Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Queuing Up Three Additional Stores in Northern California For Early-to-Mid 2011 Openings

Breaking Buzz

Northern California Market Region Special Report

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is queuing three more stores in Northern California for an early-to-mid 2011 opening, Fresh & Easy Buzz has learned.

The three stores and their locations are:

>Pleasanton - Santa Rita Road & Rosewood Drive

>Hayward - Mission Boulevard & Rousseau Street

>San Jose - Saratoga Avenue & Payne Avenue

All three of the stores are in the San Francisco Bay Area. Pleasanton and Hayward are in the East Bay Area; San Jose is in the South Bay Area.

Tesco has had the Hayward location since 2007 and the Pleasanton store site since late 2008-early-2009. The San Jose unit was obtained this year.

As we've previously reported, Tesco's Fresh & Easy currently has 11 units in the queue to be opened in Northern California in the first quarter of 2011.

The 11 stores are:

>San Francisco - Third Street & Carroll Avenue

>San Jose - Bird Avenue & Minnesota Avenue

>Danville - Diablo Boulevard & Highway 680

>Pacifica - Cabrillo Highway & Linda Mar Boulevard

>Vacaville - Elmira Road & Nut Tree Road

>Modesto - Oakdale Road & Lancey Drive

>Walnut Creek - Ygnacio Valley Road & San Carlos Drive

>Concord - Clayton Road & Ygnacio Valley Road

>Napa - Jefferson Street & Imola Avenue

>San Francisco - 32nd Avenue and Clement Street

>Sunnyvale - Tasman Drive and Fair Oaks Avenue

[See our September 22, 2010 story - Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Plans to Open Two Additional Stores in Northern California in Early 2011 - for details on the 11 stores.]

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has publicly announced the first eight of the 11 stores listed above, saying in August, 2010 that it would be opening the units in Northern California in early 2011. [See - 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.']

Our reporting on the additional three stores (out of the 11) is based on information we obtained from multiple sources.

The three units - Napa, San Francisco (32nd & Clement) and Sunnyvale - are, like the other eight, currently set by Tesco's Fresh & Easy to be opened before the end of the first quarter of 2011, according to our sources and research. We stress that the time-frame is based on our current information. Tesco is known for delaying openings, particularly in Northern California, where the first batch of the 37 stores announced in January 2008 was originally set to be opened in early 2009.

We've reported on and written about all three of the latest stores focused on in this piece - Pleasanton (Santa Rita Road & Rosewood Drive), Hayward (Mission Boulevard & Rousseau Street) and San Jose (Saratoga & Payne), in Fresh & Easy Buzz.

The Hayward store at Mission Boulevard & Rousseau Street is one of the original 37 Fresh & Easy units - 19 in the Sacramento Metro region and 18 in the San Francisco Bay Area - that Tesco announced in early 2008. Its one of two stores Tesco announced at the time for Hayward. [See our Northern California Fresh & Easy Store List. Also: January 30, 2008: Fresh & Easy Goes On the Record: Announces 18 Northern California Stores in the Bay Area.]

We first reported on the future Pleasanton unit at Santa Rita Drive & Rosewood Drive, in the Rose Pavilion Shopping Center, in a January 24, 2008 piece: Fresh & Easy Locking-Up Leases For Northern California Invasion.

Additionally, on April 19, 2009 we reported on and detailed Tesco's plans to open a Fresh & Easy market at the location in Pleasanton in this story: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Signs Lease For New Store in Pleasanton, CA; We Reported 15 Months Ago the SF Bay Area City Was in its Strategic Sites.

The Saratoga Avenue & Payne Avenue (1328 Saratoga Avenue) future Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market unit in San Jose is one of Tesco's most recently obtained Northern California Fresh and Easy store locations, as we reported in this September 22, 2010 piece: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Planning A New, Third Store in San Jose, California.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is gearing up to make the first half of 2011 a California-focused new store-opening period.

For example, in addition to launching into Northern California early next year as we've detailed, Tesco's Fresh & Easy is opening 10 new stores in Southern California in the first quarter of 2011, as we first reported in mid-October 2010. [See our story from yesterday - November 4, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Confirms Our October Reports On 10 New Stores Opening in Early 2011.

Additionally, the fresh food and grocery chain continues to lock up future Fresh & easy store sites in the Northern California region, including the six locations we've reported on from May-November of this year, which are featured in the stories linked below:

>November 3, 2010: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Plans New Store in Northern Central Valley, California City of Ceres

>November 1, 2010: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Planning to Build its First Store in Northern California City of Brentwood

>October 26, 2010: Going Semi-Rural: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Buys Property For New Store in Northern California Town of Clear Lake

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

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

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

Meanwhile, Tesco has closed its 13 under-performing Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores - six each in Metro Los Vegas, Nevada and in Metro Phoenix, Arizona; and one in Southern California - it announced it was shuttering on October 5, 2010. [See 13 Closing Fresh & Easy Stores List for the addresses of the 13 closed units.]

There are now 155 Fresh & Easy stores located in California (Southern California and the Central Valley), Metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona, and Metro Las Vegas, Nevada. [Click here to see a breakdown by number of stores for each of the market regions.]

Linkage: 2010 'Northern California Market Region Special Report'

November 3, 2010: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Plans New Store in Northern Central Valley, California City of Ceres

November 1, 2010: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Planning to Build its First Store in Northern California City of Brentwood

October 30, 2010: Raley's Launches New 'Raley's TO GO' Pre-Packaged, Refrigerated Fresh-Prepared Foods Line

October 27, 2010: Save Mart CEO Bob Piccinini Poised to Make it to the 'Bigs' as Member of Golden State Warriors' Ownership Group

September 26, 2010: While Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Postponed, Target Opened 42 'P-Fresh' Fresh Food and Grocery Markets in Northern California

September 22, 2010: Sunflower Makes Three: Sunflower Farmers Market's First Northern California Store Will Be in Roseville

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 18, 2010: Keep On Truckin' - Whole Foods Market Celebrates 30 Years This Weekend

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

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.]