In California, giant British retailer Tesco is carefully cultivating an image as a socially responsible grocer with good-paying jobs, fresh organic foods and the latest in environmentally friendly technology, the Los Angeles Times reports.

But the firm’s new Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market chain, due to open here this fall, is a far cry from the Tesco flagship stores in Britain, where the vast supermarkets are more like Wal-Mart in size, selection and controversy.

To prove its green credentials, Fresh & Easy adopted a baby elephant in Kenya, it roofed its Disneyland-sized distribution center in Riverside with solar energy arrays and will use a polar bear as a corporate symbol to remind people of global warming. Workers will start at $10 an hour and get health insurance.

Internationally, however, Tesco has come under fire for the decapitation of live turtles at stores in China, alleged purchases of sweatshop goods from Bangladesh and unfettered expansion in England that is driving small shops out of business.

“Tesco has been especially adept at marketing itself as a socially responsible corporation,” said Robert Gottlieb, an Occidental College urban policy professor. “Its track record has significant gaps between what it has promised and how it has achieved its current position as one of the top multinational operations.”

Read the full L.A. Times story

. (registration required)