In January, I had the opportunity to visit a Fresh & Easy store in the City of Orange, near Los Angeles, CA. I had managed to slip into a Fresh & Easy in Arizona when TESCO had first starting opening the stores in the US market, and I thought at the time that it was mildly interesting, but not really anything like the furor deserved. In fact, I was a little confused. It didn’t make sense to me that TESCO would shun the mass merchandise, big-box format that helped it slay the UK market – and many other markets around the world. And it didn’t make sense to me that the company would also shun the convenience store-like format that TESCO Express has made a staple of London street corners – at least in my experience.

So I was intrigued by the opportunity to not only walk a Fresh & Easy last month, but to do it alongside someone who self-identifies as a prime target customer for the Fresh & Easy format – my brother. He’s in his early thirties, married, with a new baby. He and his wife are very particular about their food – they want healthy, they want organic whenever possible. They shop at three different stores plus the farmer’s market to find everything that they look for on their weekly shopping list. They are also both professionals with long commutes, and they eat out more often than your average couple – in fact, they initially loved the option of grab-and-go from Fresh & Easy, and while they do a big-basket shopping trip every week or two, they’re just as likely to do several fill-in trips in between, for the 1-2 ingredients for that night’s dinner.

In Southern California, Fresh & Easy have apparently closed down a store or two, and they have consolidated some of the SKUs they offer in their remaining stores. My brother has been relatively disappointed with Fresh & Easy, and even more so by the recent moves, and walking through the store with him, I can see why. And I hate to say it, but it lines right up with all the things that I wondered when TESCO first announced that they were coming to America.

Here’s the problem with the grocery format of Fresh & Easy as it exists today – the “fresh ” items that are usually so conveniently packaged for shoppers, for which TESCO is famous for, don’t work at Fresh & Easy. They’re too large. Two pounds of oranges is too much for the small family, frequent trip shopper. A pound of pre-cut strawberries – same problem. And when people don’t see these prepped fresh items, or the prepackaged meals, flying off the shelves, it doesn’t matter how fresh it actually is, shoppers don’t perceive it as fresh. A TESCO Express in London at lunch time never has this problem. You’re lucky to grab the last pack of a single-serve size of cut pineapple there. At Fresh & Easy, at least the one I was at, we were the only shoppers in the entire store. That breakfast burrito that expires tomorrow? That suddenly doesn’t look so appetizing.

The other thing that happens is that once you’ve devoted shelf space to things that a target shopper doesn’t want to buy, it leaves less space for the things that she does want to buy. And the more trips you add to a shopper’s grocery process, the less likely they are to add you to their shopping list destinations. It looks like Fresh & Easy is falling into that trap as well – a shallow assortment in any given category, so that the store can carry the regular expected breadth of categories, but in the end it leads to an unsatisfying shopping experience – where you settle for something not quite what you wanted because it’s as close as you can get.

There was one bright spot – given the very contentious nature of the California grocery union environment, Fresh & Easy employees at the store I was in were very friendly and on the ball. They looked excited to see a customer, actually.

So I don’t have any special insights into TESCO, or Fresh & Easy’s target market. This is anecdotal for sure. However, I have to shake my head in wonder. Why didn’t TESCO adapt its Express model and slay east coast cities in the US with healthy options to traditional convenience store packaged foods? And then expand from there? Why didn’t they use the insight that they’re famous for to develop the right set of products for the right set of customers? They could’ve taken Walmart out, not with its massive big box concept, but with the little neighborhood store, which Walmart still hasn’t managed to figure out. I guess Fresh & Easy is supposed to be that attempt at the neighborhood market, but at least in Orange County, TESCO have clearly missed the mark.