It's been anything but easy for the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market grocery chain.
Already grappling with a soft economy and its own strategic missteps, the El Segundo-based supermarket chain suddenly has to deal with a burst of pressure being applied to its British parent company, Tesco.
Large shareholders are calling for the British retail giant to take dramatic action to turn around its own recently poor performance, including pulling back from Fresh & Easy, its ambitious 5-year-old start-up that is trying to blanket California with midsize supermarkets.
The company's third-largest shareholder was quoted in a British newspaper Sunday saying Tesco should focus on its core supermarket business in Britain. Other investors were more blunt in their assessment of the U.S. foray, with one anonymous shareholder labeling Fresh & Easy a "disaster."
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