Tesco launched its first six US stores under the Fresh & Easy Neighbourhood Market banner yesterday.

The Fresh & Easy stores are based in southern California and are significantly smaller than the average US supermarket. They are the first in a planned network of hundreds of stores across California, Nevada and Arizona.

“Everybody wants decent, modern shopping - they want it close to home,” said Tim Mason, chief executive of Tesco’s US venture, at a press conference on Wednesday. "We listened and said, ‘we can do that’”.

The shops are targeted at customers who find big stores inconvenient and are dissatisfied with their traditional supermarkets, said Fresh & Easy marketing chief Simon Unwins.

“The unique characteristic of people here is how many different stores they shop in to get food every week,” he said. "We are trying to out all that back together in one easy package that is convenient.”

Each store’s range will be about the tenth of the size of a traditional grocery store’s, and will include gourmet foods alongside cupboard staples.

Mason held up the firm’s $10 an hour starting wages and employee benefits, its environmentally friendly stores with solar panels and emission-reducing freezers, plus its commitment to serving poorer neighbourhoods.

But the retailer has already created controversy, with protesters gathering outside the press conference, angered by Tesco’s decision not to maintain a unionised workforce at its US shops. Members of the Alliance for Healthy Responsible Grocery Stores also accused Tesco of going back on its promise to open shops in underserved neighbourhoods, and distributed copies of letters from Democratic presidential candidates John Edwards and Barack Obama, calling on Tesco officials to meet and negotiate with them.

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