Sunday, September 26, 2010

While Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Postponed, Target Opened 42 'P-Fresh' Fresh Food and Grocery Markets in Northern California

Target plans to have 'P-fresh' fresh food and grocery markets in 850 of its about 1,500 U.S. discount stores by the end of next year. The 'P-fresh' in-store markets offer fresh produce, meats, deli/prepared foods, perishables, frozen foods and packaged food/grocery items in a 10,000-12,000 square-foot store-within-a-store space. Target has 1,752 Target discount format and SuperTarget stores in the U.S.

Northern California Market Special Report
Breaking Buzz

Over the last 15-18 months, Minneapolis, Minnesota-based discount retailer Target Corp. has opened 42 small-format fresh food and grocery stores in Northern California - at locations ranging from Tracy in the Northern Central Valley and the Sacramento Metropolitan region, to throughout the San Francisco Bay Area - without building one new store. There are currently 72 Target discount stores in Northern California, which is defined as everything north to the Oregon border, and to Merced County in the Northern Central Valley.

Those grocery stores, which offer fresh produce, meats, prepared foods, perishables, frozen foods and packaged groceries, are Target's 10,000-12,000 square-foot 'P-fresh' store-within-a-store markets, which the retailer has so far installed in over half of its 72 Northern California discount format stores, allowing it to create about 450,000 square-feet of brand new food and grocery retailing square-footage in Northern California in a little over one-year's time without building a single new store.

[Related Stories - September 24, 2010: Target to Have 'P-fresh' Fresh Food & Grocery Markets in 850 Stores By 2011 End; First Smaller Urban Store Set For Seattle in 2012; and May 11, 2009: Target on Tap to Put Mini-Grocery and Fresh Foods Markets Into 100 Target Discount Stores This Year; Many More Likely to Come in 2010]

[Fresh & Easy Buzz has just completed a research project in which we've identified all of the Target discount stores in California, Nevada and Arizona, the three states where United Kingdom-based Tesco has its 168 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market small-format (about 10,000 square-feet) fresh food and grocery stores. [See this recent story for a breakdown of the 168 Fresh & Easy stores by region - September 21, 2010:Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market and Walmart Create A September New Grocery Store Rain Storm in Oceanside, California]

In our project, we first identified the total number of Target discount format stores in each region where Tesco has its Fresh & Easy markets - Southern California, Bakersfield Metro, Fresno Metro (California's Central Valley), southern Nevada and Metropolitan Phoeniz, Arizona. Then identified and verified which ones have 'P-fresh' grocery sections inside, as of today.

Additionally, because Tesco plans to open its first batch of stores in Northern California in early 2011, and has future store sites in northern Nevada, we included those two market regions in our research. Today's story on Northern California is the first of what will be similar reports on Target's 'P-fresh' stores in each of the regions detailed above.]
Target now has 'P-fresh' in-store fresh food and grocery markets (pictured above) in 42 of its 72 discount stores in Northern California, with more on the way.

Below are the 42 Target discount stores with 'P-fresh' fresh food and grocery sections as of today. We list the stores by region, city, and number of stores in the listed city:

Region: Northern Central/San Joaquin Valley

City/#Stores

Tracy = 1 (unit)

(Total in region = 1)

Region: Sacramento Metropolitan/North

City/#Stores

Sacramento = 3
West Sacramento = 1
Davis = 1
Woodland = 1
Elk Grove = 1
Folsom = 1
Rancho Cordova = 1
Roseville = 1
El Dorado Hills = 1
Lincoln = 1

(Total in region = 12)

Region: Nine-County San Francisco Bay Area

City/#Stores

Albany = 1
Antioch = 1
Cupertino = 1
Dublin = 1
Daly City = 1
Fairfield = 1
Fremont = 1
Livermore = 1
Napa = 2
Novato = 1
Richmond = 1
San Bruno = 1
San Mateo = 1
San Ramon = 1
Sunnyvale = 1
Redwood City = 1
Rohnert Park = 1
San Leandro = 1
San Jose = 7
Walnut Creek = 1
Santa Rosa = 1
Vallejo = 1

(Total in region = 29)

Target plans to add the 'P-fresh' fresh food and grocery sections to a number of the remaining 30 Northern California discount stores, which range in size from about 110,000-180,000 square-feet, a company source recently told Fresh & Easy Buzz.

The initiative is part of the discount retailer's plans to have the in-store fresh food and grocery markets in 850 of its U.S. discount stores by the end of 2011, as we reported here on Friday.

Target Corp. has only one of its big, combo food/grocery/general merchandise Super Target stores in Northern California. That store, which is just a couple years old, is in the Merced County city of Atwater, in the Northern Central Valley.

Target and Tesco's Fresh & Easy

In January 2008, Tesco announced it had acquired 37 locations in Northern California - in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento Metro region - for its small-format Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market fresh food and grocery stores. Since then the retailer has added numerous locations, which we've reported on. See our Northern California Fresh & Easy Store List for details.

Tesco originally planned to launch into Northern California in late 2008/early 2009. However it postponed that launch, and as we recently reported and Tesco's Fresh & Easy later confirmed and announced in a press release on August 19, the grocer now plans to open its first batch of Northern California stores in early 2011. [See - June 26, 2010: Tesco Planning to Announce in July When First Northern California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores to Open, August 21, 2010: April 2010 Prediction Correct: February 2011 Target to Open First Eight Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores in Northern California and August 19, 2010: Tesco Will Open its First Eight Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores in Northern California in 'Early 2011' Also: September 22, 2010: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Planning A New, Third Store in San Jose, California.]

Target announced it's plans to add the 'P-fresh' fresh food and grocery markets inside its discount stores in spring 2009. In contrast to Tesco's Fresh & Easy, it started work right away. Beginning in about May 2009 it began adding the units to discount stores throughout the U.S., including what now are 42 in Northern California. And by the end of next year, Target will have the "P-fresh" markets in many more of its current 72 discount stores in the region.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy would have to open all 37 of its confirmed Northern California locations, along with at least five of the unconfirmed stores, in 2011 just to be even with what Target has achieved as of today.

Interestingly, if you look at our list above of the 42 Northern California discount stores Target currently has its 'P-fresh' grocery sections in, and compare it to our list here of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market locations planned to date in the region, you'll see Target already has 'P-fresh' markets in many of the Northern California cities where Tesco plans Fresh & Easy stores.

Additionally, Target has discount stores in most of the Northern California cities where Fresh & Easy stores are planned to date, which it can and likely in many cases will, add the 'P-fresh' fresh food and grocery markets in. Target also is planning two stores in San Francisco, both of which it plans to have 'P-Fresh' markets in. The two stores, one a regular-sized discount format store and the second unit a 60,000-1000,000 square-foot store, will be the first stores for Target in San Francisco.

Further, Target is far from finished building new discount stores in Northern California. And with its new smaller, urban store prototype, it will be able to go into regions and cities like San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Sacramento, Marin County and others where it's not often possible to build a 120,000-180,000 square-foot traditional discount store. Most of targets new standard discount format and new urban format stores are set to include "P-fresh' fresh food and grocery markets inside.

Lastly, Target still has 30 of its current 72 discount stores in Northern California without 'P-fresh' markets. Based on information we have, at least half of those 30 stores should have the 10,000-12,000 sqaure-foot store-within-a-store fresh food and grocery markets inside by the end of 2010

Zero-to-42 with minimal investment

Seldom if ever can a retailer go from zero-to-42 fresh food and grocery stores in a little over a year's time without having to acquire a single new parcel of land or one vacant building to put a store in, or spending huge sums of money on for construction and related costs, as Target has been able to do in Northern California.

For Target, project 'P-fresh' is an extremely cost-effective way to get into food and grocery retailing in a significant way in Northern California and throughout the U.S., which it's doing by planning to have the fresh food and grocery markets in 850 of its about 1,500 discount stores in the U.S. by the end of next year. It's also a good way to lure new shoppers into the stores, who then are likely to buy some of the tens of thousands of other items - ranging from household goods, clothes and furniture, to electronics and much more - the retailer offers in its big, discount format stores.

Stories So Far: 2010 'Northern California Market Special Report' Series

September 22, 2010: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Planning A New, Third Store in San Jose, California

September 22, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Plans to Open Two Additional Stores in Northern California in Early 2011

September 21, 2010: A Look Inside Whole Foods Market's Newest Store, A Mall Location in Santa Rosa, California

September 20, 2010: About Today's Walmart Stores, Inc. Smaller Stores Media Frenzy: We Scooped it On July 6, 2010

September 19, 2010: Whole Foods Market Gives Itself A 30th Birthday Present: 299th Store Opens This Week in Santa Rosa, California

September 14, 2010: Eight Plus One: Napa Unit Added to Eight Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Opening in Northern CA in Early 2011

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.]

No comments: