Newest Fresh & Easy Grocery Market Set to Open With Fanfare

The newest Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market store will open on Wednesday, January 9 in the Orange County city of Huntington Beach.

Tesco will open its newest Fresh & Easy grocery market next Wednesday in Huntington Beach, in Southern California's Orange County.

The store, located at 16672 Beach Blvd., will open at 10 a.m. Wednesday morning. There will be grand opening festivities, including free food and beverage samples, contests and other surprises, according to Tesco. Wednesday begins the kick-off of a five-day grand opening promotion at the store.

The grocery market is about 13,000 square feet. It's located in a fairly upscale neighborhood in Huntington Beach, which like numerous other cities in Orange County is fast-growing.

The Huntington Beach Fresh & Easy will be store number 29 for Tesco. The first Fresh & Easy stores opened just two months ago in Southern California. The retailer currently has stores in the Orange County cities of Anaheim, Buena Park, Orange and Lake Forest.

Orange County is a major market for the Fresh & Easy markets. The retailer has plans to build as many as 20 stores in the region this year. In addition to Southern California, Tesco currently has stores in Arizona, and in the Las Vegas Nevada metropolitan area.

Tesco says it will present a donation of $1,000 to the West (Orange) County YMCA as part of its grand opening festivities on January 9. The retailer has a policy of donating that amount to a local non-profit group in the store's local area each time it opens a new store.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores are a hybrid basic grocery store and fresh, prepared foods retailer. The stores offer a limited selection of Fresh & Easy brand private label groceries and perishables, along with national brands. The focus on the basic grocery items is to be the low-price leader in the neighborhood.

The grocery markets also carry an extensive selection of fresh, prepared foods. These ready-to-eat, ready-to-heat and grab-and-go items range from basic offerings like mac n' cheese and meatloaf, to more upscale prepared foods like mixed greens in balsamic dressing, beef tips in burgundy sauce, and Thai, Japanese and other ethnic foods offerings.

The stores also merchandise fresh produce and fresh meats. Fresh & Easy also sells a selection of natural, organic and specialty grocery products in the stores.

The small format markets average about 10,000 to 13,000 square feet. They're designed to serve as primary shopping destinations for consumers, while at the same time providing faster, more convenient shopping than a traditional supermarket or superstore.