Tesco is a renowned brand among food and general merchandise retailers from the United Kingdom. Tesco has many outlets across the world, mainly to name a few such as UK, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, Poland and Slovakia. Headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom, it is one of the third largest retailers in the world. In 2003, Tesco's expansion into Japan debuted, but Tesco failed to make any significant progress in attracting Japanese shoppers and after nine years, Tesco left the Japanese market in 2011. The supermarket giant said that Japan was a difficult market to trade in due to high costs and the fact that customer demands were difficult to satisfy. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The thick Japanese culture of thinking of themselves as a homogeneous, ethnocentric society with a strong sense of group and national identity was in fact very different from that of the United Kingdom and difficult to break. This is because most Japanese had long-established, family-run grocery stores, which is a form of community center where it was appreciated for the personal touch that was offered. Therefore, one of the biggest challenges for Tesco in Japan was that although Japanese customers loved buying Western products, Japanese customers in return also preferred high-quality products and excellent customer service during their individual shopping experience. Tesco could not possibly provide this, as stores in central Tokyo tend to be large, making it almost impossible to offer high levels of customer service to every single shopper. Therefore, Tesco had to develop its own branded range and even fresh cuisine to supply fish and other local products to its stores trading under the names Tsurakame, Tesco and Tesco Express to be more attractive to local people as a retail market . it is fragmented and there are many strong family-owned regional players. However, this also proved to be a loss as the never-ending growth of convenience stores began to dominate widely, particularly in urban centers, and a culture of "immediacy" supporting large numbers of vending machines was very difficult to shift preferences of consumers. Another challenge Tesco faced highlighted the importance of fresh food for Japanese customers. This is because Japanese food culture has resisted the pervasiveness of junk snacks and fast food, and has remained largely healthy and vibrant to contribute to the country's physical well-being, symbolic cohesion and everyday pleasure. Therefore, Tesco intended to succeed in Japan by providing a wide variety of fresh foods by offering approximately 2,500 items, including fresh and processed foods, at supermarket prices, where it also included many dishes to be cooked on site to ensure the highest quality. mainly in residential areas of the Tokyo metro, where the population density is high. However, this was a failure, as it was not enough to attract a loyal audience and failed to satisfy Japanese shoppers' need for a wide range of fresh produce that they could purchase in small quantities daily. Please note: this is just a sample. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay The challenges in terms of cross-cultural management were really high for Tesco since food retailing.