British Retailer Tesco Indicates it Will Be Selling Its Fresh & Easy Stores

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On January 31, 2013, Fresh & Easy parent company Tesco said it was looking at "strategic options" for its money-losing U.S. based Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores.

We all pretty much knew where that was going...when you have a business segment that is losing $250 million a year, there was little doubt that Tesco would be leaving the U.S. market.

But that does not mean...yet, at least...that Tesco is shutting down Fresh & Easy. In a posting on the Fresh & Easy website today, the store indicated "As many of you have heard or read today, our parent company Tesco updated on the future of Fresh & Easy.  While we don’t yet know who our new owner will ultimately be, Tesco has already received interest from a number of parties including groups looking to purchase Fresh & Easy as an operating business.  We appreciate all the support and love we’ve received from our loyal customers and even though our parent company plans to leave the US, we’re pleased to confirm there are no plans to close any portion of Fresh & Easy."

So what Tesco and Fresh & Easy indicated today is that 1) Tesco is indeed exiting the U.S. market; 2) there are a number of potentially interest parties who may acquire the Fresh & Easy chain; and 3) there are no current plans to "close any portion of Fresh & Easy."

As part of today's announcement, Tesco said it is treating Fresh & Easy as a "discontinued operation" and as such, has written down the value of Fresh & Easy assets and future anticipated liabilities on its books...to the tune of £1.2 billion...which is approximately $1.8 billion in U.S. dollars. OUCH. The $1.8 billion loss includes roughly $257 million in operating losses, with the remainder the write-down in assets and estimate future lease costs.

That's gotta hurt a bit. Tesco is a British company but its stock also trades on Nasdaq under symbol TESO, which was down 3.3% today, over double what the S&P 500 was down today.

In any case, best of luck to the Fresh & Easy chain in finding a buyer and figuring out a way to generate a profit. There are 10 Fresh & Easy stores in Ventura County and directly adjacent areas.

Lastly, I heard what I found to be quite an odd Fresh & Easy commercial on the radio this morning that is posted below. Very unusual, kind of surprising use of the shortened "f&easy" - a bit risque if ya ask me :)

British Retailer Tesco Looking at "Strategic Options" For Fresh & Easy Stores

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An update from Fresh & Easy on January 31, 2013 (excerpt from F&E email):

We wanted to reach out to you to address numerous news and online reports about the future of our stores. 

Our parent company Tesco is conducting a strategic review of Fresh & Easy - they're looking at all options to find the best outcome for the neighborhood market that you - and we - have come to love. While we don't know exactly what that outcome will be, or if Tesco will continue to own the company, we're confident that Fresh & Easy can continue to be your favorite market.

We want to assure you: we don't have plans to close stores. We're still committed to providing delicious, wholesome and affordable food every day. We're still Fresh & Easy; open for business with everything that you enjoy about our store, with even more exciting things to come. That's why we're going to keep on fighting the good food fight.

Originally posted December 8, 2012:

On December 5th, British grocery retailer Tesco announced it is conducting a "strategic review" of its Fresh & Easy stores and is likely to exit the U.S. market. Tesco plans to report on its progress in this review in April 2003.

Fresh & Easy currently operates 200 stores located in Arizona, California and Nevada, including local Ventura County and adjacent area stores in Newbury Park, Oak Park, Moorpark, Camarillo, Simi Valley, Oxnard (2 stores), Ventura (2 stores) and Santa Barbara.

Tesco decided to launch the brand new supermarket chain in the U.S. in 2006, when the economy was still on a roll, before the big recession slammed us. Tesc

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World Toilet Day is November 19th!

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The World Toilet Organization was founded in 2001 as a global non-profit organization committed to improving toilet and sanitation conditions worldwide.  The WTO's founding day of November 19th is celebrated each year as "World Toilet Day" to increase awareness of global sanitation issues.  WTO has over 150 member organizations around the world.

WTO founder Jack Sim was named a "Hero of the Environment" by Time Magazine in 2008.  He seeks to destigmatize the toilet and make it a status symbol for the poor.  "I want people to aspire to owning a toilet, just like others aspire to own a Louis Vuitton bag," he told Time.  Heck, I'm already there.

From the "Putting Things Into Perspective" department:  Over 2.6 BILLION people around the world do not have access to basic sanitation.  In other words, over 8 times the entire U.S. population around the world don't even have access to a toilet!

The WTO describes its logo on its website.  The logo's message is "Love our Toilet." "The logo of the WTO is the image of a toilet seat-cover viewed from an angle as how most people would see it. The ring in the middle of the toilet seat-cover signifies a connected circle of members. Blue was chosen as the color of the toilet seat-cover as a symbolization of water and how WTO is also closely-related to water issues."

Visit www.worldtoilet.org for more information.

London 2012 Summer Olympic Games Schedule, Information and Other Tidbits

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Believe it or not, the 2012 Olympic Games started TODAY, two days in advance of the opening ceremony on Friday, July 27th!

The first competition of the 2012 Olympic Games was a women's soccer match between Great Britain and New Zealand at 8 a.m. PST., followed by top-seeded USA vs France at 9 a.m., and other women's soccer matches. Tomorrow, men's soccer starts with Honduras vs Morocco at 4 a.m. PST. NBC's complete Olympics viewing schedule can be viewed at www.nbcolympics.com/tv-listings/index.html. There's a nice summary-level schedule available at www.nbcolympics.com/results-schedules/index.html.

The theme of the 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony is "Isles of Wonder" and NBC will begin 4 1/2 hours of coverage at 7:30 p.m. Friday night. The show will feature over 10,000 performers, including British duo Underworld and an appearance by Paul McCartney.

Keep in mind that London is 8 hours ahead of us here in California, so many events will be shown tape delayed.  The NBC Olympics website, however, will be streaming LIVE coverage of all events! But you must register your TV service (e.g. Time Warner, Verizon, Direct TV, etc.) to gain access to the streaming content. I've tried it already and it works great!

The 2012 Summer Olympics will have 19 competition days, from today, July 25th to Sunday, August 12th. The closing ceremony on the 12th titled "A Symphony of British Music" will start at 9 p.m. local (London) time. According to Rolling Stone, the lineup at the closing ceremony will include The Who, a Spice Girls reunion, George Michael and Jessie J among others.

Olympics Facts, Statistics and Tidbits

Some 10,490 athletes from 204 nations will be represented at the 2012 Summer Olympics, playing 26 sports in 39 disciplines at 34 venues. Talk about a logistical challenge! There will be 302 medal events, which translates into a total of 906 gold, silver and bronze medals (though of course many more medals will be distributed for events involving more than one player on a team).

Ten sports account for fully 74% of the 302 events. The top 10, including medal count, includes: Athletics (Track & Field) 47 medals, Aquatics (46), Wrestling (20), Cycling (18), Gymnastics (18), Canoeing (16), Shooting (15), Weightlifting (15), Judo (14) and Rowing (14).

If you include the n

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New Ventura County Clerk and Recorder / Registrar of Voters Website Looks Great

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The Ventura County Clerk and Recorder / Registrar of Voters recently launched a new website that has a really nice new look and feel. Check it out at recorder.countyofventura.org.

Here are some excerpts of what the 3 divisions (County Clerk, Recorder and Elections) of the County Clerk and Recorder office does from the website:

The County Clerk issues marriage licenses, performs civil marriage ceremonies, processes fictitious business name filings, and provides for the qualification and registration of notaries, process servers and miscellaneous statutory oaths and other filings.

The Recorder is responsible for the recording of deeds, deeds of trust, court decrees and other documents affecting title to real property in Ventura County.

The Elections Division conducts all Federal, State, County, school and special district elections in the County, as well as the general municipal elections for all 10 Ventura County cities. It also administers voter registration and outreach programs, among other duties.

I've seen the before and after of the County Clerk and Recorder website and have to say this was a dramatic transformation all around. Many websites receive facelifts on the home page but as you click through to sub-pages find old, outdated pages and broken links dispersed through the site. Not so in this case. Nice job!

The Elections Division section highlights current voter registration information right at the top of the site, which is a nice feature. For example, as of 5/21/12, there are 406,644 registered voters in the County, including 157,539 Democrat, 150,919, Republican, 77,994 Non-Partisan and 20,192 Other.

The 2012 Presidential Primary Election was yesterday. Although the Vote By Mail ballots aren't fully counted yet, the Election Results page indicates 101,986 ballots cast as 2 a.m. this morning (6/6/12); a 25.1% voter turnout. In the 6/3/08 Primary, voter turnout was 29.5% of 392,088 registered voters. Not a good trend to see.

Turnout in the 2012 General Presidential Election s

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Presidential Elections - Can I Buy a Vowel? Obama, Adams, Eisenhower, Oh My!

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Conejo Valley Guide generally does not cover politics as we like to focus on things to do throughout  Ventura County and adjacent areas. And this post really is not political in nature. It is more along the lines of "useless yet potentially amusing information."

Barack Obama is running for re-election in 2012. If he loses, this would be the first time since 1828 that a President whose last name starts with a vowel loses a re-election. After one term in office, John Quincy Adams (like Obama, a Harvard graduate) lost to Andrew Jackson, considered the first Democratic President. Also notable (ok maybe not) is that Obama honored another Quincy...Quincy Jones, with a National Medal of Arts in 2010. The Obama/Quincy connection.

If Obama wins his re-election, he'll follow in the footsteps of Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956, who demolished Adlai Stevenson with 86% of the electoral vote. Obama also has something in common with Eisenhower. He received his bachelor's degree from Columbia University in 1983 whereas Eisenhower was President of Columbia from 1948 to 1953.

Truth be told, there have not been a lot of Presidential candidates whose last names begin with a vowel. In fact, while 19% of the letters in the alphabet are vowels, less than 10% of thos

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Register to Vote . . . Then Take the Time to Actually Vote!

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About 79% of Ventura County residents that are eligible to vote actually register to vote.  Do your civic duty and register to vote! Visit www.sos.ca.gov/nvrc/fedform/ for an online form that you can complete and mail in. For additional information about voter registration, including timing deadlines, visit www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_vr.htm

You may register to vote in California if:

  • You are a United States citizen
  • You are a resident of California
  • You are at least 18 years of age (or will be by the date of the next election)
  • You are not in prison or on parole for a felony conviction. For more information on the rights of people who have been incarcerated, please see the Secretary of State's Voting Guide for Currently or Formerly Incarcerated Californians.
  • You have not been judged by a court to be mentally incompetent

YOU HAVE UNTIL MONDAY, MAY 21ST TO REGISTER TO VOTE!!

But of that 79%...only 40% actually vote!  That's pitiful! Come on, register to vote...then VOTE! To make it easier on yourself, apply for a Permanent Vote by Mail status when you receive your Sample Ballot! That way, you never even need to visit a polling place to vote.

TO VOTE BY MAIL IN THE PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY ELECTION ON JUNE 5, 2012, YOUR APPLICATION MUST BE RECEIVED NO LATER THAN MAY 29TH.