is one of the world's leading retailers. Founded in 1919, the company began expanding its operations to other countries in Europe, Asia and the United States in 1995. It now has 4,811 stores in 14 countries around the world. In 2007, Tesco expanded its operations in the United States by adopting a Greenfield strategy to create the urban-style supermarket "Fresh & Easy". The opening of these small local stores was a great opportunity for the company. By early 2010, Tesco had opened 145 Fresh and Easy stores in the western United States. Fresh and Easy, they offer fresh, healthy foods at affordable prices and emphasize everyday low prices rather than weekly specials. The consumer behavior of U.S. citizens has changed in recent years, becoming more health conscious and choosing to travel less for shopping. However, this investment turned out to be a major and costly failure. One reason was that the timing was bad for Tesco, which was hit by the US recession in 2008. Tesco decided to pull out of its 199-store US chain Fresh and Easy, which never made a profit. profits. Fresh & Easy's dumping, after around six years, reduced profits by £1.2 billion. The company filed for bankruptcy that same year so it could sell itself at auction with a subsidiary of Yucaipa Cos. of billionaire Ron Burkle as the main bidder. It is also believed that the root of Tesco's problems in the United States lay in its failure to understand the American retail landscape, which was different from that of the United Kingdom. The drive to become even bigger, while offering lower prices, worked for years, but it proved difficult for the company to change course when necessary. This established the fact that not all foreign direct investments are successful and profitable. If a company doesn't do enough research into its culture, behavior, or competitors, it can easily fail.