Two New Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Open in Fresno, California Region Today

Customers wait to enter the New Fresh & Easy store in Fresno, California this morning. The grand opening started at 10 am.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market opened its two newest stores this morning to waiting crowds.

The two new markets, which make 165 Fresh & Easy stores as of today, are located in the Fresno Metropolitan region in California's Central Valley.

One store is in Fresno, in a shopping center on the southeast corner of Cedar and Shields avenues. The address is: 3040 North Cedar Avenue. The second Fresh & Easy market is right next door to Fresno, in Clovis. The Clovis store, the second Fresh & Easy unit in the city, is on the northwest corner of Herndon and Fowler avenues, at 1725 Herdon Avenue.

Grand opening celebrations, which started this morning at 10 am, are currently going on at both stores.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market now has seven stores in the Fresno Metropolitan region. In addition to the two stores in Clovis, the opening of the new store today in Fresno makes a total of four Fresh & Easy units for Fresno. There's also a Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market fresh food and grocery store in Reedley, which is in the Fresno Metro region.

Seven & Seven [stores] for the Central Valley

In addition to its seven stores in the Fresno region in California's Central Valley, Tesco has seven Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market locations farther south in the valley, in the Bakersfield region. Five of the seven stores are in Bakersfield; one is in nearby Wasco; and the other in Delano.

Fresh & Easy by the (store) numbers - and regions

Below is a tally, as of today, of the 165 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores by region:

~Southern California
=90 stores

~Central Valley, California/Bakersfield region
=7 stores

~Central Valley, California/Fresno region
=7 stores

~Metropolitan Las Vegas, Southern Nevada
=27 stores

~Metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona region
=34 stores

~Total Number stores = 165

Three new stores opening next week

Three new Fresh & Easy markets are set to open on Wednesday, September 22.

All three of the markets are in the San Diego Metro region in Southern California. Two of the stores are in Oceanside and one unit is in San Diego. The locations of the stores are:

>32nd Street & University Avenue, San Diego, California
>River Road. & College Boulevard, Oceanside, California
>College Boulevard & Oceanside Boulevard, Oceanside, California

The September 22 openings are the last three new stores, of the nine units that will have been opened by Tesco's Fresh & Easy this month, set to open in September. At the end of September, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood market will have 168 stores open and operating in California, southern Nevada and Metro Phoenix, Arizona.

Fresh & Easy Buzz has been calling this month 'Big Bag' September for Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market because of the high number - nine - stores it's opening this month.

But the fresh food and grocery chain didn't open any new stores in May, June, July or August 2010, instead it bunched them all up for openings this month - hence the 'Big Bang' title, so to speak. We reported Tesco's Fresh & Easy was doing this in a June 25, 2010 story: A Four Month Pause: No New Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Set to Open Until September 2010].

Therefore, the high number of openings this month should be viewed in this light. For example, if the grocer opened just one new store a month, from May through August, and two stores this month, it would have achieved the same results, a total of nine new stores open and operating by the end of September 2010.

Fresh & Easy has followed this new store opening "bunching up" strategy all year.

To learn what the grocer did from February -to- April of this year in terms of new store openings, read our stories linked at the end of the piece here.

October 2010 openings

As of today, Tesco's Fresh & Easy hasn't announced any new store openings for October.

As we've previously reported, so far, according to our sources, three new stores are planned for October 2010 openings. However, new store openings are a moving target at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market headquarters in El Segundo, California. Therefore the number of new stores to be opened in October could increase before the grocery chain makes an announcement, which should be coming soon. Our reporting and planned number of new stores, three, is only as of today.

Related Stories:

September 8, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Hits (and Breaks) the 100-Store Mark in California With Today's Openings

September 7, 2010: 'Big Bang' September: First Four of Nine New Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Opening on September 8

July 14, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Confirms Our June 25 Report it Will Open Nine New Stores in September 2010

June 25, 2010: A Four Month Pause: No New Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Set to Open Until September 2010

June 1, 2010: No New Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Likely This Month

May 1, 2010: No New Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Set to Open This Month

March 30, 2010: Tesco Set to Open 11 New Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores in April

March 29, 2010: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Set to Hit 150-Plus Store-Count Mark on April 7

March 16, 2010: A New Fresh & Easy Store Opens in Las Vegas Tomorrow on St. Patrick's Day; Will Tesco CEO Sir Terry Leahy's Proud Irish Eyes Be Smiling?

March 7, 2010: Three New Fresh & Easy Stores Opening This Month; First Opening March 10 in Palm Springs, California

January 27, 2010: February New Store Opening 'Big Bang' For Tesco's Fresh & Easy; Nine New Stores So Far

February 24, 2010: Fresh & Easy Store Opens its Doors in South Los Angeles