent supermarket chain fights on: Not since the civil war has Preston been such a seedbed of rebellion and defiance. The Lancashire town is home to Booths, England's last remaining independent supermarket chain, which is bravely holding back the march of the multiples from some of the north's most sought-after locations. The 160-year-old chain is battling on with just 26 stores compared with Tesco's 3,751 and a turnover that is a tiny fraction of Britain's biggest supermarket. Read this full article by Sarah Butler in the UK guardian.co.uk (The Gaurdian newspaper) here

Today, just four supermarket chains control 75% of the total food and grocery dollar spent at retail in the United Kingdom. Those chains are: Tesco, Wal-Mart-owned Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons. California alone, which with 38,000 residents is nearly as populated as the UK, has thousands of supermarkets and natural foods stores operated by reginal independent chains, as well as by independent grocers who own one or more stores.

In contrast, regional supermarket chains--ranging from those that do billions of dollars a year in sales and have hundreds of stores to much smaller ones, along with multi and single-store independents--are thriving in America.

We read with a certain sadness of the near demise of the independent chain and grocer in the UK. After all, it has always been the independents that are the innovators, the risk takers. Without them the industry is sure to stagnate.

In fact, a good mega-supermarket chain CEO will tell you he or she prefers a vibrant independent grocer segment, as it is where they pick up new ideas and innovations for their chain. We wish Booths much continued success--and independence. Not only do we think having an independent chain like Booths is good overall for UK consumers, we also think its good for the nation's food retailing industry as a whole.

Speaking of competiton: As mentioned above, Wal-Mart-owned Asda and Sainsbury's are Tesco's top two competitors in the UK. Sainsbury's, a venerable British retailer as is the family, including Lord Sainsbury, who founded the chain, was almost taken over last year by the United Arab Emirant Kingdom of Qatar's soveriegn fund. The fund was established decades ago by the middle eastern oil-rich country as a way to invest its oil revenues, which have been soaring even more in the last few years, in various corporations and enterprises throughout the world.

Last year, the Qarari's bought up a huge chunk of Sainsbury's stock, which led to talks between the retailer's board and the fund's managers about a takeover. Most UK analysts thought it was a done deal. However, early this year the qatari's pulled out of the deal to acquire majority ownership in Sainsbury's.

Now, the oil-rich fund is back at it. Over the last month or so the Qatari's have bought up stock equalling about 26% of Sainsbury ownership, leading UK analysts to once again speculate a takeover move is in play. We aren't so sure.

The fact is, the oil-rich monarchy has so much cash on hand from sales of near $150 a barrel oil, that its literally having a hard time finding corporations and enterprises to invest all its money in. Have the Qatari's decided this time to take over Sainsbury's? Or is the fund just buying up a huge chunk of the retailer's stock once again in order to drive the share price up, cash out, and make a couple billion dollars more like it did last time around? Read what the UK Times newpaper has to say in this report: Qatari's make fresh swoop on Sainsbury's shares.

Speaking of Tesco competitor Sainsbury's: It appears a store checkout clerk is so in love with her job at the Sainsbury's branch, she decided to hold her wedding in store. Jane Clark, a 42 year old Sainsbury's store worker, and 32-year old Kenneth Sutherland, have tied the knot at the store where Ms. Clark works. Read all about the in-store nuptuals in this report, "Couple say supermarket 'Aisle do,'" from BBC news UK. No word if Ms. Clark had her wedding day off, or if she merely had the ceremony during her lunch break and then went back to checking customer grocery orders.

More Snapshots: Tesco PLC News Linkage:

You can't beat Tesco's meat says industry: Tesco is SuperMeat Retailer of the Year.Yes we have bananas, but they will cost you more today: Tesco passes on costs as it hikes the price of biggest selling product. Jack Sprat, he has some fat; but no rage: Jack Sprat: supermarket rage is pointless. Chef Hugh's (Fearnly -Whittingstall) chicken welfare campaign to go store-level with battery farming demonstration at West Reading, England Tesco store: Chicken welfare demo to take place at Tesco store. A British free-range egg farmer has lost his battle to force Tesco to remove his picture from the retailer's free-range egg cartons. However, cageless egg farmer Ian Chisholm isnt' giving up his fight just yet. Read what he is up to in this piece from London's Metro paper and website: Tesco won’t beat me says egg farmer. More here: Farmer loses Tesco egg box battle.

More Tesco linkage: Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown and both houses of Parliament have strongly condemed the recent rigged election and despotic rule of Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe. In fact, Britain has spoken with the loudest voice of all democratic nations thus far in terms of calling for Mugabe to step down. As part of that protest, the UK governemnt has called for corporations to stop doing business with the nation as a form of boycott. Tesco, which has done business with the African country under Mugabe's depotic rule by sourcing certain goods and products from Zimbabwe, has announced it will no longer do so until the country's political crisis is solved. Read about it here: Tesco suspends Zimbabwe trade. And here: Tesco stops trade with Zimbabwe.

Food retailing and geopolitics: Tesco, along with UK supermarket chains Sainsbury's, Waitrose and Sommerfield, have admited sourcing food from Israeli-owned settlement farms located on Palestinian territory in the contintious Israel-Palestian region of the Middle East. Doing so is a non-no in the UK. Read this report from the guardian.co.uk: 'Illicit' settler food sold in UK stores.

Regulation UK-style: The United Kingdom's "Competition Commission," which regulates retail competition in the nation, recently passed a new "competition test" designed to prohibit any one retailer from opening an "excessive" number of stores in a given British city or town. Since Tesco has the most stores of any retailer in the nation, and the most multiple stores throughout the country, the regulation is aimed primarily at the retailer, as well as to a lessor degree at the other three UK "big four" retailers: Asda, Sanisbury's and Morrisons. Tesco has decided to appeal the commission's ruling. Read a report about the UK regulatory commission's new "competition test" and Tesco's appeal of it in a recent story from the Times Online: Tesco launches legal challenge to competition test.