Thursday, January 31, 2008
Fresh & Easy: San Francisco Chronicle Covers F&E's Initial 18-Store San Francisco Bay Area Invasion
The San Francisco Chronicle has a story in today's paper on the Fresh & Easy announcement. Although it doesn't provide any new information in terms of the facts, we wanted to share the Chronicle story with our readers, as it has a nice local flavor to it, as well as offering-up an interesting discussion.
Read today's Chronicle story here.
The Chronicle also has a great map graphic of the Bay Area that has each of the 18 Fresh & Easy store locations and addresses indicated on it. You can view the map here.
Additionally, you can view a picture of the site (click here) in San Francisco's Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood where the Fresh & Easy store, which will be located at 3rd Street & Carroll Avenue, is being built. The Fresh & Easy will be the ground-floor retail anchor of a mixed-use residential development in the lower-income neighborhood which has long been neglected by food retailers.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Fresh & Easy Goes On the Record: Announces 18 Northern California Stores in the Bay Area
Monday, January 28, 2008
Fresh & Easy Applies For Liquor Licenses for Four Sacramento, California Stores
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Fresh & Easy Parent Tesco to Bring Express Stores to China
Vox Populi: The People Speak on a Fresh & Easy Store
The 33 reviews range from very positive, to rather negative, and a few in between. They also range from long treatises, to reviews consisting of short and pithy sentences. (The store is located at 4211 Eagle Rock Blvd., Los Angeles, California, 90065.)
Based on our sources and on reader comments, the Eagle Rock store has been on of the busiest and most popular Fresh & Easy grocery markets to date. There currently are 33 Fresh & Easy grocery markets in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada.
Read the Yelp.com store reviews here.
Friday, January 25, 2008
New Fresh & Easy Store Opens in San Jacinto, California
The store is the second Fresh & Easy location in the San Jacinto Valley, which is part of the sprawling and fast-growing Southern California desert region. The other valley store, in the city of Hemet, was actually the very first Fresh & Easy market to open in late October, 2007. That store was scheduled to be one of the first to officially open on November 5, 2007, but actually had a "stealth" soft-opening two weeks earlier, making it the very first Fresh & Easy store of the chain to open its doors for business.
Today's Valley Chronicle, a local newspaper in the region, has a story on the new San Jacinto store's grand opening today. You can read that story here.
Tesco, parent company of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets, plans to eventually open 44 stores in the vast Southern California desert region of which the San Jacinto Valley is a part of, making the area a major target market for the convenience-oriented, hybrid basic grocery and prepared/specialty foods' format stores.
Newest Fresh & Easy Store Opens in Fallbrook, California
The Fallbrook store's grand opening was a bit more subdued than the one the day before for Fresh & Easy's new store on Hollywood Blvd., in Hollywood, California. (Read our piece from Wednesday on the Hollywood store grand opening here.)
It was however a grand, grand opening none-the-less. Several Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market executives joined the store's manager, store associates and local city VIP's to cut a ribbon and officially open the newest grocery store in this city of about 35,000.
And although it isn't Hollywood, the city has its own claim to fame: The area around the city is known for its avocado groves and avocado farming industry. And in celebration of that, the city of Fallbrook has proclaimed itself the "Avocado Capital of the World." Each spring the city holds its Avocado Festival, which draws thousands of people from miles around to the city to celebrate the local avocado bounty.
The Fallbrook store is the 34th Fresh & Easy grocery market to open since November 5, 2007, when the first stores opened in Southern California. Fresh & Easy, which is owned by British mega-retailer Tesco, currently operates stores in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada. The grocer plans to enter Northern California later this year with its small-format stores, which combine basic groceries at a low price, with fresh, prepared and specialty foods items. (Read our story from yesterday about Fresh & Easy's Northern California plans here.)
There were a couple hundred local residents at the Fallbrook Fresh & Easy store grand opening yesterday. Most of the them rushed into the store when the doors were open for the first time. The Fresh & Easy is in a former Do-It Center home improvement store building which had been vacant for some time until Fresh & Easy remodeled it to fit its format.
Local members of the Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce expressed much pleasure with the fact that the grocer took an empty retail building and turned it into a food store. Fallbrook Chamber director Bob Leonard said he believed the new Fresh & Easy would help to stimulate the local economy by keeping shoppers who drive out of town for prepared, organic and specialty foods in town, shopping at the market.
As part of the grand opening celebration, Fresh & Easy gave a $1,000 donation to the Angel's Society, a local charity. The grocer makes a $1,000 donation to a local non-profit group chosen by store associates each time it opens a new store.
Leonard of the Chamber of Commerce said that although the city has a number of large supermarkets, including an Albertsons and two good-sized popular independents, he thinks Fresh & Easy will do well in the community, especially with the store's selection of prepared, natural, organic and specialty foods and groceries, which he added aren't available in the other local supermarkets to a large degree.
In closing, we would expect the Fallbrook Fresh & Easy store to make sure it has a very large fresh avocado display in its produce department come harvest season, not to mention making sure it sells every type of grocery product it can find with avocados as part of its ingredients: avocado chip dips, oils, salad dressings, breads, and on and on. After all, the store is located in the "Avocado Capital of the World."
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Tesco Boss Sir Terry Leahy Says 2008 to be a Tough Year for Retail Internationally
Tesco Developing New Urban Department Store-Style Format Stores: Will Sell Groceries and Upscale Non-Foods Side-by-Side
Every the busy format innovator, Tesco also is in development of yet another new format: a multi-level town centre (urban-style) department store that would sell food and groceries, consumer electronics, housewares, clothing, jewelry, toys and other non-foods items. The stores would be two-to-three stories in size, with escalators linking the floors, according to a report by the Financial Times. The original source of the information came from a Tesco report on the new store format which was leaked to and published in the British trade publication Property Week.
Tesco already operates large, full-service mass merchandising or hypermart-type stores. However, that store format is too big for most urban locations. The new Tesco department store-style shops would be about 60,000 square feet. The stores would offer fresh foods and grocery products side-by-side with the assortment of non-foods goods mentioned above.
According to the internal paper on the format, Tesco will target Mark's & Spencer, Debenhams, BHS and a couple others who already operate similar format stores.
Many UK retail industry observers are wondering however if Tesco might be going too far. Between all the Tesco supermarkets, hypermarkets, Tesco Extra and Tesco Express format stores--and now the new no-frills, small-format grocery markets in development, and the new department store-style format--the retailer has been opening over the last five years or so, they say what they call "Tesco fatigue" might be setting in with consumers. These observers site the fact that British supermarket chain Wm Morrison beat Tesco considerably in fourth quarter holiday season sales as an example of that possible "Tesco fatigue" on the part of shoppers.
However, other observers say if Tesco does enter this segment of the retail market they will exert serious competitive pressure on its current players. they especially say Tesco will be a major player on London's High Street, where many of the top department store-style format stores are located, including Marks & Spencer's top-grossing store of that format.
You can read the full Financial Times story here.
The 'Perishable Pundit' Says Jury Still Out on Fresh & Easy: We Agree
We--and our own intelligence network which is growing every day--tend to agree with the observations the Perishable Pundit is hearing. Industry sources and vendors have told us they are doing good business in some Fresh & Easy stores, but doing very little in many others.
We also get regular updates from numerous Fresh & Easy shoppers. Thus far, one common theme we've heard from them is that nearly every time they go in their local Fresh & Easy, it's near-empty. One exception--and we hear this often--is the Fresh & Easy in the city of Los Angeles. Based on the reports we've recieved, it sounds like the store is humming along well, and full of shoppers. We're sure there are other stores doing similar brisk business, but based on our reader and source feedback, observation, and Prevor's network, we aren't hearing much about those stores if they do indeed exist.
Prevor isn't writing-off Fresh & Easy by any means in his piece. Nor are we. It's still very early--the first store has only been open since early November, 2007. However, he suggests--and we concur in large part--that there will need to be some format and merchandising tweaks and changes to the stores by Tesco in the near future.
We recently has a conversation with a Fresh & Easy store manager who told us he has expressed those same views to corporate executives. He said they were very receptive to his comments. One of those comments he shared with us was that he told a corporate executive that the company needs to localize its stores much more. We agree with that completely--and think Fresh & Easy is beginning to figure that out.
Read Prevor's full piece in the Perishable Pundit here.
Resource:
Jim Prevor has written numerous pieces about Tesco and Fresh & Easy in the last year or so. You can view a list of his stories (with links to the articles) here.
Fresh & Easy Locking-Up Leases For Northern California Invasion
Here's what we know about the Fresh & Easy Northern California invasion plan to date:
>Tesco has confirmed only one location in Northern California thus far. That site is in the Bayview-Hunters' Point neighborhood in San Francisco. The neighborhood is a low-to-moderate income one, and has a majority African American population, although that is changing rapidly as younger generations of African Americans move out of the city to the outlying regions where homes are more affordable.
Fresh & Easy store executives held a ribbon cutting ceremony at the Bayview-Hunters' Point location late last year, along with San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom, and members of a neighborhood group who've been trying to get a grocery store that sells fresh foods in the neighborhood for at least a decade. Tesco has signed a lease for the site. The store will be the retail anchor of a brand new mixed-use, primarily residential condo and apartment development on Third Street in the neighborhood. Additionally, A San Francisco city official and a commercial real estate agent told us they know of at least two other sights in the city of nearly 800,000 that Tesco Fresh & Easy representatives are currently negotiating for.
>Tesco has signed a lease for a location in the city of San Jose, the largest city in the Bay Area with nearly one million residents. The Fresh & Easy store will be on Bird Avenue in a former Albertsons supermarket. Tesco will remodel the empty supermarket building to fit its Fresh & Easy format. Further, our commercial real estate source, and a San Jose city government sources, tell us Fresh & Easy is looking at as many as 3-4 more locations in the city for its combination basic grocery/fresh, prepared foods grocery markets.
>Tesco has signed a lease for a store in Fairfield, California. The Bay Area city is located about 40 miles from San Francisco on the freeway route to Sacramento. Fairfield is about 70 miles from Sacramento.
>Tesco is looking to make the east Bay Area city of Oakland its retail beachead in the Bay Area. The grocer has already locked-up a lease for at least one store site, and is in the process of negotiating for another. Additionally, a commercial real estate source told us he has talked with Tesco about 2-3 other potential locations in Oakland for Fresh & Easy stores. A local Oakland city government official also said at a recent Bay Area economic forum that Fresh & Easy has told her that they want to locate as many as five stores in the City, which is located just over the Bay Bridge from San Francisco.
>Tesco has signed a lease in Concord's Clayton Valley Shopping Center, where it plans to open a Fresh & Easy grocery market in 2009. The leased building in the center is about 14,000 square feet. Concord is in the east Bay Area, about 15 miles from Oakland.
The above locations are all in the Bay Area, and are what we have confirmed as "done deals" for Fresh & Easy stores to date.
Tesco is negotiating over numerous other sights throughout the Bay Area however. According to our commercial real estate and city and county government sources, the grocer is looking in the east Bay Area cities of Hayward, Walnut Creek, Antioch, Oakely, Pittsburg, Pleasanton, Dublin and Livermore, (in addition to Concord and Oakland), where it plans on having one or more stores per-city.
Further, in addition to San Jose, the grocer also is discussing locations in the south Bay Area cities of Fremont, Redwood City, Menlo Park, San Mateo and Burlingame.
Basically, Fresh & Easy is using a similar "ring the bay" strategy for its upcoming Bay Area launch as it currently is using in Southern California. That strategy is to locate stores all over the region, creating a critical mass of the small grocery stores throughout cities and neighborhoods. We refer to this as a "Starbucks" or "Walgreens" strategy. The coffee retailer and drug store chain have used this "critical mass" retail strategy to much success in California and elsewhere.
In addition to the nine-country San Francisco Bay Area, which has a population of about 7 million people, Tesco also is negotiating with commercial real estate people for Fresh & Easy store sites in the Sacramento metropolitan region, which currently has a population of about 3 million. This includes stores in Sacramento itself, and in the nearby suburbs of Woodland and Davis, as well as others.
Tesco also plans to locate a small distribution center in the central valley city of Stockton, which is about 45 miles from Sacramento. Stockton also is about an hours drive from San Francisco. The distribution center would service Fresh & Easy stores in the Bay Area and throughout Northern and Central California.
In addition to locating the distribution center in Stockton, our sources tell us Fresh & Easy representatives are looking for store locations in the city of Stockton, and in the nearby cities of Tracy, Lathrop, Manteca and Modesto. The region from Stockton and Tracy to Modesto, has over 1 million residents.
Tesco's number-one priority in Northern California clearly is the San Francisco Bay Area. Second is the Sacramento region, and third is the rest of Northern and central California.
Based on discussions with commercial real estate people, government officials and other sources, we think Tesco plans on opening about 30-50 Fresh & Easy stores in Northern California by the end of 2009.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Big 'Hollywood Style' Premere Today for New Hollywood Fresh & Easy Store
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
New Post (or Date) at the Fresh & Easy Corporate Blog
We checked the F&E corporate blog four times yesterday: just seconds before we started writing our story, once we finished writing our story, right before we posted it, and about three hours later on Monday evening. All four times the current post dated January 20 was dated December 14, 2007.
Sounds like Gremlins in the system, date changers (similar to shape shifters we're told) or something similar we suspect. A bit mysterious though.
In any event, we're just glad to see a new post on the blog. We harbor no illusions we had anything to do with the date change. Great pictures of the prepared foods items in the blog post as well!
Now, it would be nice if someone at the blog would answer those three reader questions in the comments box on the December 14, 2007 post. One reader actually has offered his answer to one of the questions. All three are good questions, and it would be nice to read F&E's answers to them.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Click! Click!: Who's Minding the Fresh & Easy Corporate Blog?
We thought (and still do) doing so was a great idea. Corporate blogs can in many ways not only be a great communication device for retailers to reach a wider audience They also can be sort of a digital extension of the retail storefront in terms of marketing, media relations, customer and employee communications.
However, just like retail storefronts that get neglected--which leads to all sorts of negative results--corporate blogs that get neglected can actually result in being a negative aspect of a retailer's business, rather than a positive one, which we feel they are when kept current and up to-date.
Such we feel is the current state of affairs on the Fresh & Easy corporate blog. The last posting on the blog--which we enjoyed--was on December 14, 2007, a full five weeks ago. Additionally, in the comments section of that post are four comments, three of which are questions to the blogger. None of the three questions have been answered by Mr. Uwins or members of his marketing staff.
It's not like nothing has happened since December 14, 2007. How about the Christmas and New Year's holiday's for starters: They're generally the two biggest shopping days of the year for grocery retailers. There must be at least one or two bits of news from the holiday season at the stores that Fresh & Easy could share with the world.
A few other things have happened since December 14, 2007 as well. For example: Many more Fresh & Easy stores have opened, Tesco had a ribbon-cutting ceremony at a San Francisco location that will be it's first confirmed Fresh & Easy store in Northern California, and Wal-Mart has decided to get into the small-format grocery business in Arizona and compete against Fresh & Easy. Those happenings are just for starters on the Fresh & Easy news front.
As we said in our opening paragraph, it's our belief the Fresh & Easy corporate blog is a great idea. However, when the bloggers don't respond to reader questions in the comment box, it suggests to us that the team isn't customer-service oriented. That's a bad reflection on store level associates who are striving to serve shoppers.
Additionally, when the blog goes without an update for five weeks, it makes us wonder what is up at Fresh & Easy HQ? We know the folks there must be super-busy. But how long does it take to write a little update on the blog at least once a week? Not long, is the answer to that question.
What we'd like to see happen over at the F&E blog:
>Update the blog with something new at least once a week.
>Post comments to the blog in a timely manner. We know for a fact that some comments aren't posted to the blog for weeks. The bloggers moderate the blog, which means comments don't go immediatly to it. That's fine, we do it ourselves for security reasons. We also make sure to post the comments within a day or two, three at the most. It's just common curtesy to do so; if a reader takes the time to read what you write, and to write a comment or ask a question, the least a blogger can do is post (or delete if it is offensive) those comments in a timely manner.
>Either answer comment questions or post a "no comment." This is customer service 101. Remember, your blog is an extension of your stores.
We're looking forward to seeing a brand new post on the Fresh & Easy corporate blog soon. We know there's lots of great stuff the marketing staff can share with the blog's readers. Also, we're looking forward to seeing the reader comment questions answered soon as well.
The blog is a great idea, as we said above. We support it. However, great initial ideas that aren't followed-up on and nurtured can become bad ones in no time flat.
But just like the grocery store that went neglected, and soon lost most of its customers do to its lack of attention, a corporate blog can be a positive force for a business, or a negative one.
Communication is a multi-channel phenomenon. When one of the two channels--the reader in this case--isn't being responded to, they stop reading the blog. It isn't hard to assume they also aren't likely to shop in that retail blogger's stores either--nor suggest the retailer to his or her friends and family.
A 'Dinosaur Mom' Talks About Fresh & Easy
She calls her blog "Astrodon Johnstoni," which is the Maryland state dinosaur. She lived in Maryland for many years before moving to Arizona. Bet you didn't even know states had state dinosaur's? For our British friends who think that a bit odd, keep in mind that people in the states think it's a bit strange to name a "royal" grocery store. By the way--is it Tesco, Sainsbury's or Waitrose that's the "royal" chain in Britain these days?
Read the "Dinosaur Mom's" thoughts and words about Fresh & Easy and the other grocers in her community here.
PS: Retailer's hate seeing the name of their chain and the word dinosaur in the same sentence. After all, becoming a retail dinosaur is not high on the wish list of any grocer.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Tesco's Corporate Holiday Season Sales Mixed
The retailer saw its stock share price drop heavily earlier this week on the news. Sales in its core United Kingdom (UK) market, which makes up about 75% of Tesco's retail sales, missed market analyst expectations. Its poor showing in the UK was due in large part to an exceptional showing by UK food retailer Morrisons, one of Tesco's chef competitors.
Tesco's sales abroad were much better though, and continue to surge due in large part to numerous new store openings in Europe, Eastern Europe, the USA and elsewhere.
The British retailer also said the initial response by consumers in the Western U.S. to its Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores has been "very encouraging." The retailer currently has 29 of the small-format, convenience-oriented grocery markets in California, Arizona and Nevada. Tesco hopes to have as many as 200 stores open in these markets by the end of 2008.
Read a complete analysis of Tesco's holiday season sales and earnings here.
Tesco's Fresh & Easy Using Shades to Keep Things Cool; and Green
The cooler shades are from Phoenix, Arizona-based Supermarket Energy Technologies, according to a story in Wednesday's Arizona Republic.
As pictured above, the cooler shades go over the front of the case. They keep the cool air from getting out of the refrigeration case, both when the store is open and when it's closed at night.
Grocers believe open refrigeration cases tend to spur more impulse sales from shoppers, but they also use much more energy than closed door units. The refrigeration case shades are designed to decrease the amount of energy used, while still allowing easy-access by shoppers to the products on the refrigeration case shelves. (Read the full story here.)
Picture: Arizona Republic. Dan Bunch, president of the company that makes the cooler shades, poses with the shaded refrigeration cases in a Fresh & Easy store in the Poenix, Arizona region.Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Advertising Circular
A question for our readers: Are any of you getting the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market retail advertising circular? If you are, please let us know what you think about it, either in our comments box at the end of this post, or via email. If you email us your comments, just tell us in the email if you don't want your named used--we won't use it. And of course, if you choose, you can post anon in the comments box. Our email address: freshneasybuzz@yahoo.com.
Columnist Says The Fresh & Easy Thrill is Gone
Wal-Mart and Safeway vs. Fresh & Easy
It's a good analysis, and we suggest reading it as a way to get a good lay of the land on what the blog calls the small-format food retailing revolution currently going on in the U.S. (read the story here.)
Additionally, the website retailwire has a discussion here about a similar topic, but with a primary focus on Wal-Mart's new MarketSide small-format stores, and a secondary focus on the competitive aspects of Wal-Mart vs. Tesco's Fresh & Easy.
Enjoy!
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Tesco: The Rise of a Retail Giant in Ireland
Read Kelly's piece, Tesco: Rise of a retail giant, here.
Can Tesco, parent company of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets in the USA, do the same in America?
Stay tuned.
Website Writer Loves Fresh & Easy, Especially Store in Indio, California
The writer especially likes the store at 42nd and Jackson Street in the desert town of Indio, California.
Read what desertbest.com thinks about the Indio store, the Fresh & Easy format, and other things here.
Fresh & Easy Inks Deal for New Las Vegas Store
The new store location is nearby the famous Las Vegas strip. Since the total square footage Fresh & Easy leased is 30,678 square feet, and the Fresh & Easy store format averages 13,000 to 15,000 square feet, we think the retailer will sublease the remaining square footage to another retailer.
To date, Fresh & Easy has five grocery markets in Nevada. All are located in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which is the grocer's primary target market in the state.
A Shopper Writes About a Fresh & Easy Store
Read what Jon found at the store, and his views on his shopping trip and the store and format overall here.
Fresh & Easy Goes Hollywood: New Store to Open Next Week
Hollywood Blvd. is where celebrities of movie, television and other show biz fame have stars on the sidewalk with their names on them. The street also is home to the famous Mann's Chinese Theatre, and to the fairly new Kodak Theatre, where the Academy Awards and EMMY Awards celebrations are held each year.
The Fresh & Easy Hollywood Blvd. store will have its grand opening on Wednesday, January 23. The store, located at Hollywood Blvd. and Sycamore, will have a ribbon-cutting ceremony to kick the grand opening off. Fresh & Easy CEO Tim Mason will be joined by local officials, neighborhood residents and store employees at the ribbon-cutting.
Grand opening events will go on all day. These include food samplings, store tours and entertainment. Fresh & Easy also will donate $1,000 to a local non-profit organization to be named.
Above is the Fresh & Easy store location in a center on Hollywood Blvd. in Hollywood.
The Hollywood Blvd. neighborhood where the new store is located is an interesting one. The area has become increasingly residential over the last five years. It also hosts thousands of tourists daily, especially in the spring and summer. They come to view the "Walk of Stars," tour the theaters, and enjoy the sights. These sights include numerous street vendors and other interesting folks, who all are looking for their shot at stardom.
The neighborhood also has a vibrant nightlife scene. There are numerous restaurants, cafes and nightclubs, that draw people from all over the region.
There currently are few grocery stores in the immediate neighborhood, so the location should be good for Fresh & Easy. It also should provide the retailer with some interesting publicity for it's retail operation: The Hollywood tabloids and blogs love to report on celebrity sightings at the city's supermarkets. It's likely they will add the new Fresh & Easy market to their location list, especially with it being right on Hollywood Blvd.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Citigroup Supermarket Industry Analyst Confirms Wal-Mart Small Marts in Arizona
The 20,000 square foot stores, named "MarketSide," will have a large assortment of fresh foods, according to Weinswig.
"It's not intended to take on Tesco but just part of a natural evolution for the company," Weinswig told Supermarket News.
Weiswig also said her source at Wal-Mart confirmed the four Arizona locations that were first reported in the Financial Times yesterday, and that we reported here. Those store locations will be in the Arizona cities of Chandler, Mesa, Tempe and Gilbert. (You can get the exact store addresses and other details here.)
While we respect Ms. Weinswig's opinion--and know she's just repeating what she was told from the Wal-Mart source--we believe a little more than "natural evolution" caused Wal-Mart to decide to open the small format, "MarketSide" stores. That something, along with whatever "natural evolution" has taken place, is the mega-retailer's strong desire to not allow Tesco to take food sales market share away from it in the U.S.
Another reason, and a good one, is that Wal-Mart has been stymied in states throughout the U.S. by county and city governments and neighborhood groups (as well as by national groups) in it's ability to get approved and build the number of Supercenters it wants to. This has prevented the retailer from obtaining the amount of food sales' market share it desires in the U.S.
The small format grocery markets will not only allow Wal-Mart to go head-to-head with Tesco's Fresh & Easy stores--along with doing so with other small format grocers in the U.S. like Aldi, with its increasingly popular no frills, price-impact grocery stores--it will also enable the retailer to put food stores in places where it hasn't been able to locate Supercenters do to this intense opposition.
Weinswig also said she believes it's a good idea for Wal-Mart to test the new format in the Phoenix area, "because Arizona has been a very good market for the company over the past couple years."
Wal-Mart Confirms it Will Test New Small Store Format Later This Year
Sunday, January 13, 2008
The Battle of the Retail Titans Begins: Wal-Mart to Open Small Format Stores in Arizona
All four of the cities where these four new stores will open are south-east of Phoenix. Further, some of the stores will be only a mile from where Tesco has, or soon will have, Fresh & Easy grocery markets. You can bet these four won't be the only small-format stores Wal-Mart opens in the region--or in the U.S.
The new, small-format stores from Wal-Mart will operate under the "MarketSide" banner. The "MarketSide" stores will be about 20,000 square feet, 5,000 to 7,000 square feet bigger than Fresh & Easy stores.
Read the Financial Times story here.
With Wal-Mart entering the small-format grocery arena, we're poised to see a battle between it and Tesco's Fresh & Easy like none that have been seen in decades--and maybe even ever--in U.S. food retailing history.
We will be covering this development closely, and often. Stay tuned.
Additionally, the blog Natural~Specialty Foods Memo has some added information to the Financial Times piece. You can read their story here.
Friday, January 11, 2008
New Fresh & Easy store opens in Huntington Beach, California
Fresh & Easy store associates presented a $1,000 check to representatives of the West County Boys and Girls Club, a local non-profit youth group. The retailer donates $1,000 to a local community organization each time it opens a new store.
Huntington Beach is located in Southern California's Orange County, which is a key target region for Fresh & Easy stores. A second store in Huntington Beach is set to open soon. Additionally, a store located in the Orange County city of Fountain Valley is scheduled to be open shortly. These two stores will bring the total number of Fresh & Easy stores in Orange County to date to about six, with many more on the way.
Our sources at the grand opening said shoppers crowded the aisles after the store opened, picking up grocery items and prepared foods. The store offered free samples of its prepared foods as part of the grand opening celebration.
They further told us that many of the shoppers compared the Fresh & Easy to Trader Joe's. Many also commented they liked the fact that, unlike Trader Joe's, the Fresh & Easy grocery market offers basic grocery and non-foods items, both under the Fresh & Easy label, as well as national brands.
Fresh & Easy Planning New Store in Loma Linda, Southern California
If the plans are approved by the Loma Linda planning commission on January 23, and then by the city council after that--which looks likely--the Fresh & Easy store would be the retail anchor for a 26,000 square foot shopping center at the location. The center, which would be built on a 2.6 acre lot that's been vacant for years, would also include other retail stores and a fast food restaurant, according to The Sun.
With it's rapid store development plan, Fresh & Easy has been renovating numerous previous empty retail buildings in Southern California for its 10,000 to 13,000 square foot grocery markets. Additionally, it plans to locate stores in a number of spots, like the Loma Linda location, that are looking to be developed by builders and need a retail anchor tenant.
There appears to be widespread support among members of the city's planning commission and city council (including the city's mayor) for Fresh & Easy to locate a store in the currently vacant site.
(Read the full story here.)
Heard on the Street: Fresh & Easy Employee Likes Whole Foods' Prepared Salads
If not, a blogger named Jonah over at the la.foodblogging blog just might out you on the blog. It's ok though, no names were mentioned by Jonah.
The la.foodblogging blogger was shopping in the Manhattan Beach Whole Foods' in Southern California when he saw a male customer in the store, with his Fresh & Easy name badge flopping from his belt. That was Jonah's first--and last--clue as to who the shopper was; and where he worked.
You can read Jonah's observations here.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Tesco Creating Another New Store Format: No Frills, Small Format, Price-Impact
London's Telegraph.co.uk reports today that Tesco, the third-biggest retailer in the world, began last summer converting an old warehouse owned by Jack Farmer, the retailer's founder, into a mock German discount store. The reason: To design a no frills, small format, limted assortment, discount format of its own to counter the Aldi and Lidl threat in the UK.
This is the same process Tesco used to develop its Fresh & Easy, small format grocery market chain in the U.S. The retailer acquired an old warehouse in the U.S., and used it to tinker around with various design and merchandising concepts until it arrived at what is today the Fresh & Easy store format.
In fact, according to our reading of the Telegraph.co.uk story--and some digging around over the phone with sources we did today--it sounds like the new Tesco small format, deep discount store prototype the company is currently working on might be at least one part Fresh & Easy.
That part is the low-price leader, basic grocery aspect of Fresh & Easy stores. Fresh & Easy stores open in the U.S. offer a limited assortment of private label and national brand basic groceries at very low prices--thus far lower overall prices than the supermarkets in the stores' trading areas in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada.
In fact, the format under design might be very similar to Fresh & Easy overall. Aldi and Lidl stores in Britain sell a limited assortment of high-end, specialty and natural/organic groceries and prepared foods in addition to basic groceries. The stores offer these upscale items at a super-low price as well. This is similar to Fresh & Easy stores, which combine the basic grocery concept in the stores with an extensive offering of fresh, prepared foods at reasonable prices, along with a limited selection of specialty, natural and organic groceries priced at a discount.
Aldi has about 900 stores in the U.S. They are small format, no frills stores similar to those the German grocer operates in Europe and elsewhere throughout the world. However, unlike the Tesco Fresh & Easy stores, (and unlike Aldi stores in the UK) Aldi's U.S. grocery markets don't offer much in the way of prepared foods or specialty and natural/organic grocery items. Lidl doesn't currently have any stores in the U.S.
Read the Telegraph.co.uk article, "Tesco Moves to Counter Aldi and Lidl," here.
Sidebar News: Tesco isn't waiting for its new, no frills, small discount store format to be finished: This week the retailer will begin to match Aldi's and Lidl's prices on over 2,000 items in its Tesco supermarkets in Britain. The giant retailer also just launched 300 no-frills Lidl and Aldi-style products, with another 200 items on the way. Read more here.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Whole Foods' Exec Shruggs Off Fresh & Easy as Competitor
Asked in the piece (titled: A humbling year for Whole Foods) by reporter Lilly Rockwell about Fresh & Easy as a competitor, with its rapid store development program in California particularly, Sud said: "There is competition everywhere. Our goal is to be the best food retailer in every market we operate. One of the strengths of Whole Foods Market is its ability to innovate and grow and evolve. And, our new stores are a testament to that," he adds.
Our Analysis and View:
We agree about 75% with Sud. Fresh & Easy grocery markets are dramatically different than Whole Foods' food and lifestyle stores. Whole Foods stores are huge and upscale. Fresh & Easy markets are small format and fairly no-frills. Whole Foods' focuses on selling a huge variety of natural and organic groceries, fresh foods and perishables. And although the grocer offers some good promotional deals, price competition isn't a key element of the supernatural retailer's positioning.
On the other hand, Fresh & Easy's focus is on offering a limited selection of private label and national brand basic grocery items, along with an extensive selection of fresh, prepared foods.
Fresh produce, meats and specialty and natural groceries are secondary (and limited in assortment) for Fresh & Easy.
Price also is key in the British grocer's positioning. Fresh & Easy offers the private label and national brand basic grocery items at low, everyday retail prices (often lower than supermarkets), and has extremely reasonable prices on its extensive line of fresh, prepared foods.
But, it is in the area of prepared foods where we depart (at least 25% worth) from agreement with Sud. One of Whole Foods' biggest growth areas is in fresh, prepared foods. These in-store prepared items aren't cheap. The quality is high, the taste generally excellent, and all the ingredients are natural or organic.
While we see this area continuing to be a major growth area for Whole Foods, we also believe that in places like California, where Fresh & Easy is building scores of stores, that the grocer will have a competitive effect on Whole Foods' prepared foods sales.
Why? First, food prices (including prepared foods) are rising dramatically in the U.S. Additionally, the outlook for the 2008 economy is poor--high energy prices, loss of jobs, credit crunch, soaring food prices and more. Many economists, and even U.S. government-affiliated agencies, are predicting a 50% chance of a recession in the U.S. this year. And these same experts are predicting inflation if an all out recession is avoided.
Second, although Fresh & Easy's fresh, prepared foods are produced in a central kitchen in Southern California and shipped daily to its stores, they are of high quality, especially based on the retail prices the grocer is currently selling the items for.
They aren't of the quality level, or taste level, of Whole Foods' in-store prepared foods items in our opinion. However, they taste good, use high-quality ingredients, and are clean from an additive and preservative standpoint. Many also are organic. In other words, high quality plus reasonable prices equals excellent value. All shoppers love value, regardless of their income or educational level.
This fact, combined with the rising food prices and cost of living (not to mention possible recession), will drive many consumers to Fresh & Easy stores for some of their prepared foods' purchases we believe. Many of these shoppers will be Whole Foods' customers who will shop Fresh & Easy as a secondary market--with a primary focus on buying the prepared foods items.
Since Tesco is building and plans on opening so many Fresh & Easy stores in California especially, Whole Foods' will see some erosion in its overall prepared foods sales, especially this year, due to the poor economy. This will of course depend on the particular Whole Foods store and neighborhood, and how close a Fresh & Easy grocery market is to that store.
Whole Foods' need not worry much overall about the competitive effect from Fresh & Easy however. It is true what Sud says--the supernatural grocer is an innovator. New concepts like gourmet restaurants, wine bars, mini day spa's--all innovations incorporated in many of the new stores the grocer opened in California and elsewhere last year--will keep Whole Foods fresh and important for shoppers. We are bullish on the chain, and believe it has much growth ahead.
However, not realizing that Fresh & Easy, which will have over 50 stores in Southern California alone by the end of this year, isn't going to exert some competitive pressure on Whole Foods is wrong, in our opinion. And, as we said, this competitive pressure will come primarily in the fresh, prepared foods category.
Learning From Trader Joe's: Setting the Bar High For Fresh & Easy
A look inside a Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in Southern California.