Eight Plus One: Napa Unit Added to Eight Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Opening in Northern CA in Early 2011

Northern California Market Special Report
News/Analysis/Commentary

In addition to the first batch of eight Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores Tesco has announced it will open in Northern California in early 2011, Fresh & Easy Buzz has learned the retailer plans to open a ninth store, in Napa, California in early 2011.

[Read our August 21, 2010 story - April 2010 Prediction Correct: February 2011 Target to Open First Eight Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores in Northern California and our August 19, 2010 piece - Tesco Will Open its First Eight Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores in Northern California in 'Early 2011.' - for the complete information. The locations of the eight stores are in the links stories.]

The Napa location is at Jefferson Street and Imola in the central city of the Northern San Francisco Bay Area region known throughout the world for its grape-growing and wine making (and specialty and organic foods) industries, along with its food and wine culture.

The soon-to-be Fresh & Easy store at Jefferson Street and Imola in Napa - which will be housed in a vacant building that for many years was home to a grocery store owned and operated by local grocer Vallergas Markets but was closed by the family-owned retailer a number of years ago - is one of the original 18 (37 total in Northern California) Bay Area markets the grocer announced in January 2008 it planned to open in the region. However, instead of starting to open the 37 Northern California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores by early 2009 as planned, Tesco's Fresh & Easy postponed the launch, finally announcing the early 2011 date last month.

The former Vellergas Market store in Napa is about 19,000 square-feet. Tesco's Fresh & Easy holds the lease on the entire building. Fresh & Easy generally uses no more than about 14,000 square-feet for its stores, with about 10,000 -to-11,000 square-feet of selling space. The grocer has about 5,000 square-feet of room to spare in this location, based on its traditional format size.
Fresh & Easy Buzz would use the additional 5,000 square-feet in three ways:

1. Create an expanded wine department, featuring a localized Napa/Sonoma design motif and expanded Napa/Sonoma Valley-produced wine selection, along with including a wine tasting bar. Doing this is not only smart merchandising for the store location - Napa - but it also would serve as the hanging out of a welcoming sign by Tesco's Fresh & Easy to potential Napa shoppers, saying: 'We've incorporated what is a major part of Napa culture and commerce into our store.'

2. Build an in-store eat-in area, to go with the Fresh & Easy prepared foods-focus, and include a coffee/espresso bar. The Fresh & Easy fresh baked goods offerings would be tied-in with the coffee bar, prepared foods offerings and eat-in tables and counter.

The neighborhood, which we've visited, has a need for this type of offering. It would be a major attraction for the store, along with helping to create a stronger customer base. Shoppers would also spend more time in the store, which generally leads to buying more than when they dash in and out. That equals higher market basket purchases. Plus, it's the perfect location for Fresh & Easy to experiment with such an in-store venue - and the building has ample room for it.

3. Locate a small "neighborhood/customer" service center kiosk inside the store, near the front-end, where a clerk would cash payroll and government checks, sell money orders, gift cards and offer various other for-pay services (prepaid cell phones maybe, ect.), along with some related goods like postage stamps and the like. Napa, and the neighborhood, has a significant Hispanic population, who work in the wine industry. Many of these folks use the local supermarkets as their banks. They are wonderful and loyal customers. They buy their groceries at the stores where they can cash their checks.

In this June 26, 2010 piece - Tesco Planning to Announce in July When First Northern California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores to Open - we said Tesco's Fresh & Easy planned to announce when it would open its first batch of stores in Northern California before the end of July. The grocer made its announcement 19 days later, on August 19, 2010. July-end was the planned target announcement time line.

Additionally, in a July 29, 2010 story - Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Putting Together List of Managers Interested in Transferring to Northern California - we reported that Tesco's fresh & Easy was asking retail district managers and store managers, primarily those who work in its Central Valley and Southern California operations and stores if they were interested in transfering to Northern California when the first batch of stores open in early 2011. As noted, Fresh & Easy made the Northern California store opening announcement on August 19. [See our Northern California Fresh & Easy Store List.]

We've learned a Northern California regional director been hired by Tesco's Fresh & Easy. However, we're witholding the person's name for now, so as to not cause any difficulties regarding his current position.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has placed advertisements, including in local daily newspapers with circulation in the respective cities, for store managers for the first eight announced Northern California stores, along with for the Napa store - See: Retail - Store Manager (Napa, California).

Fresh & Easy hasn't publicly announced, via press release or other means, that the Napa store has been added to the first batch of stores it plans to open in early 2011.

The eight stores, plus one, are:

>San Francisco: 3rd St & Carroll Ave
>San Jose: Bird Ave & Minnesota Ave
>Danville: Diablo Blvd & Hwy 680
>Pacifica: Cabrillo Hwy & Linda Mar Blvd
>Vacaville: Elmira Rd & Nut Tree Rd
>Modesto: Oakdale Rd & Lancey Dr
>Walnut Creek: Ygnacio Valley Rd & San Carlos Dr
>Concord: Clayton Rd & Ygnacio Valley Rd

>Napa: Jefferson Street & Imola

We'll have additional news regarding Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in Northern California coming soon. Stay tuned.

Stories thus far in our 2010 'Northern California Market Special Report' series

September 5, 2010: BevMo Chain Ends Full Time Employment For Store Workers; They Say No Way and Join With UFCW Union to Demand 'A Better BevMo'

September 3, 2010: How the California Grocers Association and its Members Can Snatch Victory From the Jaws of the Defeat of California's Plastic Bag Ban

August 25, 2010: Going Rural: New Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store Planned for Sutter Creek in Northern California

August 23, 2010: Hybrid 'Good Eats' Market-Cafe From Raley's CEO Michael Teel & Company Opens Today in Sacramento CA

August 22, 2010: The Insider: Challenges & Opportunities: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Will Supply its Northern CA Stores From its Riverside County DC in Southern CA

August 21, 2010: April 2010 Prediction Correct: February 2011 Target to Open First Eight Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores in Northern California

August 19, 2010: Tesco Will Open its First Eight Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores in Northern California in 'Early 2011.'

August 17, 2010: Henry's Farmers Market 'Beats' Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Northern California Despite Multi-Year Head Start; Elk Grove Store Opens Tomorrow

July 29, 2010: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Putting Together List of Managers Interested in Transferring to Northern California

July 25, 2010: Safeway to Start Construction on New Pleasanton, California Flagship Store Soon; Thanksgiving 2011 Target Opening

July 22, 2010: 'The Insider' - After Four Years in the High Weeds in Northern & Central California, Kroger Co. is Emerging to Grow its Foods Co Chain

July 21, 2010: Vacant Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store in Pacifica, California Has the City's Mayor in a Pickle

July 18, 2010: 'The Insider' - When it Comes to Northern California - its Competitors are Rome Burning and Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is Nero Playing the Fiddle

July 14, 2010: Tony Bennett Has Nothing on Whole Foods Market When it Comes to Loving San Francisco...That City By the Bay

July 6, 2010: Walmart Looking for Store Sites in Northern California For 20,000 Sq-Ft Neighborhood Market by Walmart Prototype Store

June 28, 2010: Smart & Final to Open its New Format SmartCo Foods Stores in California and Arizona

June 26, 2010: Tesco Planning to Announce in July When First Northern California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores to Open

June 14, 2010: Newly-Named Whole Foods Market CO-CEO Walter Robb Comes Full Circle With the Opening of the New Store in Mill Valley CA

June 5, 2010: Sprouts Farmers Market Opens First Northern California Store in Sunnyvale; Strikes Up Partnership With Local Non-Profit Farm

May 29, 2010: Going Rural: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Build First Store in Los Banos, California

May 28, 2010: First Phase of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market-Anchored Condo Development in San Francisco's Bayview Set For Completion in June

April 19, 2010: Tesco Debating Whether to Launch Fresh & Easy Into Northern California This Fiscal Year... or Wait

May 9, 2010: A Whopping 15 of Whole Foods Market's 41 New Stores in Development are in California - And Nine of The 15 Are In Northern CA

May 8, 2010: Sprouts, and Likely Henry's to Beat Fresh & Easy to Northern California Despite it's Big Head Start

May 6, 2010: Going Smaller & Getting 'Hybrid': Walmart's Smaller Supercenter in Vacant Retail Buildings Strategy Began in 2008

April 19, 2010: Tesco Debating Whether to Launch Fresh & Easy Into Northern California This Fiscal Year... or Wait

[Also: click here , here and here for a selection of past stories on Fresh & Easy and Northern Calfornia.]