Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Celebrates Three-Store Opening Trifecta Today in Southern California

Southern California Market Region

Fresh on the heels of opening three new stores in Southern California last Wednesday [February 9, 2011: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Opens Three New Stores in Southern California Today], Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market did it again today, opening three more new stores in the region, for a second- in-two-week's new-store-opening-trifecta.

The three Fresh & Easy markets opened today in Southern California are at the following locations:

• 1640 Oceanside Boulevard/Oceanside Boulevard & Vine Street, Oceanside
• 2260 East Thompson Boulevard/Alameda Street & Florence Avenue, Walnut Park
• 7600 South Alameda Street/Seaward Avenue & Thompson Boulevard, Ventura

Today's grand openings take El Segundo, California-based Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market over the 160 unit mark, giving the grocer, which is owned by United Kingdom-based Tesco, 162 small-format, Fresh & Easy fresh food and grocery stores in California, Nevada and Arizona.

The three new stores opened today in Southern California make for 113 Fresh & Easy markets in the Golden State - 99 units in Southern California and seven stores each respectively in the Bakersfield and Fresno metro regions in the Central Valley.

Twenty eight of the 162 Fresh & Easy stores are in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona; with 21 units open and operating in Nevada's metro Las Vegas region.

Southern California: More February openings

Tesco's Fresh & Easy plans to open two more stores this month in Southern California, on February 23.

The two stores, at Arneill Road and Las Posas Road, in Camarillo, and Bonita Avenue and San Dimas Canyon Road, San Dimas, were originally supposed to open on February 3 but the grocer changed the dates to the 23rd.

The opening of the two stores next week will make eight new stores that Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market will have opened in February - and nine new units so far for 2011. [See - November 4, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Confirms Our October Reports On 10 New Stores Opening in Early 2011.]

Thus far, one new store in Southern California, the unit at Atlantic Avenue and 33rd Street in Long Beach, is scheduled to open in March 2011.

Northern California: March Openings

On March 2, the retailer plans to opens its first two Fresh & Easy markets in Northern California, in the cities of San Jose and Danville, followed by additional store openings throughout the month and into April. [See - February 14, 2011: First Look: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store in Northern California's Danville Set to Open on March 2; and January 17, 2011: First Look at the Willow Glen-San Jose Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store Set to Open March 2, 2011.]

Thus far, Fresh & Easy has announced it will open 11 stores in Northern California in the March-April 2011 period. [See - January 12, 2011: First Northern California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Opening March 2; Nine More to Follow March-April.]

Additionally, we are reporting that two more stores, both in San Francisco, are slated for spring 2011 openings. [See - February 1, 2011: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Still Plans April-May 2011 Openings For First Two San Francisco Stores.] Based on the information we have, we expect Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to announce the opening dates of the two San Francisco stores soon. We expect the opening dates to be in May - but no later than June 2011.