My Obsession with Marks & Spencers and Musings on Why Tesco Failed in the US

There is nothing that gives me more joy in my day-to-day activities than my regular trips to the grocery store. As a self-proclaimed foodie with a fascination for servicescapes and consumer behaviour, this should not be a surprise. Since moving back to the US, I must say that one of the things I miss the most about the UK (please don't judge me for being 'posh') is the Marks & Spencers food hall. I don't know if it is also because the particular M&S I frequented also happens to be on Princes Street in Edinburgh with a breathtaking view of the majestic 12th century Edinburgh castle and a stones-throw away from the Sir Walter Scott Monument and the gorgeous Princes Street Gardens or because the packaging for M&S products are absolutely divine with delightful food descriptions on the labels and thick quality wrapping. Whatever the case may be, I have come to miss my (minimum) bi-weekly trips to the M&S food hall very dearly.

What I have noticed (perhaps more clearly now that I am back in the States) is how important brand perception is in the UK supermarket industry. While the actual prices from brand to brand may not vary too much, the perception of the brand and the perception of the average customer who shops there is everything. I first came across this notion during my first year.

As a wide-eyed 18-year old who had never lived outside of the sunny California Bay Area, grocery shopping helped me acculturate to the UK. The grocery stores gave me the comfort of recognizable foods and brands, while introducing me to new, unfamiliar ones. As I shopped, I began to notice comments from my flatmates and friends about where I bought my groceries rather than the products I purchased. I find that fascinating how something as simple and everyday as grocery shopping can be seen as so integrally connected to an individual's identity - that their grocery store of choice determines their perceived socio-economic status, class or level of 'posh'-ness. While you can see hints of that phenomena in the United States, for the most part divisiveness comes from more product-level brand preferences - generic or the branded, organic or non-organic, grass-fed or free range, etc.

I wonder sometimes if this is what begins to describe the difference between US and UK grocery store chains. Why it has been so difficult for US grocery store chains to make it in the UK (e.g. Safeway) and for UK grocery store chains to make it in the US (e.g. Tesco). Tesco, for example, is a very interesting case. They came to the US in 2007 with a subsidiary they called "Fresh & Easy". After 20 years of market research, Tesco decided to enter the US market from the West Coast, claiming they wanted to teach single Americans how to eat fresh and easy. I imagine they were trying to target the quintessential new modern young professional who were health conscious and needed their foods prepackaged, easy to grab, and ready-to-eat. But in all that effort targeting consumers on the brand level, perhaps they neglected to target consumers on the product level. Perhaps the presentation or display of the products did not meet American preferences. Whatever the case may be, business history seems to suggest that Americans and Brits don't shop for groceries the same way - in fact their preferences are so vastly different successful chains in one country seem to fail to succeed in the other.