Safeway Puts its Brand on Ice in San Francisco For the Holidays

Branding on ice: The Safeway logo covers the middle of the ice rink above.


Private Brand Showcase

Pleasanton, California-based Safeway Stores, Inc. is extending its brand to an outdoor venue that defines fun, excitement and entertainment during the November -to- January holiday season.

That outdoor venue is the Safeway Holiday Ice Rink in San Francisco's Union Square.

The popular ice rink in Union Square, a shopping area in the heart of the city that's packed with huge department stores like Macy's, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale's and Saks Fifth Avenue, along with scores of other retail shops, boutiques, restaurants and cafes, opened November 9, and runs until January 16, 2001.

Safeway, which has a long history of business - it has 14 supermarkets in the city of nearly 900,000 which is located about 30 miles from the Pleasanton corporate headquarters - civic and public involvement in San Francisco, has sponsored the Union Square Ice Rink since 2007.

In addition to the supermarket chain's lead and named sponsorship, a number of other businesses, such as department store retailer Macy's and Ghirardelli Chocolate Company, which was founded in the city-by-the-bay, along with a number of radio and television stations, have signed on as co-sponsors of the Safeway Ice Rink in Union Square.

As part of its sponsorship, Safeway Stores, Inc. is helping to keep the cost of using the ice rink low - tickets cost just $10 for adults and $6 for kids eight years-old or younger. Ice skate and hockey skate rentals, for those who don't have their own, which is probably a fairly high number of people in San Francisco where it's know to get chilly - but not that chilly - are $5 pair

There are also specialty group rates, starting for parties of 15 or more persons.

A portion of ticket proceeds are being donated to the Boys and Girls Clubs of San Francisco and the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department.

And to make the day or night on the ice last a bit longer, there's even a photo booth at the union square ice rink, which is open from 10 a.m-11:30 p.m daily, where skaters can have their photographs taken for $2 a pop. The photos are printed out on the spot. The photo machine will also send a digital version to your e-mail address.


The logo above is used in various places around the ice rink to reinforce the Safeway brand and the grocer's sponsorship.

The Safeway sponsored and branded Union Square Ice Rink is also holding a number of special events for the public this month and in December.

The first event was the opening of the ice rink last week. The opening ceremonies, which were held from 9 a.m-10 .a.m on November 9, was hosted by "The Ghost of Christmas Past," a member of the cast of San Francisco's internationally renown American Conservatory Theater's annual A Christmas Carol production.

Among other opening morning festivities on the ice was a performance by the popular Irish tenor Michael Londra, who is currently staring in Celtic Yuletide at the Marines’ Memorial Theatre in the city. Londra performed his hit song "Beyond A Star."

Skaters enjoy the Safeway Holiday Ice Rink over the weekend.

On November 25 the Safeway Ice Rink will be a part of San Francisco's annual Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony at Union Square, which is held each year the day after Thanksgiving.

But in typical San Francisco style - and flair - the two other events planned for the Safeway Ice Rink are a bit less traditional.

On December 1, the rink is hosting Speed Dating Skating, which is an on-the-ice version of speed dating. The singles, which there are many of in San Francisco, are being invited to wear their most unusual holiday-inspired sweater as a way to "break the ice" and get conversations started, which in-turn might lead to a future date - or even one later that night.

There's also an interesting freebie included as part of the event: The first 100 singles to arrive get a mistletoe headband, which should spark a little more than just conversation while on the ice.

The "singles night" event happens to share a "branding" angle with one of Safeway's stores in San Francisco - although we're not sure the ice rink's producers were aware of it or had it top-of-mind when planning the event.

Safeway's store in the city's Marina District - where former chairman and CEO Peter McGowan, who also led the ownership group that kept the San Francisco Giants from moving out of the city over a decade ago, has lived for many years - is known as the "Singles Safeway" because of the number of single people who first met in the aisles of the supermarket. Many of those meetings led to a first date - and often two, three or more and, in some cases, even marriage.

In June Safeway Stores, Inc. held this event - Safeway Has A Picnic in San Francisco Featuring the 'World's Longest Picnic Table' to Showcase its 'Open Nature' Natural Foods' Brand - on the Marina Green, which is across the street from the Marina Safeway store in San Francisco.

But the city's unique style and flair really comes out in full bloom on 8 (8-9:30 p.m) when the ice rinks promoter is presenting Drag Queens on Ice.

Willy Bietak Productions, the producer for the Safeway Ice Rink in Union Square, tells us it's giving Santa a break for the night and instead it's invited a number of the San Francisco Bay Area's most colorful professional drag performers to skate and perform at the rink.

The promoter says its also inviting the public to don their own wigs and outfits and skate alongside the Drag Queens during the evening.

Prediction: Not only will it be a colorful evening but you can also bet the photo booth at the ice rink will be getting a lot of use and bringing in plenty of cash during the event.

Sponsoring the holiday ice rink is smart marketing and provides a major branding-plus for Safeway Stores in the San Francisco Bay Area and corporately, in our analysis.

Why? It's the holidays, a time of joy and family, it's an ice rink in San Francisco, a once-a year-event (although this year the city has two such outdoor rinks for the holidays) and its fun.

Therefore as the sponsor of the ice rink in Union Square, Safeway gets its eponymous brand, which it also uses in various versions as a product brand - Safeway, Safeway Select, Safeway Kitchens, Safeway Farms - on food, grocery and general merchandise products in its stores, associated with holiday joy, individual and family fun, a unique, once-a-year experience, and fun and happiness.

All the characteristics noted above pretty much sum up a marketer's dream list when it comes to branding.

Many Bay Area television and radio stations are co-sponsors of the Safeway Holiday Ice Rink in Union Square. Each year since 2007 these and other local broadcast and print media outlets provide millions of dollars worth (if it were paid advertising) of free publicity for the event - and thus to Safeway Stores' as the sponsor.

It's all third-party endorsement publicity as well - television coverage of the skaters and special events at the rink, radio stations producing and airing live remotes from the venue, photographs and stories in the local papers -which is much more powerful from a marketing perspective than paid advertising is.

Putting its Safeway brand on ice in San Francisco, which is the "go to" city for residents of Northern California, where Safeway is the market share leader with about 250 supermarkets (the second highest U.S. division in gross sales after Vons' in Southern California), is not only a "cool" thing for Safeway Stores, Inc., to do, it's also good business - and smart branding.

Related Stories

October 26, 2011: Farms ... at Safeway? Grocer Launches its Newest Private Brand ... 'Safeway Farms'

June 19, 2011: Safeway Has A Picnic in San Francisco Featuring the 'World's Longest Picnic Table' to Showcase its 'Open Nature' Natural Foods' Brand

May 28, 2011: At The 'Brand Factory': Safeway Stores' Launches Newest Private Brand - 'Safeway Kitchens'

February 7, 2011: Getting There First...Plus, Are Tesco's Fresh & Easy and Safeway Traveling Down A Similar Private Brand Aisle?

January 5, 2011: Safeway Adds 'Open Nature' to its Natural-Organic-Healthy Foods' Private Brand Portfolio

April 8, 2011: The Branded 'Signature Cafe' in Safeway Stores' Soon to Open 'Social Safeway' in Washington D.C. Should Turn A Few Heads

July 21, 2010: 'Sipsational' & 'Quenchtastic': Safeway Introduces New 21-Flavor Line of Soft Drinks Under 'refreshe' Private Brand

Click on this link - Safeway Stores Inc. - to read additional stories about Safeway.

Click on this link - private brand showcase - to read past stories in our 'Private Brand Showcase' feature.

Tesco Opens Long-Awaited Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store in San Francisco's Bayview-Hunters Point Neighborhood

Nearly four years in the making, Tesco opened its Fresh & Easy store (above) in San Francisco's Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood yesterday. [Photo credit: Fresh & Easy Buzz.] Kevin, a Fresh & Easy Buzz reader who lives in Bayview-Hunters Point, e-mailed us this review (in the quotes below) he posted on the Yelp review site shortly after the store opened yesterday: "It's open. First new grocery store in the Bayview in decades; and it's a grand success. Organic offerings throughout the store - fresh, beautiful stuff. A true full-service grocery store, even offering a full line of wine & spirits. The Bayview in all it's multi-cultural glory is on display here - throngs of happy, smiling people mingling, laughing and honestly joyous about this long-awaited addition to the neighborhood. The staff is helpful and thoughtful - eager to help."

Tesco opened its long-awaited Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market fresh food and grocery store in the 5800 Third Street condominium development at 3rd Street and Carroll Avenue in San Francisco's Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood yesterday, completing a nearly four-year process that began when the retailer announced its plans in January 2008 to open a store in the low-income neighborhood underserved by grocery stores that offer a selection of fresh food and groceries at affordable prices.

The opening of the Fresh & Easy store yesterday - Tesco's second unit in San Francisco, 13th store in Northern California, 128th market in California and store number 177 in total - at 3rd Street and Carroll Avenue in San Francisco's Bayview-Hunters Point kicked off at a 10 a.m with presentations by Tim Mason, the CEO of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market and deputy CEO of parent company United Kingdom-based Tesco (pictured below), San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee, David Chiu, president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Malia Cohen, who represents the neighborhood on the board, and Sophia Maxwell, who formerly represented the area on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and was instrumental in getting the grocer to locate a store in the new 5800 Third Street development, which opened early this year.

Mayor Lee, who is being challenged next year for the city's top elected office by Chiu and numerous others, presented a check for $1,000 to the Bayview-Hunters Point YMCA, which was chosen by the employees of the store to receive the donation Fresh & Easy gives to a local non-profit group each time it opens a new store, while the other San Francisco politicos, Mason and members of his senior executive team encouraged him on.

"I made a commitment to the community to improve Bayview-Hunters Point and make it a place that is safe and healthy for families," Mayor Lee said during his presentation this morning. "This project is a cornerstone in our broader efforts to revitalize the neighborhood by bringing healthy food, vibrant businesses, and new shoppers to Third Street."

Lee is San Francisco's former chief administrator, which is a non-elected position. He was appointed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors early this year to fill the remaining term of then mayor Gavin Newsom, who was elected California's Lieutenant Governor in November 2010 and took office in January 2011.

It was during Newsom's term as mayor, in 2007, that Tesco agreed to locate a store in the 5800 Third Street development, which at the time was a vacant piece of land and the site of a former Coca-Cola bottling plant.

At the time of his appointment - and up until a few weeks ago - Lee said he would not run for mayor in 2012. However he recently announced he will run for the top office in the city and is being supported by local political heavyweights like Senator Dianne Feinstein and former San Francisco Mayor and California State Assembly Speaker Willie Brown. Both Feinstein, also a former mayor, and Brown are long time residents of and political players in San Francisco.

It was during Brown's two terms as mayor that the city's long-delayed plans to revitalize the low-income Bayview-Hunters Point District began to take shape

As mayor, San Francisco first African American to be elected to the office, Brown pushed through a plan to extend San Francisco's Muni light rail system into the historically majority-African American Bayview-Hunters Point  neighborhood, which previously had been neglected by most elected officials at City Hall, although Brown's close friend, former Mayor George Moscone, who was assassinated in the 1980's along with Supervisor Harvey Milk by another then-Supervisor, Dan White, made some efforts during his tenure to improve the neighborhood. Feinstein, who was President of the Board of Supervisors at the time, replaced Moscone as mayor, then later went on to become one of California's two U.S. Senators.

Above and below: Shoppers browse the aisles yesterday. [Photo credit: Fresh & Easy Buzz.]

The extension of Muni into Bayview-Hunters Point - there's a major stop right in front of 5800 Third Street where the Fresh & Easy store is located - paved the way for what is becoming a slow but steady revitalization of the neighborhood, which was essentially created during World War two when shipyards were built in the area to build ships for the two-front war effort in Europe and Japan, which created numerous jobs at the time.

Post-World War II  Bayview-Hunters point has seen a steady decline in income and opportunities for its 35,00-40,000 residents. Part-and-parcel of this phenomenon has been a lack of grocery stores in the neighborhood, which is considered a "food desert."

Newsom, who was supported by Brown and replaced him as mayor, continued to put a focus on Bayview-Hunters Point during his nearly two terms in office. That focus included working with former supervisor Maxwell and others to bring the 5800 Third Street development to Bayview-Hunters Point along with the Fresh & Easy store, which Tesco owns rather then leases.

Ironically, when it comes to grocery chains - there is a Foods Co discount warehouse grocery store owned by Kroger Co. located in Bayview-Hunters Point - local chains like Safeway Stores, Inc., which is headquartered just 30 miles from San Francisco in Pleasanton and is the leading food retailer in San Francisco with 14 supermarkets, weren't interested in the neighborhood. Instead, the grocer from across the pond, Tesco, ended up being the first grocery chain to open a new store in Bayview-Hunters Point in two decades. It was about 20-years ago when the Foods Co store was opened in the neighborhood.

About 200 customers, according to our count, attended the grand opening during its opening couple hours, including numerous residents of the 5800 Third Street development who told us they were extremely pleased to finally have the Fresh & Easy store open so they can do their grocery shopping on-site.

Along with the customers, about a dozen protesters attended the store opening, including those representing the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) union (Fresh & Easy is non-union) and a neighborhood group, Clergy & Laity United for Economic Justice, that has asked Tesco's Fresh & Easy to remove alcoholic beverages from the store.

The group is also protesting about the fact that Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market doesn't except WIC Vouchers in any of its stores besides a single unit in South Los Angeles, which is a story Fresh & Easy Buzz has been in the lead about since early 2008.

Fresh & Easy's CEO Mason however says the grocer has applied to except WIC Vouchers at the store in Bayview-Hunters Point (which is something we first said here in 2008 the grocer should do when it opened the store) and plans to start excepting the vouchers, which provide fresh and healthy foods to mothers for their children, soon.

The Clergy & Laity United for Economic Justice supports AB 183, which as we've reported extensively about would if passed by the California State Senate and signed by Governor Jerry Brown banned the sales of alcoholic beverages at self-service checkout lanes in retail stores in California. Tesco's Fresh & Easy uses an all self-checkout model in its 177 stores in California (128 stores), metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona (28 units) and metro Las Vegas, Nevada (21 stores).

Reverend Carol Been, a senior organizer for the group, says though that the organization is going a step beyond AB 183 and wants Fresh & Easy to stop selling alcoholic beverages entirely in the Bayview-Hunters Point store, siting among other reasons the alcohol-infused violence that broke out during last Saturday's football game at nearby Candlestick Park (about a mile away from the store) between the San Francisco 49ers and the Oakland Raiders.

Numerous stores in the neighborhood sell alcoholic beverages, as does the ball park itself. For example, according to the City of San Francisco's Economic Development Department their are about 90 liquor stores operating at present in Bayview-Hunters Point.

Therefore its unlikely Tesco's Fresh & Easy will remove the adult beverages from its shelves just because it's being singled out by the group for such action. The grocer went through the full process of obtaining an alcoholic beverage license, which was granted to it by the State of California. The City of San Francisco didn't object to the granting of the license either, which municipalities have a right to do in California.

The neighborhood group says its singling out Fresh & Easy to remove alcoholic beverages because of its self-service only checkout policy. However, if AB 183 does become law, it will likely make that a moot point because as the legislation is currently written it would require the grocer to at a minimum have one full-service checkout in each of its California stores because the bill, which we've nicknamed the "Son of Tesco Fresh & Easy Law," requires face-to-face interaction between a store clerk and customer whenever alcohol is purchases.

The group also says Fresh & Easy didn't hire locally for the Bayview-Hunters Point store. However, the grocer actually hired 40 employees for the store, which is almost double the number (20-25) it normally hires to staff one of its small-format grocery markets.

In addition, Mason said yesterday - and he told the same thing to Mayor Edwin Lee - that 52% of the 40 store employees are from the Bayview-Hunters Point Neighborhood. Additionally, earlier this year Fresh & Easy held a job fair at the neighborhood YMCA, which it donated $1,000 to yesterday, which is where many of those employees were hired from.

Above: The bakery department in the Bayview-Hunters Point store, which includes an oven where fresh breads and pastries are baked in-store. Fresh & Easy started adding the in-store bakeries to its existing 176 stores in July. All new stores will include the departments. We broke the news about the in-store bakeries in this May 18, 2011 piece. Below: Frozen foods in the 3rd Street and Carroll Fresh & Easy store are displayed in upright cases with glass doors. This is another change for the grocer, which is replacing the reach-in frozen food cases in its stores with the more modern units, which is also news we broke in the May 18 piece.

From a business perspective the hiring of 40 employees instead of the 20-25 Fresh & Easy normally hires per-store is difficult to understand. We've predicted the Bayview-Hunters Point store will be one of the grocers top stores in terms of average weekly sales. However, it doesn't need 40 employees to staff it in our analysis. All of Fresh & Easy's store workers are part-timers, working 20-35 hours week, accept for the store managers, assistant managers and team leaders, although in some cases they too work part time.

The grocer way be creating a potentially damaging situation for itself in hiring so many workers for the store in that (1) it could likely result in the workers getting fewer hours - they get health benefits if they work 20 hours or more a week - and even more serious could be that (2) Fresh & Easy will find itself to high of a labor expense number at the store down the road a bit and have to layoff some of the 40 employees, which will likely lead to damaging its reputation in the neighborhood.

Mason also made a little news at the opening, saying the grocer plans to open its third store in San Francisco - the unit at Silver Avenue & Goettingen in the Portola District which like the Bayview-Hunters Point store it acquired  in late 2007 and announced in January 2008 - in early 2012, confirming our previous reports that it would be the next Fresh & Easy store to open in the city.

As we've previously reported, Fresh & Easy also has a fourth store in the works in San Francisco. That unit will be in the former Delano's IGA Market store at 1245 South Van Ness Avenue in the city's Mission District. Based on our current information we expect that store to open in early-to-mid 2012. (See here for details.)

Tesco is also looking for additional locations in San Francisco for both its 10,000 square-foot Fresh & Easy stores as well as for its smaller footprint (3,000-4,000 square-foot) new "Fresh & Easy Express" format, as we've previously reported.

We've been reporting on and writing about Tesco's plans to open a Fresh & Easy market at the Bayview-Hunters Point location since the grocer first announced its intention to do so in January 2008. We said then and still suggest it will be one of the top performing Fresh & Easy stores in the chain.

In our analysis it should be among the top 10%-15 in average weekly sales among the current 177 stores in operation in California, Nevada and Arizona. Additionally, excepting WIC Vouchers at the store will in our analysis provide at least 5%-10% more sales than if the grocer doesn't except the vouchers, which is currently the case at the store, as it is with all but one of the Fresh & Easy markets, the unit in South Los Angeles.

If we're right, and we believe we are, that's good news for Tesco. But the United Kingdom-based global retailer will need much more than a good location in Bayview-Hunters Point in order to achieve its goal of breaking-even with Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, which it lost about $300 million on in its latest fiscal year ended in February 2011, by the end of its 2012/13 fiscal year, which is just 18 months away.

That's something we will continue to explore in Fresh & Easy Buzz in the coming months. Stay tuned.

Related Stories

>We've reported on and written extensively about the Fresh & Easy store at 5800 Third Street in San Francisco's Bayview-Hunters Point Neighborhood. Click on these link - 5800 Third Street, Fresh and Easy San Francisco Bay Area, Fresh and Easy Northern California - to read those stories and analysis.

>We were the first publication to point out that Tesco's Fresh & Easy doesn't except WIC Vouchers in its stores. Following our extensive reporting and analysis, which included a focus on the store in South Los Angeles, the grocery chain began excepting the vouchers in that store. We also first said in a couple stories in 2008 (and since then) that Fresh & Easy would be making a mistake and missing an opportunity if it didn't except the vouchers in the Bayview-Hunters Point store when it opens. You can read those stories at these links - WIC Vouchers, California WIC, Central and Adams Fresh and Easy, Fresh and Easy 1025 East Adams South LA, Fresh and Easy Central Valley, Fresh and Easy Southern California.

>AB 183 is the latest of three legislative bills in California that beginning in 2008 have been designed to ban the sale of alcoholic beverages at self-service checkouts in grocery and other retail stores in the GOlden State. We've reported on and written extensively about the legislation, including a recent piece last week. See those stories at this link - AB 183.

[Editor's Note: Photo of Tim Mason courtesy Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market.]

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Opens First Store in San Francisco - in Outer Richmond District

Tesco's Fresh & Easy in Northern California - 2011

As part of its bid to become a "San Francisco Treat," like that popular packaged rice mix product "Rice A Roni," United Kingdom-based Tesco opened its first Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market grocery store at 32nd Avenue and Clement Street (pictured above) in the city's Outer Richmond District this morning.

About 250 or so shoppers by our count - many holding Fresh & Easy's weekly advertising circular and $5 off purchases of $20 or more discount coupons in their hands - were lined up in front of the store this morning before the 10 am opening. And when the doors were opened at 10 am, the folks in the front of the line wedged their way into the new store (as you can see in the photograph below), apparently wanting to be the first to see what their new neighborhood grocer is all about, as well as being the first to grab a few bargains.

Enter the Mayor

San Francisco's Mayor, Ed Lee - who is the city's former professional, non-political City Administrator and was appointed Interim Mayor by the city's Board of Supervisors in January of this year to fill out the term of Gavin Newsom, who was elected California's Lieutenant Governor in late 2010 and took that office earlier this year - was at this morning's Fresh & Easy store grand opening at 32nd and Clement, despite there being a bit of a mix-up yesterday in which it wasn't clear if the mayor would be attending or not.

But Lee - the non-politician-mayor who hasn't decided if he will run for the office next year despite being urged to do so by numerous San Francisco political players, including former Mayor Willie Brown - made it to the Outer Richmond District store's grand opening this morning. And once there he did a pretty darn good imitation of a professional politician-mayor.

For example, Mayor Lee (pictured below) posed for pictures with some of the kids from the Richmond Neighborhood Association, which Tesco's Fresh & Easy gave a check for $1,000 to, as the non-profit neighborhood group chosen to get the donation the grocer gives a local group each time it opens a new store.

The mayor also managed to get in a sound bite-sized plug in for the city of San Francisco, saying: "Today as we celebrate the opening of Fresh & Easy's first grocery store in San Francisco, we are demonstrating once again the city's commitment to providing our residents access to fresh, wholesome food at affordable prices regardless of where they live. This new store along with the Bayview store scheduled to open in August will provide local jobs to our residents and it will have lasting local economic impacts in these communities and the City as a whole."

No shows: Not unexpected

Who from San Francisco's very interesting political world wasn't at the 32nd & Clement Fresh & Easy store opening this morning was even more interesting as who was there.

For example, we didn't spot Assemblywomen Fiona Ma, who lives in the neighborhood and represents the Richmond District in the California State Assembly.

Even closer to home politically, we didn't see San Francisco City Supervisor Eric Mar at this morning's opening. Mar represents the Richmond District on the city's Board of Supervisors, and like Ma lives in the neighborhood.

The Assemblywomen is the author of AB 183, which we've nicknamed the "Son of Tesco Fresh & Easy Law," which having passed in the California State Assembly is currently in the California State Senate. If AB 183 passes in the senate and is signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown, who like Ma is a Democrat, it would ban the sale of alcoholic beverages at self-service checkout stands. [See this story - June 4, 2011: 'Son of Tesco Fresh Easy Law': Self-Checkout Booze Ban Bill AB 183 Sails Through California State Assembly; State Senate Next Stop - along with the other stories linked at the end for details on the legislation.]

Tesco's Fresh & Easy has all self-service checkouts in its 176 stores in California (127 units), Nevada (21) and Arizona (28), which means, as we've written extensively about, that at a minimum the grocer will most likely have to offer at least one full-service checkout stand, with a clerk working it all the time, in each of its 127 stores in California if the bill becomes law in the Golden State.

Supervisor Mar is a major supporter of Assemblywomen Ma and her AB 183, having for example helped organize a rally on the steps of San Francisco's City Hall in support of the legislation earlier this year.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy is quietly spending a considerable amount of money on lobbying and public relations firms its retained as a way to it hopes defeat AB 183. The California Grocer's Association (CGA), which Fresh & Easy is a member of, is also lobbying against AB 183.

It probably would have been a bit uncomfortable - although interesting - for all concerned to have the Assemblywomen and City Supervisor Mar featured along with the mayor at this morning's Fresh & Easy Store opening in the Outer Richmond District, although the two politicos do represent the neighborhood at San Francisco City Hall and in the statehouse in Sacramento.

Since it wants to be a major player in San Francisco's food and grocery retailing scene, Fresh & Easy should get used to this type of conflict, since it's pretty much the norm in San Francisco politics and civic affairs.

Shared building: CVS drug store on the way

The 32nd Avenue and Clement Fresh & Easy store will soon have a neighbor: A CVS Pharmacy store that shares the building with the grocery market is set to open July 10. [See the side-by-side stores in the floor plan below. The CVS drug store is on the left. The Fresh & Easy market is on the right.]

Tesco's Fresh & Easy need not worry about the CVS store competing against it when it comes to selling fresh-prepared foods though. CVS has about 300 stores (and growing) primarily on the east coast that offer a selection of ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat fresh-prepared foods (along with some fresh produce and meats), which is a major emphasis of the Fresh & Easy format and stores.

However, a good source at CVS tells us that although the 32nd and Clement drug store it's opening July 10 will carry a decent selection of packaged foods and groceries, along with some perishables and frozen foods, like all CVS drug stores do, it won't be offering fresh foods for sale. None of the the CVS stores in California currently offer the fresh foods program, although that could change in the not to distant future, according to our same source at the drug chain.

UFCW union on hand

Along with the shoppers and simply curious at this morning's Fresh & Easy store opening at 32nd and Clement in San Francisco's Outer Richmond District, were a few representatives of the UFCW union, which has a strong presence in San Francisco, the Bay Area and Northern California. The union representatives handed out leaflets and asked shoppers not to patronize non-union Fresh & Easy, which is something the UFCW does at most of the grocer's new store openings and at various stores that are already open.

All three of the Bay Area's (and Northern California's) leading grocers - Safeway Stores, Save Mart/Lucky and Raley's -  are unionized, as are many of the region's smaller chains and even numerous single store independents.

The UFCW, which is currently in contract negotiations with Kroger's Ralphs, Safeway's Vons and Supervalu-owned Albertsons in Southern California,will soon be entering similar negotiations with the three unionized chains in Northern California noted above, as the contract in the region is set to expire later this year.

Non-union chains like Fresh & Easy, Walmart, Target, Whole Foods Market, Trader Joe's, Sprouts Farmers Market, Sunflower Farmers Market, Grocery Outlet and a couple others are fast-growing in Northern California, just like the are in the south. This development is a key issue in the Southern California contract negotiations, as it will be in the north later this year.

Paper not plastic

One of the key ingredients not present at the 32nd and Clement Fresh  Easy store in San Francisco that is present in nearly all of the other 175 Fresh & Easy markets in California, Nevada and Arizona are the free single-use plastic carrier bags tucked into each checkout stand in the grocer's stores.

Why? The city of San Francisco prohibits grocery stores by law, with some exceptions for small mom and pop markets, from offering the thin plastic bags to shoppers.

We did spot some free single-use paper grocery sacks at the store in the Outer Richmond District today though, along with the various types of reusable bags Fresh &Easy offers for sale in its stores, ranging from its inexpensive, plastic-like "bags for life, which sell for 20-cents each, to its 99-cent canvas bag and more expensive reusable canvas bag made from organic material.

We posed the question long ago in the blog as to if Fresh & Easy would add single-use paper grocery sacks to the stores in San Francisco because of the city law banning grocers from offering single-use plastic carrier bags. From what we saw at the store this morning, the answer is ... yes, it has.

Becoming a 'San Francisco Treat'

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market made its presence known in numerous parts of 43-square-mile San Francisco today. In addition to the store opening starting at 10 a.m. in the Outer Richmond District, Fresh & Easy's neighborhood affairs director Roberto Muñoz drove the grocery chain's "Clapple (the name of its clock logo) Smart Car" throughout parts of the city this morning as a way of drawing attention to the new grocer in town and the opening of Fresh & Easy's first store at 32nd Street and Clement Avenue in the city.

Above: Roberto Muñoz drives Fresh & Easy's Smart Car through Lombard Street, San Francisco's famed "Crookedest Street in the World." Below: A worker at the 32nd and Clement store shows the tiny car off to a photographer.

Tesco opens its second Fresh & Easy store in San Francisco, in the 5800 Third Street residential housing development at 3rd Street and Carroll in the Bayview District, August 24.

On Friday the grocer and the City of San Francisco's One Stop Hiring Center is holding a job fair from 10 am to 5 pm at the Bayview Opera House in the neighborhood to fill open positions at the 3rd Street & Carroll Avenue store (pictured below) opening in late August.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market pays non-management rank-and-file store workers $10 hour. San Francisco is one of the few cities in the U.S. that has its own municipal minimum wage. San Francisco's minimum wage is currently $9.60 hour. In contrast, California's statewide minimum wage is currently $8 hour.

We broke the news of when the Richmond District and Bayview District stores would open - June 22 and August 24 - in these two stories - May 10, 2011: Breaking Buzz: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Plans to Open First San Francisco Store at 32nd and Clement June 22; and May 14, 2011: Breaking Buzz: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Plans August 24 Opening For Third & Carroll Store in San Francisco's Bayview District.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy confirmed our reporting on the opening dates for the first two San Francisco stores on May 23, announcing in a press release June 22 and August 24 openings. [See - May 23, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Confirms Our Reports First Two San Francisco Stores to Open June 22 and August 24, 2011.]

On Monday, June 20 we also reported in this story that Fresh & Easy has acquired a fourth store location in San Francisco,at 1245 South Van Ness Avenue in the Mission District, which the grocer has signed a multi-year lease for with the building's landlord. The now vacant building was previously home to a Delano's IGA Market store which was closed by the locally-based independent in December 2010. [See - June 20, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Bags New Store Location in San Francisco's Mission District.]

The other future Fresh & Easy store location is in the city's Portola District, as detailed in the story linked above. No work has yet started on that location, which Tesco's Fresh & Easy acquired in late 2007-January 2008 and has been sitting on and making monthly lease payments for ever since.

In its bid to become San Francisco's newest treat, Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is looking for additional store locations in the city.

For example, it hopes to find locations for its 10,000 square-foot fresh food and grocery markets in the city's Noe Valley, Inner and Outer Sunset and Castro Districts, to name just four neighborhoods it would like to add to its portfolio, according to our sources.

San Francisco has a history of welcoming people from other lands - such as those from Ireland (the Richmond and Sunset districts have the highest concentration of Irish immigrants in the city), Italy (North Beach) China (Chinatown and the Richmond and neighboring Sunset District have the most Chinese immigrants per-capita in the city), Vietnam (The Tenderloin and the Sunset Districts particularly), Russia (The Richmond District is home to many Russian immigrants and features a huge Russian Orthodox church) and elsewhere.

United Kingdom-based Tesco hopes grocery shoppers in the City by the Bay will welcome the British grocer's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA chain - and make it the newest "San Francisco Treat."

Sing along to: "Fresh & Easy ... The San Francisco Treat." How does it sound to you?

[Photo credits: (top) San Francisco Chronicle; (next two) Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market; (floor plan) City of San Francisco; (Smart Car) Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market; (5800 Third Street) Fresh & Easy Buzz.]

Recent Related Stories

June 20, 2011 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Bags New Store Location in San Francisco's Mission District

May 30, 2011: 82-Year-Old Grocer Andronico's Needs A Sugar Daddy of Sorts: 'The Insider' Suggest Tesco and its Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Might Fit the Bill

May 23, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Confirms Our Reports First Two San Francisco Stores to Open June 22 and August 24, 2011

May 15, 2011: Breaking Buzz: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Plans to Open Second Store in Hayward, California August 10

May 14, 2011: Breaking Buzz: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Plans August 24 Opening For Third & Carroll Store in San Francisco's Bayview District

May 10, 2011: Breaking Buzz: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Plans to Open First San Francisco Store at 32nd and Clement June 22

April 6, 2011: Work Begins Inside 5800 Third Street Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store in San Francisco's Bayview

March 21, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Flooding its Northern California Store Neighborhoods With Margin-Busting Store Coupons

March 15, 2011: San Francisco, Antioch and Fairfield Stores Next Up in Northern California For Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market

Additionally, click on these links - Fresh and Easy Northern California, Fresh and Easy San Francisco Bay Area, Northern California Market Region, Tesco's Fresh and Easy in Norcal 2011 - for related stories from late 2007 to the present. Click on this link - Northern California Special Report - to read our April-December 2010 'Northern California Special Report' series.

March 14, 2011: Opening of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store at 5800 Third Street in San Francisco Held Up Pending Approval of Liquor License

March 1, 2011: Two Years On: Tesco Opens First Two Northern California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Tomorrow

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Bags New Store Location in San Francisco's Mission District

Breaking Buzz 
Tesco's Fresh & Easy in Northern California - 2011

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has inked a deal with the building's landlord to renovate and move into the former Delano's IGA Markets' grocery store (pictured at top) at 1245 South Van Ness Avenue (at 23rd Street) in San Francisco's Mission District, Fresh & Easy Buzz has learned.

Delano's IGA Markets closed the Mission District store along with four others in December 2010. See our stories - November 30, 2010: DeLano's IGA Markets Closing Five Stores in San Francisco & Marin County; Fairfax, Davis Units to Remain Open (For Now); and November 29, 2010: Veteran Grocer Harley DeLano's 'DeLano IGA Markets' Chain On the Verge of Closure in San Francisco Bay Area.

We reported on and wrote about Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's attempt to bag the South Van Ness Avenue location in this January 26, 2011 story: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is On A Mission - In San Francisco's Mission District.

In addition to Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, locally-based salvage and discount grocery chain Grocery Outlet has been vying for the location at 1245 South Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco. Grocery Outlet, which is headquartered just across the bay from San Francisco in Berkeley, is fast-growing, aiming to double its store count over a five year period that began in 2009.

According to our sources, Tesco's Fresh & Easy has won out and has or will be signing a multi-year lease with landlord of the vacant Delano's IGA Markets store at 1245 South Van Ness Avenue.

The Mission District location will be Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's fourth site in San Francisco.

On Wednesday, June 22, United Kingdom-based Tesco opens its first Fresh & Easy store in the city, at 32nd and Clement street in the Outer Richmond District.

The second Fresh & Easy market is set to open in San Francisco on August 24. The store is in the 5800 Third Street residential housing development at 3rd Street and Carroll Avenue in the city's Bayview District.

We broke the news on the opening dates of Fresh & Easy's two San Francisco stores. Read our story here - May 23, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Confirms Our Reports First Two San Francisco Stores to Open June 22 and August 24, 2011

Tesco's third Fresh & Easy store location in San Francisco is at Silver Avenue and Goettingen, which is in the Portola District.

The grocery chain has yet to begin renovations on the vacant building in the Portola District, which formerly housed a Cala Foods supermarket. Tesco's Fresh & Easy leased the property in late 2007-early 2008.

The Mission District location at 1245 South Van Ness, which will be the fourth Fresh & Easy location in San Francisco to date based on our reporting, was also home to a Cala Foods supermarket, which was closed by Kroger Co. a number of years ago.

Delano's IGA Markets took over the location a few years ago, along with the other four it closed late last year, from Kroger's Cala/Bell Markets division, which has just one store left in Northern California, at 1095 Hyde Street on Nob Hill in San Francisco, which it's closing at the end of this year.

Kroger's Southern California-based Ralphs/Food 4 Less operates the Foods Co chain of discount warehouse stores in Northern California, which it's in the process of growing in terms of developing and opening new stores. (Click on this link Northern California Special Report to read about Kroger's plans for Foods Co in Northern California.)

Kroger Co. decided a number of years ago to close the Cala/Bell Markets chain. It sold or closed all of the about 25 Cala Foods and Bell Market stores (all were in the San Francisco Bay Area) over a period of a few years, except for the remaining unit in San Francisco.

Related Stories

February 17, 2011: Mollie Stone's Markets Planning to Open Newest Store in San Francisco First Week in March

January 26, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is On A Mission - In San Francisco's Mission District

January 13, 2011: Mollie Stone's Markets Taking Over Closed 18th Street Delano's IGA Market in San Francisco's Castro District

January 28, 2011: Mollie Stone's Markets Confirms Our January 13 Report; Announces New San Francisco Store Via Twitter & Facebook

November 30, 2010: DeLano's IGA Markets Closing Five Stores in San Francisco & Marin County; Fairfax, Davis Units to Remain Open (For Now)

November 29, 2010: Veteran Grocer Harley DeLano's 'DeLano IGA Markets' Chain On the Verge of Closure in San Francisco Bay Area

January 26, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is On A Mission - In San Francisco's Mission District

Plus: see (click on) the following links for additional, related stories: Fresh and Easy Northern California, Fresh and Easy San Francisco Bay Area, Northern California, Northern California Special Report, SF Bay Area.

Mollie Stones Markets Planning to Open Newest Store in San Francisco First Week in March

Northern California Market Region: San Francisco

Privately-held Northern California grocer Mollie Stone's Markets is moving at record speed to open its newest grocery market, which is at 4201 18th Street, in San Francisco's Castro District.Fresh & Easy Buzz has learned the locally-owned and based eight store-grocer, which is headquartered in the Marin County city of Mill Valley just over the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, plans to open its newest and ninth food and grocery store during the first week of March, less than three weeks from today.

The Castro District store will be Mollie Stone's third unit in San Francisco. (All nine locations are listed here.)

The upscale-oriented grocer, which was founded in 1985 by Mike Stone and David Bennett, who remain Mollie Stone's majority owners today, only officially closed on the deal for the Castro District building on January 28, as we reported here: January 28, 2011 - Mollie Stone's Markets Confirms Our January 13 Report; Announces New San Francisco Store Via Twitter & Facebook.

We first reported in November 2010 that Mollie Stone's Markets was attempting to acquire the store on 18th Street in the Castro district, which was being vacated by Delano's IGA Markets. [See these two stories for details - November 29, 2010: Veteran Grocer Harley DeLano's 'DeLano IGA Markets' Chain On the Verge of Closure in San Francisco Bay Area and November 30, 2010: DeLano's IGA Markets Closing Five Stores in San Francisco & Marin County; Fairfax, Davis Units to Remain Open (For Now).]

In a January 13, 2011 story, we reported Mollie Stone's had achieved its objective, and would be going into the Castro District-San Francisco building vacated by DeLano's. [See - On January 13, 2011, we reported in this story - Mollie Stone's Markets Taking Over Closed 18th Street DeLano's IGA Market in San Francisco's Castro District.]

The crew above is busy creating shelf-sets inside the soon-to-be-opened Mollie Stone's store.

Mollie Stone's staff, along with the help of various workers and vendors, has been working at a feverish pace getting the small-format store on 18th Street in the Castro ready for its very early March opening. That work includes giving the store's interior and exterior a fresh look, completely resetting the shelves, considerable re-merchandising, and other tasks that normally take a grocer far more than a little over a month to accomplish.

Last Friday and Saturday the locally-owned and based grocer also held a job fare at its future market in the Castro District. Mollie Stones Markets' co-owner, Mike Stone, tells Fresh & Easy Buzz that about 325 potential store employees attended the event - 125 people on Friday, and over 200 on Saturday. The store is hiring for about 24-25 positions to start, according to Stone.

The soon-to-be Mollie Stones' store at 4201 18th Street in the city's Castro District has about 9,000 square-feet of selling space, and the grocer, which is expert at merchandising and offering a full selection of fresh foods and grocery products in small spaces - such as it does at its store in San Francisco's Pacific Heights neighborhood, "Mollie Stones Grand Central Market," which is about the same size as the Castro store - is making prudent use of every square-inch of those about 9,000 square-feet of selling space, according to our observations and conversations with people who've been working with the grocer on the store.

The Castro District neighborhood's demographics and lifestyle indicators are prime for natural, organic and premium/specialty foods and drinks, along with quality fresh-prepared foods, produce, meats, deli items and baked goods, for example. Mollie Stones specializes in those categories, along with offering everyday groceries in its stores - and is planning a major offering of those categories, including fresh ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat foods in its Castro market.

For many years before the 18th Street store became a Delano's IGA food and grocery store in 2006, its was a Cal Foods/Bell Market supermarket, owned by Kroger Co.'s Southern California-based Ralphs Supermarkets division, which pulled out Northern California (except for one Cala market on Nob Hill in San Francisco that will be open until the end of this year) a few years ago. It operated the Cala/Bell chain in the Bay Area, as well as numerous Ralphs' banner supermarkets in Northern California.

Fresh & Easy Buzz recently talked to a former sales representative for a natural/organic/specialty foods distribution company in the Bay Area that for many years distributed products in those above categories, both dry grocery and perishables, to the 18th Street store when it was first a Cala/Bell market, and then for a short time thereafter when it was a Delano's IGA. The former representative tells us that the Castro store was one of the top four-five, out of about 30 Cala/Bell stores, in the late 90's-early 2000's in terms of sales in those premium and natural-organic categories, including imported, high-end specialty food and beverage products.

The store is also about the only full-service grocery market in the 18th Street portion of the densely-populated neighborhood, which also makes it a good venue for sales of everyday food and grocery basics, assuming the pricing isn't too over-the-top.

Fresh & Easy Buzz knows the store fairly well, and has talked to numerous Bay Area food and grocery retailing veterans who also know it well, or better. Our bottom line: With the right merchandising, optimum category and product mix, proper customer service-level, ect., Mollie Stone's could eventually be able to do around $350,000-$400,000 in average weekly sales in the about 9,000 square-foot store at 4201 18th Street in San Francisco's Castro District, in our analysis. By the way, that's the kind of positive sales-per-square-foot any grocer would like to take home to mom, including one named Mollie.

Most residents of the Castro District shop at a good-sized Safeway Lifestyle format supermarket on Upper Market Street, where the Castro District comes to an end. Its a considerable trip from the immediate neighborhood where the soon-to-be Mollie Stones' store is located and that Safeway supermarket, which happens to be one of the chain's three-top performing stores in San Francisco (out of about 14 units), according to our Safeway sources at corporate headquarters in Pleasanton, which is about 35 miles from San Francisco in the East Bay Area.

As we said in our previous stories, the 18th Street-Castro District location should be a good one for Mollie Stones, based on information from sources with extensive experience in the market, our observations and analysis. But we suspect the locally-owned and locally-based grocery chain already knows that, which is one reason its preparing to open the store in record time - from the official closing of the deal on January 28, to the store's planned opening the first week in March, which is coming fast.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Still Plans April-May 2011 Openings For First Two San Francisco Stores

Tesco's Fresh & Easy in Northern California - 2011

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market still plans two open its first two stores in San Francisco in spring 2011, according to our sources.

Based on the information we've obtained, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Tim Mason and his team plan to open the two San Francisco stores, which are in the city's Bayview District, at 5800 Third Street (at Carroll), and Richmond District, at 32nd Avenue and Clement Street, as early as late April but more probably in May 2011.

The exterior of the 5800 Third Street Fresh & Easy store (pictured at top), which is in the new "5800 Third Street" condominium development, is completed, as we previously reported.

The store's interior is at least fifty percent finished, and workers should have the inside completed well before the end of March, according to our sources.

Work on the Richmond District building at 32nd and Clement, which previously housed an Albertsons supermarket until it was closed in 2007, was started just recently. The store's exterior is about half-completed as of today, and work recently started inside the store.

Above is the former Albertsons supermarket at 32nd and Clement before work was started on the building by Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market. Below is a photograph of the building taken on January 25, 2011. [Photo credit: RichmondSFBlog.]

Fresh & Easy will share the building with a new CVS pharmacy, the two stores being side-by-side, as you can see in the floor plan diagram below. (CVS is on the left. The Fresh & Easy store interior is on the right.) CVS has also started work on its half of the building.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has a third San Francisco location, at Silver Avenue and Goettingen in the Portola District, which it acquired in early 2008. No work has started on the vacant building at the site, which was formerly a Cala Foods supermarket, owned by Kroger Co. (See the photo at bottom.)

Additionally, as we reported in a story on January 26 - Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is On A Mission - In San Francisco's Mission District - Tesco's Fresh & Easy is close to signing a lease for a vacant building at 1245 South Van Ness Avenue, in San Francisco's Mission District, which until December 2010 was home to a DeLano's IGA grocery store. Prior to being taken over by DeLano's IGA Markets in 2006, the store at 1245 South Van Ness was a Cala Foods supermarket, like the one at Silver and Goettingen, which is in the city's Portola District.

Pinning down the San Francisco openings

Tesco's Fresh & Easy announced on August 19, 2010 it would open its first eight stores in Northern California, beginning in early 2011. One of the eight stores it listed was the unit at 5800 Third Street (at Carroll) in San Francisco. Read our story here: August 19, 2010 - Tesco Will Open its First Eight Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores in Northern California in 'Early 2011.'

Nearly two months earlier, in this June 26, 2010 story - Tesco Planning to Announce in July When First Northern California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores to Open - Fresh & Easy Buzz reported exclusively that Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market would announce before the end of July 2010 that is was opening its first Northern California stores in early 2011, adding that since the timeline for its Northern California launch has been an ever-fluid and changing topic at Tesco, the announcement could come a bit later than we predicted. A mere 19 days later, on August 19, Tesco's Fresh & Easy made the announcement.

But on November 10, 2010, Fresh & Easy made an additional announcement, saying it planned to open 12 rather than eight stores in Northern California in early 2011. However, the 5800 Third Street store in San Francisco, which was one of the eight original units, was not part of the list of 12 opening stores. In its place though was the other San Francisco location, in the Richmond District, at 32nd and Clement. [We explained what was going on in this story: November 12, 2010 - Postponed But Not Abandoned: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Gearing Up For Northern California Launch. Also see - December 14, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Open 5800 Third Street 'Flagship' Store in San Francisco Later in 2011 Than Originally Announced.]

On January 12, 2011, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market announced the opening dates of what are 11 stores opening from March 2-to- April 27, 2011. The Third Street and Carroll and 32nd and Clement Street Fresh & Easy units in San Francisco weren't on the list. However, the grocer noted that it would be making an announcement "in the coming weeks" about when the two stores in San Francisco would be opening.

That announcement has yet to be made by Tesco's Fresh & Easy. But according to our sources, the announcement is coming soon. And, based on the information we have at present - and as we always note, new store opening dates, particularly when it comes to Northern California, where the first stores were originally to be opening in early 2009 , are dynamic and fluid - Look for the announcement to say that the two San Francisco Fresh & Easy markets will open as early as April, but most likely in May 2011.

Bottom line: Our original reporting, which you can see in the stories linked above, as well as those below, was that Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market will open at least 13 stores in Northern California in the first half of 2011. We stick to that reporting today.

Pictured above is the Fresh & Easy location, at Silver and Goettington in San Francisco. The photo was taken by a Fresh & Easy Buzz correspondent in December 2010. As of today, no work has been started on the vacant building, which was home to a Cala Foods market for many years.

Related Stories

January 26, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is On A Mission - In San Francisco's Mission District

January 17, 2011: First Look at the Willow Glen-San Jose Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store Set to Open March 2, 2011

January 14, 2011: Tesco 'Banking' on California in 2011 For Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA

January 12, 2011: First Northern California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Opening March 2; Nine More to Follow March-April

January 12, 2011: First Northern California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Opening March 2; Nine More to Follow March-April

December 30, 2010: Seven Predictions For Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market For 2011

December 27, 2010: First Look at the Pacifica, California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store, One of the First Opening in Northern California in Early 2011

January 10, 2011: Walmart 'Gets Real' With Smaller-Format Grocery Store Initiative in California; First Stores On Tap

November 4, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Confirms Our October Reports On 10 New Stores Opening in Early 2011

October 25, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Open 10 New Stores in 10 Southern California Cities in January-February 2011

October 17, 2010: No Additional New Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Set to Open This Year; Ten New Units Planned For January 2011

[Plus: See these links - Fresh and Easy Northern California, Fresh and Easy San Francisco Bay Area, Northern California and Northern California Special Report - for additional stories.

Mollie Stone's Markets Confirms Our January 13 Report; Announces New San Francisco Store Via Twitter & Facebook

The change of ownership sign above was posted on the shuttered DeLano's IGA store at 4201 18th Street today.

On January 13, 2011, we reported in this story - Mollie Stone's Markets Taking Over Closed 18th Street DeLano's IGA Market in San Francisco's Castro District - that Mill Valley, California-based multi-store independent grocer Mollie Stone's Markets is taking over the recently vacated DeLano's IGA Market space at 4201 18th Street in San Francisco's Castro District, which in March will become home to its ninth supermarket and third store in what the late Pulitzer Prize-winning (1996) San Francisco newspaper columnist Herb Caen, who died in 1997, called "The City," always in caps.

In the late-1940's Caen, who also coined the term "Beatnik" in an April 1958 column and detested it whenever anyone called San Francisco "Frisco," gave "The City" another nickname, "Baghdad-by-the-Bay," which he coined to describe its exotic multiculturalism. The nickname caught on and continued to be used regularly by many San Franciscans half a century later, until President George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq in 2002, which cast Caen's definition in a completely different light, particularly in politically liberal San Francisco.

The now vacant (as of December 2010) 1960's-style DeLano's IGA Market store (pictured above) at 4201 18th Street in San Francisco's Castro District will be transformed into a Mollie Stone's Market by March 2011.

Yesterday Marin County-based privately-held Mollie Stone's Markets publicly announced its plans to open its ninth store at the Castro District location on 18th Street in March 2011 - and it did so using its Facebook and Twitter social media sites, along with its website, generating a considerable amount of buzz in the process, particularly on its Twitter.com feed.

I Tweet therefore I am

The grocer set the stage for its new store announcement on its @mollie_stones Twitter feed yesterday, with the initial tweet below, at just before 2:10 pm:

[Tweet: Mollie Stone's has big news to announce. It's something we haven't done in 6 years. You will get "the scoop" just before the story breaks! Thursday, January 27, 2011 2:09:50 PM via HootSuite.]

Shortly after, the grocer made the new store announcement in the tweet below:

[Tweet: Inside Scoop! You get the news first! @mollie_stones announces new market in San Francisco! http://bit.ly/dVJMnn Please RT!]

The bit.ly link in the tweet above is to a social media-based press release Mollie Stone's used to make the new store announcement, a good move since the use of the various social media sites is designed to create as much buzz as possible around the new store between now and March, when it opens.

In the press release, Mollie Stone's co-owner David Bennett says about the new store in San Francisco's Castro District: "Our Castro market will be our third store in San Francisco, and we are positively delighted to expand in our 'City by the Bay.' The Castro Market is in one of the finest and most vibrant neighborhoods in California; we believe it will beautifully blend with our Mollie Stone’s culture. We understand the passion and expectations in the neighborhood, and we will stop at nothing to provide an outstanding shopping experience. We look forward to developing strong, rewarding relationships with each and every customer."

Bennett, who along with partner Mike Stone are the majority-owners of Mollie Stone's Markets, goes on in the announcement release to describe the philosophy behind the grocer's locally-focused operations, customer service and merchandising approach, along with offering a shout out to a couple foreign-owned specialty grocery chains readers might be familiar with: "We don't believe bigger is better. We believe better is better. In this day and age when large national chains and foreign-owned specialty chains are vying for our local dollars and sales, Mollie Stone's offers locals the ability to keep all the revenues and spending here in the Bay Area. Mollie Stone’s is filling the void for old style hometown quality, selection, and service," Bennett says. "We specialize in catering to customers who need (and deserve) extra attention and hard to find products, or those who simply need help or assistance. Call us old fashioned, but Mollie Stone’s still treats customers one at a time. Always have. Always will."

Fresh foods like produce are a key merchandising focus at Mollie Stone's Markets. Pictured above is the produce department at the grocer's store in the Bon Air Shopping Center, in the Marin County city of Greenbrae.

Building buzz

Following the Tweet announcing the new store, in which it encouraged followers to "retweet" (RT) it, Mollie Stone's offered additional tweets about the new store and its March 2011 opening throughout the day yesterday, along with "retweeting" tweets from many of its followers on Twitter, continuing to do so selectively through today. You can view the "Tweet" activity at the grocer's Twitter Feed: [www.twitter.com/mollie_stones]

Mollie Stone's "Tweeter-in-Chief" is also using the "TweetReach" analytical tool to track the new store buzz its creating, as well as to help in additional buzz creation. People on Twitter tend to like such quantification and analysis. Therefore, such tools not only serve their primary focus - to quantify - but can serve the secondary purpose of creating excitement around an announcement, topic or campaign because they also create an additive effect.

You can view Mollie Stone's real time "TweetReach" Report here.

Caught in the 'Tweet-Stream'

When Fresh & Easy Buzz discovered the announcement yesterday from Mollie Stone's Markets, we put out a tweet about it since we had reported on it a full 15-days before today's announcement from the grocery, in our January 13, 2011 story: Mollie Stone's Markets Taking Over Closed 18th Street Delano's IGA Market in San Francisco's Castro District.

[Our Tweet: January 27, 2011: #Grocer @mollie_stones Confirms http://bit.ly/hRTtJC Our Report On New #SanFrancisco Store http://bit.ly/f43yQV #retail about 22 hours ago via web.

Interestingly, when we checked Mollie Stone's "TweetReach" Report for this story a few minutes ago, we noticed @freshneasybuzz is second, just below the grocer's own Twitter feed, in terms of the number of impressions generated by "13 Twitterers" regarding the new store announcement. Frankly, we're not sure how significant that ranking is - although it suggests our Tweets are being read - and had no master plan to achieve that lofty status when we posted our Tweet yesterday. But we must say - it does look rather impressive.

Beyond the buzz: Food retailing

But Friday frolicking aside regarding our being caught in the "Tweet-Stream," Mollie Stone's has so far created considerable social media buzz in the just 24-hours since it made the announcement about its plans to open its ninth store and third unit in San Francisco, at 4201 18th Street in San Francisco's Castro District, a neighborhood known throughout most of the world because of its famous history of successful gay activism.

But beyond the buzz, which despite the name of our blog is where we always like to go, the Castro District location at 4201 18th Street in San Francisco is a good one for Mollie Stone's (it also would have been good for Tesco's Fresh & Easy), as we explained in our January 13 story.

In fact, Mollie Stone's has a solid history of grabbing good locations in the City by the Bay. Such was the case when it took over the former Grand Central Market (2435 California Street) in Pacific Heights and Tower Market (635 Portola Drive) in Twin Peaks a number of years ago. Both locations are "money" sites for a grocer that knows how to merchandise basic groceries side-by-side with quality fresh foods and specialty, organic and gourmet products, which just happens to be the essence of Mollie Stone's mission statement and positioning as a food retailer.

Based on our experience, knowledge and analysis, the 18th Street location in San Francisco's Castro District, vacated in December 2010 by DeLano's IGA, should be the third "money" location in San Francisco for Mollie Stone's Markets and its "Best of Both Worlds" merchandising strategy.

The buzz, after all, can drive shoppers to a new store - and that's very important. But once they get there, it's up to that fascinating recipe that makes food retailing so interesting, which consists of just the right combination of merchandising, pricing, location, store design and customer service, to get customers to return - and keep coming back.

Related Stories

January 13, 2011: Mollie Stone's Markets Taking Over Closed 18th Street Delano's IGA Market in San Francisco's Castro District

January 26, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is On A Mission - In San Francisco's Mission District

January 12, 2011: First Northern California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Opening March 2; Nine More to Follow March-April

December 14, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Open 5800 Third Street 'Flagship' Store in San Francisco Later in 2011 Than Originally Announced.

November 30, 2010: DeLano's IGA Markets Closing Five Stores in San Francisco & Marin County; Fairfax, Davis Units to Remain Open (For Now)

November 29, 2010: Veteran Grocer Harley DeLano's 'DeLano IGA Markets' Chain On the Verge of Closure in San Francisco Bay Area

Additionally, see (click on to read) the following links - Northern California Special Report, Fresh and Easy Northern California, Fresh and Easy San Francisco Bay Area, Mollie Stone's Markets, Northern California, Northern California Market Region, SF Bay Area - for more related stories.