Thursday, September 25, 2008

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Hits the Retail Trifecta in Las Vegas; Opens Three New Stores Today in the City


Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market hit the retail trifecta today in Las Vegas, Nevada, opening three new small-format Fresh & Easy fresh food and grocery markets today in the city.

The three new Fresh & Easy markets are at the following locations in Las Vegas:
  • Desert Inn & Pecos McLeod
  • Lake Mead & Hollywood
  • Charleston & Sloan
With the three new Fresh & Easy stores opening today, Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market now has 19 stores in the Las Vegas, Nevada Metropolitan region.

Tesco held grand openings at all three stores today. The retailer also donated $1,000 per-store to a local charitable organization, the Children's Heart Foundation, a local elementary school, the Jacob E. Manch Elementary School, and the Eldorado Cross Country Team, a local running team. Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market donates $1,000 to a local non-profit group each time it opens a new store.

Tesco is far from finished opening new Fresh & Easy grocery markets in the Las Vegas market though.

The retailer says it will open six new stores in the Las Vegas area (Clark County) alone in October, at the following locations on the dates listed:
  • Eastern & Fremont -- October 8
  • Las Vegas & Pecos -- October 8
  • Las Vegas & Lake Mead -- October 8
  • Vegas & Buffalo -- October 15
  • Eastern & Wigwam -- October 29
  • Vegas & Jones -- October 29
With the opening of its three new Las Vegas stores today, Tesco now has 87 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market grocery stores operating in Southern California, the Las Vegas Metro region, and in the Phoenix, Arizona Metropolitan market.

Critical mass in Vegas?

Now having 19 stores in the Las Vegas market -- with 25 by the end of October when the six new markets open next month -- Tesco should be able to build some critical mass in terms of starting to become a major player in the market region, which has a population of about 2 million residents.

After all, 25 stores in a region with that population, where most of the residents are concentrated in the city of Las Vegas, is enough to begin to start putting market share numbers of at least some minor significance on the board.

It will be interesting to see if more (Fresh & Easy stores) means more (new business) in the Las Vegas Metropolitan market, or if it just spreads the current volume of business the stores are doing around to the other locations.

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