Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Goes 'Outside the Box,' Adds Natural Gas-Fueled Trucks to Delivery Fleet

'Green' Food and Grocery Retailing

El Segundo, California-based Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is going outside the box - its 10,000 square-foot grocery markets and 800,000 square-foot distribution center in Riverside County, California specifically - in its latest environmental conservation and sustainability initiative.

The Tesco-owned chain has inked a deal with Ryder System, Inc., its transportation, logistics and supply chain partner, to lease 25 compressed natural gas (CNG) delivery trucks, which it will add to its fleet of diesel fuel-powered vehicles and use to deliver fresh foods and groceries to its 176 stores in California, Nevada and Arizona from its Southern California distribution center. Fresh & Easy currently leases 71 vehicles from Ryder Systems, which it uses to deliver product to its stores in the three Western States.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has taken delivery of the first 15 of the CNG delivery vehicles, according to Cindy Hass, a spokesperson for Ryder Systems. The remaining 10 delivery trucks will be delivered to the grocery chain in October, she says. The CNG vehicles are the fist of their kind for Fresh & Easy's delivery truck fleet.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy is what Ryder Service, Inc. calls one a "Dedicated Contract Carriage" customer, which means the company provides a full menu of transportation, logistics and supply chain services to the grocer.

Those services include: providing the delivery vehicles and related equipment on a lease basis, along with engineering and logistics support services; supplying the drivers and management expertise. In other words, it's a full outsourcing-type arrangement between Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market and Ryder.

Ryder Systems is making the compressed natural gas vehicles available to Tesco's Fresh & Easy as part of an agreement to reduce emissions the transportation company has made with the San Bernardino Associated Governments (SANBAG) in Southern California. San Bernardino County neighbors Riverside County, where the grocery chain's distribution center is located.

The agreement between the transportation company and SANBAG is part of a $38.7 million public/private partnership between the U.S. Department of Energy, the California Energy Commission, the Southern California Association of Governments Clean Cities Coalition, and Ryder System, Inc.

The key elements of the project include putting 202 of the CNG-powered delivery vehicles on the road in Southern California, making upgrades to three maintenance facilities for the servicing of natural gas vehicles, and the construction of two compressed natural gas fueling stations in the region.

Compressed natural gas is about 40% cheaper than diesel fuel, base on today's price. Additionally, experts estimate the CNG-fueled delivery vehicles produce in the neighborhood of 25% less emissions than diesel fuel does.

Geologist, entrepreneur and oilman T. Boone Pickens has for the last couple of years been advocating a nationwide government/private sector partnership that would have as its focus the conversion of the nation's entire diesel fuel-powered commercial trucking fleet to compressed natural gas, arguing doing so would be cheaper, reduce carbon emissions, help lower U.S. dependence on foreign oil and create jobs. According to Geologists, the U.S. and Canada have the greatest amount of natural gas reserves in the world.

Pickens has spent over a million dollars of his own money on a pubic relations program and lobbying Congress and the President to enact legislation designed too enable the massive conversion of the U.S. trucking fleet from diesel fuel to natural gas but has yet to see his "Pickens' Plan" become public policy.

United Kingdom-based Tesco, which owns Fresh & Easy Neighborhood has a major climate change/carbon reduction initiative that was started a few year ago by former CEO Terry Leahy, who retired in March of this year, and is being continued by the board of directors and new CEO Philip Clarke, who took over for Leahy in March.

Tim Mason, the CEO of Fresh & Easy, was named to the additional position of Tesco group deputy CEO in March. In that position, which reports to Clarke, Mason has overall responsibility for Tesco's global climate change/carbon reduction initiative, along with heading up Tesco's global marketing and branding efforts, as well assisting Clarke in a number of other initiatives.

"We are committed to reducing our impact on the environment, and incorporating natural gas vehicles into our fleet is a natural step to help us reduce emissions even further," Mason says. "Ryder has been an excellent partner in this effort, supporting our efforts to save our customers money and to be a good neighbor."

The reduction in  fuel costs should also provide some needed cost savings for Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market as long as the cost of compressed natural gas remains significantly lower than diesel fuel.

"When we can reduce our operating costs through more efficient transportation technologies like natural gas, we can pass those savings on to our customers," Mason says. "This natural gas vehicle initiative directly supports our efforts to offer fresh, wholesome food at affordable prices."

The addition of the 25 CNG delivery vehicles to its fleet should provide a significant contribution by Tesco's U.S. Fresh & Easy chain towards the global retailer's goal and strategy of reducing its carbon footprint over the coming years in the 14 countries where it has its operations, stores, distribution facilities and delivery fleets, because of the reduced emissions the natural gas-fueled delivery trucks provide.

Related Stories

December 8, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Install Solar Energy Systems Atop Nine Arizona Stores in March 2011

May 12, 2010: Brighter Looking Fresh Foods, 'Greener' Stores on Tap at Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market

December 31, 2008: 'Green' Retailing: Tesco Scores Second Overall, Number One Among Food and Drug Chains, in Ceres Coalition's Climate Change Corporate Scorecard

September 8, 2008: Tesco PLC CEO Terry Leahy: 'We Must Go Green'

April 4, 2008 Fresh & Easy Buzz Redux: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Should Mimic Tesco UK's Penny-A-Bulb Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb Promo for Earth Day USA

Additionally, click here for more related stories.

Fresh & Easy's key "green" grocer initiatives

Since it opened its first stores in November 2007, Tesco's Fresh & Easy has been making making continuous improvement towards its goal of becoming a "green" (as in more sustainable) grocer.

In fact, the retailer's sustainable initiative started before opening the stores. For example, when Tesco constructed the 800,000-plus square-foot Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market distribution center in Riverside County it included a massive solar energy array on the building's roof. In the peak summer months, like now, the system provides up to 30% of the facilities energy.

Fresh & Easy's most recent "green" initiative at store-level is the replacement of the coffin-style reach in frozen food display cases n the stores with upright units that have glass doors, which is something we were the first publication to report in this story: The grocer is currently in the process of replacing the coffin case freezer cases with the upright units with glass doors in about a third of its 176 stores.

Key sustainability/energy conservation initiatives Tesco's Fresh & Easy currently practices in its stores:

>Uses LED lighting in its outdoor signs an in its frozen and refrigerated product display cases inside the stores;

>Uses above standard (in energy efficiency) display cases for perishable foods'

>Recycles the display packaging it ships to its stores, returning it back to the distribution center in Riverside County;

(However, unlike most grocers Fresh & Easy does pre-package most of its fresh produce, thereby creating added packaging that's sent home with customers who purchase the items. The grocer also offers free single-use plastic carrier bags only rather than a choice of paper or plastic like most if not all of its competitors do. If Fresh & Easy offered its customers a choice it would be more sustainable because single-use plastic bags are recycled at far-lower rates then paper grocery sacks are, although the grocer does a good job at encouraging the use of reusable shopping bags in its stores.)

>Has recycling bins in all its stores for single-use plastic carrier bags and other types of recyclable packaging. This is the law in California, where the grocer has 127 of its 176 stores. But is not required in Arizona, where Fresh & Easy has 27 units, or Nevada, where there are 21 stores. However, Fresh & Easy neighborhood Market has the bins in its stores in those states anyway;

>Started installing solar panel arrays on nine Fresh & Easy stores in Arizona in March of this year.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Install Solar Energy Systems Atop Nine Arizona Stores in March 2011

'Green' Food and Grocery Retailing

We've suggested in past stories on the blog that Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market should look into installing solar panels and solar energy systems on the roofs of as many of its 155 fresh food and grocery stores as is feasible, since not only are the small-format markets well-suited for solar because of their size - 12,000 square-feet on average - and locations - sunny Southern California, metropolitan Las Vegas, Nevada and metro Phoenix, Arizona - but also because doing so would fit well with the grocer's attempt to position the chain as a "green" or sustainable grocer, which is one of United Kingdom-based Tesco's strategic goals with Fresh & Easy.

Adding rooftop solar to some of the Fresh & Easy stores also fits well with what Tesco did when it constructed its 850,000 square-foot Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market distribution center in Riverside County, (Southern) California in 2007, which was to invest $13 million to install 500,000 square-feet of solar panels, about the size of five football fields, on the roof of the facility.

The massive solar array provides about a fifth of the total energy for the distribution center, according to Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market. Fresh & Easy's website has a live feed from the solar installation at the Riverside County distribution center, reporting in real time the performance of the panels. You can view it here.

Lastly, extending solar from the Riverside County distribution center's roof to store rooftops, in addition to adding to Fresh & Easy's credibility in the Western U.S. as a "green" grocer, also fits in well with parent company Tesco's strategy of being known as a global sustainable retailer and leader in climate change reduction, which is something outgoing CEO (March 2011) Terry Leahy has made a major corporate and cultural focus during the last few years.

Since extending solar from the rooftop of the Riverside County distribution center to the roofs of some of the small-format Fresh & Easy stores is something we've discussed in Fresh & Easy Buzz in the past, a press release distributed by Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market earlier today on just that topic caught our collective eye.
In the release, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market announced it plans to install solar systems on the roofs of nine of its stores in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona beginning in March 2011.

The project will be in partnership with REC Solar, according to the news release.

REC Solar was founded in 1997 and is one of the leading solar-electric energy companies in the U.S. It's headquartered in California and has offices in Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, Hawaii and New Jersey.
Here's what Tesco's Fresh & Easy says about the solar power systems to be installed on the roofs of the nine stores in Arizona, based on information provided by REC Solar:

>The systems will generate more than 410 kW of solar energy.

>The systems will produce an estimated 620,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) annually, the equivalent of reducing 22 million pounds of CO2 emissions – or removing 28 million car-driven miles – over the next 25 years.

>The solar energy systems to be installed on the roofs of the nine stores in Arizona will provide approximately 20 percent of the stores' total energy needs, according to Tesco's Fresh & Easy.

The Arizona Commerce Authority is a partner with Tesco's Fresh & Easy on the project to install solar systems on the roofs of the nine Arizona stores. The quasi-public organization, which was established in June of this year, offers various renewable energy-focused financial and tax incentives to companies doing business in Arizona for projects such as Fresh & Easy's solar system initiative, according to Don Cardon, president and CEO of the Arizona Commerce Authority.

"Fresh & Easy's decision to become more energy independent is an example of why the Arizona Commerce Authority is focused, in part, on facilitating investment in the renewable energy sector and on job creation and training. Arizona has the potential to become the solar capital of the world and lead the nation as solar demand continues to grow globally and intensify nationally," Cardon, says.

The solar systems also will provide some real cost-savings, based on the 20% per-store in energy savings Tesco's Fresh & Easy says the systems will achieve, at the nine Arizona Fresh & Easy stores set to get the units in March 2011. Look at it this way: If the average monthly utility bill per-store is $5,000, for example, the 20% reduction in that monthly expense because of the added rooftop solar system results in a savings of $1,000 per-month on the stores' cost-side. That's helpful from a bottom-line, P/L standpoint.

Installing the solar systems in the nine Arizona Fresh & Easy stores in March 2011 is also good timing for Tesco director and Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Tim Mason.

In March of next year Mason will assume the title of co-CEO of United Kingdom-based Tesco. He will remain in the U.S. as CEO of Fresh & Easy but will add a couple additional Tesco corporate responsibilities to his portfolio, according to the company. Those new global responsibilities will be in the areas of marketing/branding and corporate sustainability/climate change initiatives. The latter new area of responsibility - corporate sustainability and climate change initiatives - being the one in which the Fresh & Easy nine-store solar energy system project offers the good timing for.

Mason is gaining the new title and added responsibilities due to the retirement of Tesco CEO Terry Leahy, who is leaving the United Kingdom-based global retailer in early March of next year.

Tesco executive Philip Clarke, who's currently responsible for Tesco's business in Europe and Asia, along with corporate information technology, is taking over as CEO in March 2011. Although Mason will have the title of co-CEO, Clarke will have the CEO title and function as Tesco's chief executive officer. [See - June 8, 2010: Tesco CEO Terry Leahy Retiring; Philip Clarke New CEO; Tim Mason Named Deputy CEO But Will Remain Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Chief in U.S.]

Installing the REC solar energy systems on the roofs of the nine stores in Arizona in March of next year, the same month he assumes responsibility for Tesco's global climate change initiatives, which is something outgoing CEO Leahy has made a major corporate focus, therefore affords good timing for Mr. Mason from a variety of perspectives, including enhancing his "green retailer" credentials. [See - December 31, 2008: 'Green' Retailing: Tesco Scores Second Overall, Number One Among Food and Drug Chains, in Ceres Coalition's Climate Change Corporate Scorecard.]

"With the success of our solar panel installation on our distribution center, we're confident these systems on our stores will help cut down on energy costs even further," Tesco director and Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Tim Mason said in the press release today. "Through innovations like these, Fresh & Easy has been able to cut back on the amount of energy and water we use, efficiencies that are better for the environment and help us keep our prices low for our customers."

Below are the locations of the nine Arizona stores Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market says will get rooftop solar energy systems beginning in March 2011:

• Alma School & Elliot
  Chandler, Arizona
  
• Crismon & Guadalupe
  Mesa, Arizona
  
• Sossaman & Southern
  Mesa, Arizona
  
• Higley & Ray
  Gilbert, Arizona
  
• 107th Ave. & Thomas
  Avondale, Arizona
  
• 19th Ave. & Baseline
  Phoenix, Arizona
  
• 19th Ave. & Glendale
  Phoenix, Arizona
  
• 32nd St. & Greenway
  Phoenix, Arizona
  
• Camelback & 83rd Ave.
  Phoenix, Arizona

Earth Day 2009: California-Based Grocers Conducting A Myriad Of Reusable Bag Promotions Today; Other 'Green' Activities For Earth Day

The attractive and compelling Earth Day 2009 graphic above was created by artist dana gray for the Environmental Council of Sacramento, California's Earth Day 2009 activities. Learn more about those activities here: Environmental Council of Sacramento. [Graphic courtesy of Environmental Council of Sacramento.]

Numerous grocers in California, which arguably leads the U.S. when it comes to "green" initiatives, are celebrating Earth Day today by offering reusable shopping bags to shoppers at greatly reduced costs -- and in the case of many retailers for free.

For example, all day today, El Segundo (Southern) California-based Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is giving customers one of its free reusable canvas shopping bags in return for making a purchase of $10 or more in its stores in California (Southern and Bakersfield), southern Nevada and Metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona.

The Fresh & Easy reusable canvas bags normally sell for 99 cents each.

In addition:

>Supervalu's Inc.'s Albertsons chain in Southern California is giving away free reusable shopping bags at its stores in Santa Barbara, Calabasas and Southgate. Employees of the chain are also volunteering their time to assist in cleaning four state parks in San Diego.

>KV Mart, a Southern California-based privately-held supermarket chain, is going Albertsons one better in the free bag giveaway department: It's giving out a set amount of free reusable shopping bags in all of its Southern California stores today.

>Reno, Nevada-based Scolari’s Food & Drug, a family-owned supermarket chain, is giving the first 100 customers at each of its stores a free reusable shopping bag today.

>the upscale, Southern California-based Bristol Farms chain, which also is owned by Supervalu, Inc., is giving shoppers in its Southern California (and its one store in San Francisco in Northern California) supermarkets a free, high-quality reusable shopping bag for purchases of $25 or more made in its stores today.

>Another upscale Southern California chain, Gelsons, has created a special Earth Day 2009 limited edition reusable shopping bag which it's giving free to customers who buy $25 or more worth of groceries in its stores all day today.

>Modesto, California-based Save Mart Supermarkets (about 230 stores), which operates Save Mart banner supermarkets and Food Maxx banner discount warehouse stores in Central and Northern California -- from Bakersfield south to San Joaquin County in the north -- and Lucky banner supermarkets in the San Fancisco Bay Area, Sacramento region and other parts of Northern Califronia -- has teamed up with the makers of Tropicana brand orange juice in an Earth Day reusable bag extravaganza in all of its stores.

For each 128oz bottle of Tropicana Pure Premium Orange Juice customers purchase (the juice is advertised all week for $6.29 each in Save Mart-owned stores), they receive three free "Save Mart" reusable canvas shopping bags. The cross-promotion with Save Mart is part of Tropicana's "Save the Rainforests" campaign, in which the brand is donating money towards saving and preserving the rainforests.

>Safeway Stores, Inc. which operates supermarkets under the Safeway, Vons, Pak N Save and The Market banners in California, Nevada and Arizona, is giving shoppers a free, high-quality reusable shopping bag with purchases of $50 or more in its stores all day today. We're surprised Safeway is requiring such a high minimum purchase, since in the past the retailer has actually given reusable bags away for free. Maybe next Earth Day?

In addition to the reusable bag promotions and giveaways, numerous California-based supermarket chains are doing other good "green" deeds today for Earth Day.

For example:

>Sacramento, California-based Raley's Family of Fine Food Stores, which operates 133 supermarkets under the Raley's, Bel-Air, Nob Hill Foods and Food Source (warehouse stores) banners throughout Northern California and northern Nevada, is opening its "greenest" store today. The store is located in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Petaluma. The Petaluma Raley's banner supermarket has received a "gold" rating by LEED, the organization that certifies "green" commercial buildings in the U.S.. The only rating above "gold" is LEED's "platinum" rating.

The Petaluma store also employs state of the art refrigeration systems and a new induction lighting processes that dramatically decrease the amount of energy use in a building. Raley's says it is the first supermarket chain to use the new induction lightling system in the U.S.

Raley's is conducting all sorts of Earth Day activities at the Petaluma store grand opening, as it is at all of its 133 supermarkets.

>Natural and organic grocery chain Whole Foods Market, Inc. is holding a vitual Earth Day 2009 festival in its stores in California, Nevada, Arizona and elsewhere throughout the U.S. (and in Canada and the United Kingdom). Among those activities include giving away free trees to shoppers, selected free reusable bag giveaways, and partnership promotions with numorous local environmental and community organizations for Earth Day 2009, along with numerous other "green" activities.

Whole Foods also announced today that it plans to dramatically increase its use of alternative energy at its distribution facilities and stores, including putting solar panels on many of its natural and organic foods supermarkets.

>Wal-Mart also announced today it plans to significantly increase the number of its stores that have solar power systems on panels. The majority of the new stores Wal-Mart will be adding the solar panels to are in California and the Western U.S. Selected Wal-mat stores also are giving away free reusable shopping bags today.

>Southern California-based supermarket chain Stater Bros (based in the Inland Empire region). and Arizona-based natural foods chain Sprouts Farmers Market, which has a number of stores in Southern California, have both announced they are making a financial and corporate involvement committment tothe U.S. National Park system in the Western U.S. That committment is to help preserve and conserve the National Parks, which are a true American heritage and treasure.

>Los Angeles based Superior Grocers, a multi-store independent, is providing water and fresh fruit to volunteers participating in a tree planting event in the Sixth District of Los Angeles.

>Rainbow Natural Market, a high-volume natural foods cooperative supermarket in San Francisco, is holding an Earth Day 2009 festival in and outside its store today. The event consists of numerous informational and educational booth on topics like local foods, recycling and more. There's also local and organic food tastings, demonstrations of ways to "green" the home, and other pro-environment kinds of activities.

The examples we've listed above of what grocers based in California, the Western U.S., and elsewhere in the country are doing for Earth Day 2009 are merely the tip of the iceberg. Other chains and independents are doing similar and other activities, all designed around the Earth Day conservation and "green" theme.

In California, the California Grocers Association (CGA), the Sacramento, California-based food and grocery industry trade association for chains and independents, has played a major role in encouraging its grocer-members to sponsor reusable shopping bag promotions and giveaways today.

The trade group is committed to playing its part in getting more California shoppers to use reusable bags at its member's food and grocery stores. CGA members include most all of the leading chains and independents with stores in California.

"Using reusable bags is one of the easiest and most effective ways to have a positive impact on our environment," Ronald Fong, President and CEO of the California Grocers Association (CGA), said today. "On Earth Day 2009, we (the CGA) intend to increase reusable bag awareness and educate consumers to the benefits of their use."

"Grocers have sold reusable bags for years, Fong says, but it wasn't until the passage of Assembly Bill 2449 – California’s statewide plastic bag recycling bill – in 2007, and the increased worldwide focus on sustainability, that reusable shopping bags moved into the environmental spotlight."

The law requires supermarkets in California to sell reusable shopping bags, along with placing recycling bins in their stores for shoppers to return single-use plastic carrier bags to from home.

As Fresh & Easy Buzz reported in this April 16, 2009 story [Two New Bills in California State Assembly Would Put 25-Cent Per Bag Fee on Both Single-Use Plastic and Paper Carrier Bags], new proposed legislation is currently making its way through the California State Assembly in Sacramento that would levy a 25-cent per bag fee on all single-use plastic carrier bags and paper grocery sacks shoppers request in supermarkets, chain drug stores and convenience chain stores in the Golden State.

This proposed legislation, some version of which looks likely to pass this year, makes the effort by California's grocers to promote reusable bag use by customers in their stores all the more important on this Earth Day -- and beyond.

Of course, if a consumer behavior change would take hold, in which more shoppers bring their own bags to the store with them, such legislation wouldn't be needed. After all, in the larger scheme of things it really is up to each one of us as consumers and shoppers to use reusable bags and thus contribute to decreasing the use of non-renewable energy sources, isn't it?

Later today Fresh & Easy Buzz will publish a suggested, simple program, that if implemented by grocers in California and elsewhere we believe could lead to a dramatic increase in the use of reusable shopping bags by shoppers. Of course, that program, like any and all others, will require consumer cooperation and participation in order to work.

Stay tuned.

Happy Earth Day 2009.

[Editor's Note: Information about the reusable canvas shopping bag pictured above is available here.]

[You can follow Fresh & Easy Buzz around on Twitter.com at www.twitter.com/freshneasybuzz.]

Related stories and posts:

>April 9, 2009: Competitor News: One Year Since Eliminating Plastic Bags in Stores Whole Foods Market Says Reusable Bag Use Tripled; 150 Million Bags Out of Landfills

>April 8, 2009: News & Analysis: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Gets Reprieve As Manhattan Beach, California Plastic Bag Ban Law Held Up By Plastic Bag Industry Group's Lawsuit

>April 21, 2008: Earth Day 2008: Whole Foods Market, Inc. Becomes the First Major U.S. Food and Grocery Retailer to Stop Using Single-Use Plastic Carrier Bags Tomorrow

>March 19, 2009: Another Tesco Fresh & Easy Future Market City Bans the (Plastic) Bag: No Plastic Carrier Bags In Palo Alto, CA Supermarkets Starting September 18th

>March 7, 2009: Analysis & Commentary: The Seven Retail Operations Changes Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Needs to Make to Help it Get On the Success Track

>December 7, 2008: Fresh & Easy Offers New Definition of 'Double Bagging;' Says Sales of Reusable Bags Has Doubled Since Introducing its 99-Cent Bag in October

>August 13, 2008: Tesco to Offer Shoppers Free Plastic Bags in UK Stores Only if Requested; Still Offering Plastic Bags-Only in Fresh & Easy USA Stores; No Paper Option

>August 1, 2008: Bag Bans and Fees: Seattle, Washington Imposes 20-Cent Fee On Single-Use Plastic Carrier Bags; Bans the Use of Foam Meat Trays in Supermarkets

>July 23, 2008: Plastic or Plastic: Single-Use Plastic Carrier Bag Bans in California Cities Threatening Tesco Fresh & Easy's Free 'Plastic Bag-Only' Policy

>September 25, 2008: Competitor News: Wal-Mart Joins Tesco, Others in Announcing A Plastic Bag Reduction Program of its Own

>April 20, 2008: Earth Day 2008: California Bag-Fee Bill AB 2058 Passes California State Assembly Natural Resource Committee; Next Stop Appropriations Committee

>April 21, 2008: Earth Day 2008: City of Los Angeles, CGA and Southern California Grocery Chains Partner in Major Reuseable Shopping Bag Giveaway Promotion

>April 18, 2008: Earth Day 2008: New Issues Are Beginning to Emerge With Growing Consumer Use of Reusable Shopping Bags: Worker Injuries, Shoplifting, 'Double-Bagging'

>April 24, 2008: Legislation: Oakland, California's Plastic Grocery Bag Ban Law Not in the 'Bag' Yet

>April 13, 2008: California State Assembly Natural Resource Committee to Vote on Statewide 25-cent Single-Use Plastic Carrier Bag-Fee on Monday

>March 15, 2008: UK 'Banish The (Plastic) Bags' Campaign Update: Morrison's Latest to Make Announcement; Tesco Holds Firm

>March 5, 2008: Britain's 'Banish The (Plastic) Bag' Campaign and Tesco: London Street Artist 'Celebrates' the Tesco Plastic Bag; More UK Retailers to Charge Bag Fee

>March 8, 2008: More UK Retailers Jump On The 'Banish The (Plastic) Bag' Campaign.

>March 4, 2008: "Message From Across the Pond: Tesco is Right Square in the Middle of the 'Banish the (Plastic) Bags' Campaign in the United Kingdom

>May 1, 2008: Green Retailing Report: UK Supermarket Chain Waitrose Creates A 'Reusable-Bag Only' 'Green' Checkout Lane in One of Its Stores

>April 21, 2008: Earth Day 2008: Massachusetts'-Based Stop & Shop Supermarket Chain and General Mills Launch Free Reusable Shopping Bag Cross-Promotion For Earth Day

California State Appeals Court Cuts Tesco's Fresh & Easy A Big Break; Overrules Judge's Ruling on Distribution Center Environmental Review

The 800,000-plus Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market distribution center pictured above includes 500,000 square feet of roof top solar energy panels, as you can see in the photograph. Tesco says the massive solar panel array and system provides about 70% of the building's total energy needs. One doubts this "green" aspect of the distribution center would need an "environmental review," since the impressive roof top array and solar energy system is among the largest of any commercial building in the U.S

A California State Appeals Court in Riverside County, California last Thursday overturned a Riverside County Superior Court judge's previous ruling that the 820,000 -to- 850,000 square foot Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market distribution center in the Southern California county would have to undergo a new series of environmental impact studies and reviews. That ruling was made by Riverside County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cahraman in 2008.

The Riverside-based appeals court ruling was first reported yesterday (Friday, February 20, 2009) by Lou Hirsh in the Press-Enterprise, a daily newspaper that covers Southern California's Inland Empire region, where Riverside County is located. [You can read the report here.] The Inland Empire region comprises Riverside County and San Bernardino County.

The Tesco Fresh & Easy distribution center is located on land that once was a U.S. Air Force base and is now the Meridian Business Park, located off of Interstate 215 in Riverside County.

Fresh & Easy Buzz verified the ruling with the appeals court yesterday. We also reviewed a summary of the appeals court's ruling.

The original ruling against Tesco was made by a judge in response to a lawsuit filed by a non-profit citizen, health and environmental organization in Southern California called Health First. The United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, which is attempting to organize Tesco Fresh & Easy store-level employees, was supportive of the Health First lawsuit.

When the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market distribution center was built in 2007 it didn't go through an environmental review process separate from the one that the entire Meridian Business Park development went through. Tesco was given approval to take this route by the local March Joint Powers Authority, a government agency that is responsible for all development on the former U.S. Air Force land. The authority approved Tesco's plans for the distribution center.

However, Health First argued that projects the size of the Tesco Fresh & Easy distribution facility need to go through separate, individual environmental impact reviews. Lawyers for Tesco and the March Powers Authority disagreed. As a result, Health First filed a lawsuit; the lawsuit the Superior Court judge agreed with.

Tesco and the March Powers Authority then appealed that judge's ruling to the Riverside-based state appeals court, which ruled in favor of the two parties on Thursday, overturning the judge's decision and ruling against Health First's lawsuit on the appeal. [We reported on the appeal on April 16, 2008 here: Tesco and Riverside County March Joint Powers Authority File Appeal Over Fresh & Easy Distribution Center Environmental Review Court Order.]

The appeals court decision isn't final yet though. Health First's legal counsel has the right to offer oral arguments against the appeal to the court.

If Health First decides to go this route then Tesco's and the March Powers Authority lawyers also will make rebuttal oral arguments. If that happens then the court will either uphold its ruling after completion of all the oral arguments or reconsider it.

As it stands right now, the appeals court's decision is set to become final in March if Health First decides not to further pursue the case further by offering the oral arguments.

The appeals court's decision is an extremely positive one for Tesco because had the court agreed with the previous judge's decision, the company would have had to temporarily close the Riverside County Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market distribution center and pay to have a complete environmental impact report conducted on the facility, which could take as long as a year to do. Further, it's possible that such a review would end up requiring Tesco to make numerous expensive changes to the facility or even close it all together.

The facility is Tesco's only one. All of the about 112 Tesco Fresh & Easy stores in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona receive fresh foods and grocery products from the Riverside County distribution center.

Had Tesco been forced to shut it down, even temporarily, it would have had to find an alternative way to distribute products to its stores. Such an alternative would be very expensive and disruptive for the grocery chain, particularly because the distribution center also includes a kitchen facility where the grocer prepares and packages all of the fresh, prepared foods items sold in the stores. It would be near impossible to find an alternative to the kitchen based on the centralized way in which Tesco's Fresh & Easy operates its prepared foods program.

Tesco also pre-packages most of its fresh produce and meats at the distribution center. The pre-packaged fresh foods are then shipped that way to the stores. This centralization process also would have made it difficult and expensive for the grocery chain to find an alternative had it been forced to close the facility.

Based on the appeals court ruling on Thursday, it's likely that even if Health First goes forward with the oral argument phase, that the court will uphold its Thursday ruling. As of yesterday, Health First had not indicated to the Riverside-based appeals court if it plans to go forward with the oral arguments.

U.S. Farm & Food Policy Under President Obama: What Will Obama Do as America's 'Farmer in Chief?' Writer Michael Pollan Offers Some Policy Ideas

U.S. Election 2008 Special Report

From the Fresh & Easy Buzz Editor's Desk:

In 76 days President-elect Barack Obama will be sworn in as the next President of the United States.

As President he will face a host of serious issues, ranging from a financial crisis and recession at home, to war abroad.

The next U.S. President also will face an America where over the last year the price of food at the supermarket has soared by double-digits, which taken with the other economic problems the country is experiencing is seriously affecting consumers, along with farmers, agribusiness and the food and grocery industry.

President-elect Obama also will face a global food crisis in which far more people throughout the world, especially in the third world, are hungrier than was the case eight years ago. And as the leader of the world's leading economy he will be expected to play a major role as President in solving this crisis.

The food and grocery industry Blog Natural~Specialty Foods Memo published the piece reproduced below yesterday (before the Presidential election results were in) about a new farm and food policy proposed by popular writer and food policy advocate Michael Pollan.

The writer addressed his policy proposal via an article in the New York Times to the next U.S. "Farmer in Chief." Since Barack Obama will assume that title, at least along with the title of President and Commander in Chief, in late January, 2009 -- and since according to the piece now President-elect Obama has read and commented on some of Pollan's policy ideas -- it's possible we could see a partial or major shift in America's agricultural and food policy under an Obama Administration. Or we could at least see some increased attention and focus paid to it, which the Bush administration really hasn't done in its eight years in office.

Below is the post from yesterday's Natural~Specialty Foods Memo:

Food & Farm Policy Memo USA: Barack Obama Responds to Michael Pollan's Policy Agenda For the Next 'Farmer in Chief'
Natural~Specialty Foods Memo: November 4, 2008

As we write this piece, America's voters are either at the polls, getting ready to vote, or have already voted, since about 30% voted early in the 30 U.S. states that permit early voting.

And as America prepares to learn who the nation's next President will be, the country faces a host of serious challenges at home and abroad. These challenges include: the worst financial crisis since the great depression; an economic recession; engagement in two wars; record federal government budget red ink; growing unemployment; a broken health care system; soaring food prices; and a host of other problems and challenges.

Whichever candidate is elected -- Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain -- he will face more domestic and global challenges than any other President in modern history has upon taking office.

The most pressing issue as evidenced by polls of the American people is the economy. Consumer confidence is at historic lows, the credit markets remain frozen despite an injection of $700 billion of taxpayer money, people fear their jobs might be gone tomorrow, and to borrow a word from former President Jimmy Carter, economic malaise is beginning to set in across America.

The economy has been the primary issue during the last 4-5 weeks of the Presidential campaign, with little room really for discussion of anything else. This is probably as it should be considering how the economy is the master of all else -- and how deep of a hole it is in.

However, among the other serious issues facing the next President is food and agricultural policy in America, which is something both Barack Obama and John McCain have talked very little about, if at all, during the long Presidential campaign, which comes to an end today, election day 2008.

Michael Pollan, the University of California at Berkeley journalism professor, author ("The Omnivore's Dilemma" and other best selling books about food and agriculture food policy) and national advocate for a new approach to food and farm policy, is a person who has given much thought to the lack of discussion and debate in this election year regarding agricultural and food policy.

A few weeks ago Pollan expressed his views on the lack of food and farm policy debate in an article in the New York Times in the form of an open letter to the next President about food and farm policy in America.

You can read Pollan's "An Open Letter to the Next President" article from the Times' at this link: Michael Pollan Proposes A "Sun-Food" Agenda In Open Letter To Next U.S. President. Pollan calls this agenda for the next President, who we should soon learn is going to be, the "Sun Food" agenda, as the article about the next "Farmer In Chief" lays out.

It appears that although he hasn't been talking much during the campaign about food policy, one candidate and the potential "farmer in chief", Barack Obama, did pay attention to Michael Pollan's article and "Sun Food" agenda.

Appearing recently on National Public Radio (NPR), Pollan said he was approached by a member of Barack Obama's campaign staff about his New York Times article and his "Sun Food" Agenda for the next U.S. President. [Links to Pollan's NPR interview here: National Public Radio and here: New York Times article, Farmer in Chief.

According to Pollan, the Obama staffer asked him to distill the article into a one or two page summary so the campaign staff member could present it to Obama to read and review. Pollan said no, telling the staffer if he could have presented the agenda for the next "farmer in chief" in a page or two he wouldn't have bothered to write an 8,000 word article about it. After all, the article is online -- and isn't that what staffers are for? To write summaries of various articles and position papers for Presidential candidates?

Despite Pollan's decision not to summarize his 8,000 word article, which turned out to be the smart thing to do, it appears Barack Obama read the author's entire New York Times' article himself.

In an October 23, 2008 interview with Time magazine writer and columnist Joe Klein, Obama refers to the article, explaining how Pollan's ideas fit into his concept of a new energy economy. Obama has said if elected President he would invest at least $15 billion a year for the next few years, creating an Apollo-type energy program focusing on alternative and renewable energy such as solar, wind, geothermal and other forms, as well as investing in new automotive technologies and conservation and related "green" programs, creating millions of jobs in the process.

Below is a summary of what Obama told Joe Klein in the interview regarding his energy policy, the new energy economy he is proposing, and how Pollan's "Sun Food" agenda for the next President fits into it:

"There is no better potential driver that pervades all aspects of our economy than a new energy economy. I was just reading an article in the New York Times by Michael Pollen about food and the fact that our entire agricultural system is built on cheap oil. As a consequence, our agriculture sector actually is contributing more greenhouse gases than our transportation sector. And in the mean time, it's creating monocultures that are vulnerable to national security threats, are now vulnerable to sky-high food prices or crashes in food prices, huge swings in commodity prices, and are partly responsible for the explosion in our healthcare costs because they're contributing to type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease, obesity, all the things that are driving our huge explosion in healthcare costs. That's just one sector of the economy. You think about the same thing is true on transportation. The same thing is true on how we construct our buildings. The same is true across the board."

Read the full Barack Obama-Joe Klein 'Time' interview here.

In our analysis and opinion there's a near 100% synergy between energy policy and food and agricultural policy in the U.S.

For example, one of the primary drivers of the soaring price of food over the last year is the rapidly-rising price of oil and the resulting sky-high price of fuel. The fact the price of oil has dropped nearly 50% over the last few months is only a short-term band-aid fix. It will go back up again, especially if the U.S. fails to embark on a massive program designed to achieve energy independence like Barack Obama is proposing.

These high fuel prices, and the uncertainty they have created, are being felt throughout the entire food supply chain, from the farm to the supermarket, along with in American consumers' pockets and what's left of their bank accounts.

One thing we do suggest to Senator Obama and team if he is elected today is to remember America's agricultural and food industry is arguably the nation's most important and most responsible.

For example, unlike the financial services and auto industries, and probably a few others soon, America's agricultural and food industries aren't asking the federal government to bail them out with taxpayer dollars, even though a number of companies are experiencing tough times. Like the rest of America's businesses and individuals they are helping to pay for bailing out these industries.

Additionally, America's agribusiness companies and farmers, as well as its food and grocery manufacturers, distributors and retailers -- all vital national enterprises -- haven't behaved in a way that's found them financially leveraged to the hilt. Rather, most of these companies and family farmers operate, grow and behave in financially prudent ways. Compare this to many of America's big banks and financial institutions, for example.

Therefore, we encourage what in just a few hours could very well be the new U.S. Presidential Administration to make sure it does all it can to work with and protect America's farmers, agricultural and food and grocery industry businesses during any new energy-agricultural policy shift. This is a policy shift, a focus on new energy sources, we agree with.

And if a new agricultural and food policy is a part of this policy shift, which we agree with in the main except for some particular details, then America's agricultural and food industries, which have in the main been ethically good players, employers and agents for the consumer in the economy, need to be considered, listened to and involved in developing this new policy.

Meanwhile, if Barack Obama is elected President today, it will be refreshing to have an American President who actually reads the newspapers. Since his first term in office, President George W. Bush has proudly said he doesn't read the papers. Perhaps that's how he missed the fact financial crisis was on the way? Or that Hurricane Katrina could be devastating? Or that OPEC was cutting oil production so it could jack up the price of oil?

[Photo Credit: the photograph of Barack Obama at the top of this piece is by Charlie Neibergal. Courtesy: Associated Press.]

Friday Free-For-All: News and Views About Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market and Tesco PLC

Good, cheap canvas shopping bags

On Thursday, October 17, Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market added an inexpensive 99-cent reusable canvas shopping bag to the selection of reusable shopping totes it offers for sale in its stores.

The new 99-cent reusable canvas bag (pictured at left) is made with 100% unbleached cotton, carries a simple design of the Fresh & Easy logo, and can hold up to 100 pounds, according to Tesco Fresh & Easy marketing director Simon Uwins.

Fresh & Easy stores already sell what the retailer calls a "bag for life" which they will replace for free if it is ever torn or damaged. The bag is made out of a plastic-like synthetic material and sells for just 20-cents each.

Uwins says the the grocery chain plans to introduce two new reusable carrier bags by the end of the year. One is a reusable canvas wine carrier bag that holds up to 7 bottles. It will sell for $1.99 and should be available in the stores in mid-November, he says. The second reusable bag, a reusable canvas shopping tote made out of organic material, will sell for $2.99 and will be offered in the stores in mid-December, according to Uwins.

We think offering the inexpensive 99-cent canvas shopping bag is a good idea. A number of other retailers like the Rite Aid drug store chain and the Raley's supermarket chain in Northern California have been offering 99-cent or dollar canvas bags for sometime now. Wal-Mart also just recently introduced a one dollar reusable canvas-style bag.

Raley's even distributed thousands of its 99-cent bags for free in its 129 stores when it introduced the inexpensive reusable totes last year.

The attractive yet inexpensive bags offer shoppers a low-priced way to bring their own bags (BYOB) to the store and help cut down on the waste from single-use plastic carrier bags and paper grocery sacks. In particular is reducing the volume of single-use plastic carrier bags given out at supermarkets and other retail stores, since unlike paper bags their isn't a comprehensive recycling structure such as curbside recycling in place in the U.S.

Introducing the 99-cent canvas bags is even more important for Tesco's Fresh & Easy to do since the retailer only offers free single-use plastic carrier bags in it stores and not the paper grocery sack option as nearly 100% of supermarkets in the U.S. do.

The more inexpensive reusable bag options consumers are given, the fewer excuses they have to not bring their own bags to the grocery store.

Let the sunshine in

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market says the massive solar panel array on the roof of its huge 850,000 square foot distribution center in Riverside, (Southern) California is currently producing about 75% of the center's energy needs.

Achieving a 75% solar energy production rate is very impressive, as well as being among the highest of any distribution center we are aware of in the United States.

In fact, very few supermarket companies or wholesale grocers even have solar systems and rooftop solar panel arrays on their facilities. Very few retail distribution facilities of any format do in the U.S. actually.

Wal-Mart and the department store chain Macy's are two large retailers that are aggressively putting solar power systems on their numerous distribution centers. Both retailers have already put solar systems and panels on the roofs of or next to a number of their respective distribution centers in California and Hawaii, with more installations planned.

The solar installations at the Wal-Mart and Macy's distribution centers thus far provide about 30-50% of the total energy use of the respective facilities. Therefore, that the solar power system at the Fresh & Easy distribution center in Riverside County is providing 75% of the facilities energy needs is a considerable achievement compared to what others are currently doing.

The solar panels at the Fresh & Easy distribution center cover 500,000 square feet, which is about the size of five football fields.

The company says the installation cost $13 million.

Since March, the solar panels have provided over 2,100 MWh of energy -- enough energy to power over 300 typical homes, 4200 televisions or 10,000 light bulbs for a year, Tesco's Fresh & Easy says.

Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has a live feed on its Web site where you can view the output (how much energy is coming from the solar panels) of the solar power system at the Riverside County distribution center in real time. Just click the link to go to that page on the Web site: http://www.freshandeasy.com/greenbuilding.

Fresh & Easy new store news

Fontana, Southern California: Tesco opened a new Fresh & Easy store on October 9 in the Southern California city of Fontana. Along with the local residents who attended the groand opening there was a group of protesters there from the United Food & Commercial Workers union. The local paper, the Fontana Herald News, covered the grand opening. You can read the report here.

Temecula, Southern California: The planning commission in this Southern California city heard an application on Wednesday night from Tesco's Fresh & Easy, which is proposing to build its second store at a site in the city. The first Fresh & Easy store in Temecula hasn't opened yet but is expected to do so soon.

The second Temecula Fresh & Easy store would be built on the south side of Rancho California Road, west of Cosmic Drive in the city, according to the planning commission.

The commission in March approved plans for a Fresh & Easy Market at Margarita and De Portola roads. Matt Peters, a planner with the city, said that project is under construction and the application for the second project was received in May.

The plan for the new Fresh & Easy market heard at the commission's hearing on Wednesday night calls for locating the store on a 2.47 acre parcel in the city, adjacent to two other approved projects: a Rite-Aid Pharmacy and a 160-unit apartment complex.

An issue at the hearing was Tesco's application for a beer and wine permit for the store. The planning commission said it had no objection to that because it doesn't feel their is an over concentration of stores that sell liquor, beer and wine in the neighborhood. The proposed Rite Aid store has applied with the state of California for both a spirits/hard liquor license and a beer and wine permit for the store next to the proposed Fresh & Easy unit in Temecula.

Temecula is in Riverside County in Southern California which is where Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's 850,000 square foot distribution center is located.

One year (store) birthdays

The very first batch of Tesco's Fresh & Easy small-format, convenience-oriented grocery and fresh foods stores officially opened in November, 2007. We say "officially" because the first Fresh & Easy market located in Hemet in Southern California actually opened about two weeks early in late October. In fact, it will have been open one year next week.

November is just a couple weeks away, which means one year birthdays for those first Fresh & Easy stores.

One of those stores, the Fresh & Easy at Foothill and Second Street in the Southern California city of Arcadia is planning a one year anniversary party on November 12.

According to store manager Tammy Goddard, the Arcadia Fresh & Easy will be celebrating in a variety of ways at the store on November 12. She says customers and others are invited to the birthday party at which the store "will have some special promotions, sample a few customer favorites, and give away reusable canvas bags on the first day (while supplies last) as part of its one year anniversary."

[Since Fresh & Easy Buzz has been suggesting since early this year that Fresh & Easy hold free reusable bag giveaway days since it only offers only free plastic bags in its stores and not the paper option, we're pleased a reusable bag giveaway -- the first we've heard about -- is being included in the one year birthday party at the Foothill & 2nd Arcadia store.]

"We are so grateful to our customers for a fantastic first year. We are starting to change the way people shop," says Fresh & Easy Arcadia store manager Tammy Goddard. "We couldn't have accomplished so much in one year without everyone's support and we look forward to being a part of the neighborhood for many years to come.”

The store also will make a $1,000 donation to a local charity in celebration of being open in the city for one year, she says. When the store opened last year it made a $1,000 donation to a local non-profit group, the Foothill Unity Center. Store manager Goodard says residents of Arcadia can submit the name of a local charity group for consideration of the awarding of the $1,000 donation at www.freshandeasy.com/goodneighbor. They have until October 24 to do so.

Tesco PLC News & Views

Cook it like Beckham: United Kingdom-based Tesco, which is the world's third-largest retailer, the leading retailer in the UK, and owns and operates Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in the U.S., is teaming up with famous British football (soccer for the yanks) star David Beckham to introduce a line of frozen, prepared foods Beckham has created in partnership with a company called G03. The frozen foods line will be launched in Tesco stores in the UK.

you can read about the development here: Beckham launches food range. Here: NOSH ’N’ BECKS. And here: How David Beckham might look as Captain Birds Eye. You might also enjoy the UK Web site thedailygoss.com's take on David Beckham's entry into the food business. Click here: DAVID BECKHAM: VICTORIA’S GREAT WITH MINCEMEAT.

Of course Beckham and his famous wife Victoria (Posh Spice) Beckham now live in sunny California where Mr. Beckham received a multi-million dollar contract to play U.S. professional soccer. The Beckhams live in Southern California's Beverly Hills/Brentwood area.

The big question is: Since Fresh & Easy is owned by Tesco, and Tesco is launching Beckham's frozen, prepared meals range in the UK, and Beckham like Tesco is a product of the UK with a U.S. outpost (Beckham still has a home in Britain, Fresh & Easy is Tesco's U.S. outpost), will Tesco's Fresh & Easy USA sell David Beckham's prepared meals in its stores?

Since half of the Fresh & Easy stores are in Southern California where the Beckhams live and receive lots of media attention, it might not be a bad idea to sell a few of the froaen meal items in the region's Fresh & Easy stores. Of course, we would make a condition of doing so that the Spice Girls would have to do in-store samplings.

Additionally, Fresh & Easy Buzz's Promotional Pundit, who tipped us off to the story, says he thinks a Fresh & Easy store appearance or two or three by David Beckham would likely generate lots of foot traffic for those stores, especially of the high heeled variety.

Tesco cuts petrol costs...finally: In the UK Tesco sells petrol (gasoline) just as many supermarket chains in the U.S. do. Britain's Prime Minister (PM) Gordon Brown, who under former PM Tony Blair was the nation's Treasury Minister among other things, has grabbed the UK's financial crisis by the horns and among other actions is calling on the country's businesses to help out. It's being said by numerous observers that the UK financial crisis and the rapid and comprehensive way Brown is responding to it could ironically save Brown's leadership, which prior to the crisis was falling by the wayside.

One of the things PM Brown has done is to aggressively call on the UK's petrol retailers to cut the price of gasoline as a way to help the economy and Britain's cash-strapped citizens. Many have been doing just that, including Tesco. Tesco originally was reluctant to cut prices as low as Brown has been calling for. But the giant retailer now has. But after all of its competitors already did so. You can read about it here: Tesco cut petrol to below £1.

Wal-Mart-owned Asda, along with Sainsbury's and Morrisons, in the UK cut its petrol prices in line with what PM Brown has been asking some time ago. Asda is the number two chain in the UK after Tesco, followed by Sainsbury's and Morrisons. However, Tesco was a holdout -- until now. On October 16 Brown threatened an inquiry unless all of the nation's petrol-sellers lower prices in the wake of the tumbling price of oil: Cut your petrol prices or face an inquiry, Brown tells fuel giants.

The UK press has been tough on Tesco for being a laggard rather than a leader in this effort. For example, read the piece from The Sun here: Greedy fuels. Also from This is Money UK: Tesco drops fuel price. Both those pieces were published shortly before Tesco announced it would join all of the other retailers in lowering the price of petrol. Also read about the fury over the high fuel prices in this piece: Forecourt fury as petrol prices stay high.

Lower food prices too: UK PM Brown also is after the nation's food and grocery chains to lower their prices on food and grocery items. We told you he was going full bore in his efforts. Brown also believes the current oil slump with slash food costs in the UK. And yesterday he promised Britain's struggling families those prices would come tumbling down. Read about it here: Brown: Oil slump will slash food bills.

UK basic food prices up: Brown's calls for reduced food prices in the nation can't come too soon for some. The most recent data shows the prices on basic food and grocery items in the UK have increased in the current quarter by 14pc. Read more here: Basic food prices 'up by 14pc'.

Tesco is by far the leading seller of food and groceries in the UK with a 31% share of the market. Number two Asda follows with 17%. Number three Sainsbury's has a share of about 15% and number four Morrisons about 12%.

Since Tesco has a greater market share than the number two and three UK chains combined, it tends to come under the most intense scrutiny by the government and media in terms of the price of basic food products in the nation. Look for that scrutiny to intensify as the economy gets worse, especially if food price inflation continues at current levels.

Sister act at Tesco: Tesco Workers 'Similarity'. When Debbie Day and Marilyn Morris shared a coffee and a chat during their working day at a Tesco store in the UK, they remarked on how much they looked like each other. Here's why: Tesco workpals for 30 years were lost sisters. Read more: Friends find out they are sisters. BBC News: Friends discover they are sisters.

'Locali Conscious Convenience:' New Small-Format Hybrid Convenience-Grocery Store Coming to Hollywood, California

A new small-format, hybrid grocery and convenience-oriented store is coming to Hollywood, California. And the company hopes to create a regional chain of the stores throughout Southern California.

Locali Conscious Convenience, which is currently under construction, is set to open its doors this fall. The market, located at 5825 Franklin Avenue in Hollywood, seeks to make healthy eating and eco-friendly household necessities easily accessible to those on the go, says CEO Greg Horos. Roughly translated from Italian, locali means "community" or "where it's happening."

According to CEO Horos, the small-format, environmentally-focused hybrid grocery and convenience market "will be a hip version of the mom and pop corner store. Locali will also be a place for people in the community to connect with each other and their food sources. There will be an emphasis on local and organic food artisans, producers and growers in the inventory line up. However, refined sugar, hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup and genetically modified products will be missing from the shelves," he says.

“I like to describe it as the sustainable version of 7-11," Horos says. "We’ll have healthy and eco-friendly versions of the all the typical things you’d find at a convenience market…with the exception of cigarettes and lotto tickets…No clean versions of those,” he added.

“We’re building (the store) to LEED (strict green building guidelines) standards and working with the city of Los Angeles to make sure we can supersede those standards as much as possible. We have a lot of terrific value adds for the community. I’m most excited that we’re offering exclusively organic and biodynamic wines and beers, too.”

Besides the energy efficient building measures and appliances, Locali Conscious Convenience will also provide for the disposal of compost, in addition to recycling waste. A percentage of their proceeds will benefit a variety of local and international charities geared towards improving overall wellness, according to Melissa Rosen, a company spokesperson. The retail space is being designed by Los Angeles-based MASS Architecture & Design, Ms. Rosen says.

"Locali conveniently connects the community to eco-friendly food, beverage and lifestyle products. By providing easy access to socially and environmentally responsible goods, Locali promotes conscious consumerism and healthy living," Ms. Rosen says.

Locali Conscious Convenience is a unique hybrid concept, combining green retailing with small-format food and grocery retailing, natural and organic niche. However it's not the first or the only retail format of its kind in the U.S.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market currently has one store in Hollywood, on Hollywood Blvd. Over half of its 78 stores are located in Southern California, with the remaining stores in the Las Vegas, Nevada and Phoenix, Arizona Metropolitan regions.

In June, 2008, the publication Natural~Specialty Foods Memo wrote and published this piece, "Retail Innovation Memo: The 'Econvenience Store' Will Be the Next New Thing, and is A Convenience Store Industry Green Retailing Trend in the Making," about Green Spot Market & Fuels, a hybrid small-format convenience and grocery store that opened in the Dallas, Texas region earlier this summer.

In the story, Natural~Specialty Foods Memo predicted we would soon begin seeing other, similar format stores opening in the United States, calling the eco-hybrid convenience/grocery store an emerging trend.

Hybrid eco-convenience stores popping up all over

It appears the blog is on to something with that prediction. In addition to Texas' Green Spot and Los Angeles' soon to be Locali Conscious Convenience, Fresh & Easy Buzz has learned a hybrid eco-convenience-grocery store chain named Good to Go ECOnvience Center recently opened its first store in Grand Chute, Wisconsin USA on May 1, 2008.

Good to Go, which like Green Spot and Locali Conscious Convenience also bills itself as "the first eco-convenience store in the U.S.," says it has plans to open 150 of the green convenience-oriented stores in Wisconsin, Iowa and Northern Illinois by the end of 2010, which is a very ambitious store opening program.

Good to Go says its stores also are built using LEED green building guidelines. The Good to Go ECOnvenience Center features a green roof with plants and sod that minimize absorption of sunlight that could heat the building and force overuse of its HVAC system; energy savings during the summer cooling season can be as much as 25 percent. The soil also acts like a sponge to absorb rain and reduce storm water runoff by as much as 95 percent after a one-inch downpour.

"When it comes to our customers, we haven't set out to change the direction the wind blows. Rather, we have adjusted our sails," said Angie Nikolas, vice president of neighborhood relations for the retailer. "We're very proud to bring 24-hour convenience that minimizes the impact we make on our environment."

Similar to Green Spot and Locali Conscious Convenience (although each have unique aspects as well), Good to Go's focus is on selling healthier natural and organic food, grocery, beverage, snack and prepared foods items as part of its green theme.

In Portland, Oregon, a company called Full Moon Foodies is working on creating a chain of small-format hybrid convenience-grocery stores with a green and natural products focus.

"I got tired of having to hop into the car to drive to a mega-organic mart, fight for parking and waste time standing in long lines whenever I needed a few items," Ellisa Wee, the retailer's founder says.

According to the company, "the retail concept provides customers with a knowledgeable staff; a modern, upscale store design; multiple community-based urban locations; and extended hours past those of grocery stores."

"We're not trying to re-invent the convenience store or the organic/natural food concept, we're trying to make it more accessible," Wee says.

The Full Moon Foodie's aren't the only retailers looking to penetrate (or perhaps create) the eco-convenience grocery niche however. A company called SeQuential Biofuels, which operates numerous fuel stations throughout Oregon and Western Washington state, has created a natural convenience market, which it is locating on site at its many fueling stations. Those stations offer conventional gasoline, biofuels and other green technologies. Many of the eco-convenience stores are solar powered. The stores also buy used vegetable oil form businesses and consumers and then turn it into biofuel.

The small-format store, called the Natural Market, sells conventional, natural and organic snacks and beverages, along with a limited assortment of grocery items. It features fresh, prepared foods, along with fresh produce. The stores also sell beer and wine, putting a special emphasis on locally-produced brews and wines from the Pacific Northwest region where the stores are located.

All of the coffee cups and straws used for the store's fresh brewed organic coffee are 100% compostable. Additionally, the retailer says it picks each product to sell in the stores "based on where, how, when, and by whom it was made," "Every effort has been made to source local, organic products, a company spokesperson says.

Part of the small-format continuum

We see this emerging small-format eco-convenience hybrid grocery-convenience store retailing trend as a "kissing-cousin" to the small format food and grocery retailing revolution happening in the United States, as well as in Europe and Asia. The eco-convenience stores are a variant of what is a multi-format small-format food and grocery retailing trend if you will.

While there are qualitative differences between Tesco's Fresh & Easy and what these retailers are doing for example--chiefly that Fresh & Easy is putting more of an emphasis on being a primary shopping venue with a low price focus on selling basic groceries and prepared foods--there are numerous similarities as well.

For example, the Tesco Fresh & Easy format puts a major emphasis on healthy and natural foods, preparing its fresh, prepared foods without using artificial ingredients and colorings. Fresh & Easy stores also sell lots of natural and organic grocery products and are positioned as environmentally-friendly markets just like the hybrid eco-convenience stores are, along with offering craft beers and specialty wines like the hybrid eco-convenience-grocery stores are doing.

Therefore, we view this format development as a continuum of sorts, as well a a natural foods variant of the tradition C-store format just as in many ways the natural foods store is a variant of the traditional supermarket.

As part of this format continuum, you have small-format grocers like Trader Joe's with a specialty and natural products focus, and Safeway's "The Market" format which offers basic and specialty groceries in a more upscale environment on one end. In the middle you have Tesco's Fresh & Easy and the soon to open Wal-Mart Marketside, which are hybrid combination basic grocery stores and fresh foods markets. And at the other end you have the small-format, no frills stores like Aldi and SuperValu, Inc.'s Sav-A-Lot, which are deep or hard discount limited assortment grocery stores.

Sitting alongside these various small-formats on this continuum you have the traditional convenience store, the supermarket and the natural foods store. It's like taking a piece from each one; the sums becoming the whole (format).

You can add to this the new hybrid eco-convenience stores, which are combining the traditional C-store format with a mini combination grocery and natural foods store, while still including gasoline fueling stations which offer traditional petroleum-based gas but also are adding cleaner biofuels.

All of the formats are going after two things in the main: the time-pressed shopper who might be tired of shopping at big box stores, along with a share of that shopper's stomach. Each has a similar but different niche. But in one way or the other all are competing against one another for that share of the consumers' stomach, and in many cases her 21rst century "green" conscious as well.

Southern California Market Report: Safeway Stores,'the market by Vons' Mass-Mails First Advertising and Promotional Flyer to Vons Club Card Members

Safeway Stores, Inc. has mass-mailed its first promotional flyer for its first small-format grocery store, "the market at Vons," which opened in Long Beach, California in May.

The advertising sheet, which was mass mailed to members of Vons' Club Card who live not only in the neighborhood where the store is located but also to residents who live a considerable distance away from the grocery store, introduces the Long Beach small-format grocery market as "Your neighborhood store (that) offers the best of everything."

The front of the advertising flyer, as you can see in the photograph at the top, features a picture of a bicycle with a basket full of groceries on it, with the tag line: "a refreshingly simple way to shop." The picture reinforces the messages of simplicity, conveniece, neighborhood, community, and the environment.

The messages are then elaborated on inside the flyer, pictured directly below, along with featuring items at promotional prices.

Below is the full text or copy inside of the mass-mailed promotional flyer:

welcome

Your neighborhood store offers only the best of everything.

a refreshingly simple way to shop

The Market by Vons is designed with a simple layout, so its easy to find what you're looking for. It's the perfect place for you're "fill-in" shopping or to grab a quick and delicious meal or snack.

the big little store

We offer a wide range of products, including fresh produce, meat and seafood, ready-to-enjoy meals, freshly baked goods and other everyday basics. So you can find everything you need but less of the things you don't, like long lines and 12 different kinds of ketchup.

no extra charge for convenience

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Our store is 100% wind powered and is actively involved in programs that benefit our community.

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Safeway is offering 10% off every item in "the market by Vons" small-format grocery store in the advertising flyer for the entire month of July.

In addition to the across the board 10%-off deal, the flyer promotion offers five features at fairly substantial discounts above 10%. These features are: A package of Safeway's private label Eating Right healthy brand fresh mixed lettuce greens, offered for free with no minimum purchase; $2-off any of Safeway's popular O' Organics store brand organic food and grocery items in the store; $3 off of the regular price of Safeway's Signature Cafe in-store roasted ready-to-eat whole chickens; and two deals on wines.

Safeway's Southern California Vons division has preloaded these promotions into all of the Vons Club Cards so that when shoppers purchase the items at the Long Beach "the market by Vons" store the promotional prices will automatically be reflected at the point-of-sale.

In the advertising flyer, under the "a refreshingly simple way to shop" header, Safeway mentions "The Market" is great for "your fill-in shopping." This is the retailer's positioning of the small-format "The Market" stores as we first reported here.

Unlike Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, which is positioning its small-format (10,000 -to- 13,000 square foot) Fresh & Easy combination basic grocery and fresh foods Fresh & Easy stores as everyday or primary shopping neighborhood grocery markets, Safeway is positioning its "The Market" small-format (15,000 -to- 20,000 square foot stores) as more upscale, "fill-in " shopping venues as part of a multi-format strategy. In Southern California that multi-format strategy including Vons supermarkets and superstores, Vons Pavilions supermarkets, which have an upscale and specialty foods focus, and now the small-format "The Market" format, the first store of which is "the market by Vons" in Long Beach.

The Long Beach "The Market" store has come under some criticism since opening in May for having prices which some shoppers say are just too high in general, while others have commented the small-format store's prices are higher than those at traditional Vons supermarkets in Southern California.

Fresh & Easy Buzz has learned two things in this regard.

First, Safeway is adjusting the pricing in the Long Beach "market by Vons" store to make sure its generally in line with the everyday pricing at nearby Vons supermarkets.

Second, we've learned Safeway plans to mass mail flyers like this first one on a regular basis in order to create a value proposition for "The Market," along with positioning the format as convenient, quality and community-oriented.

In the mass-mailed advertising piece, Safeway says the Long Beach store is powered 100% by renewable wind power. The grocery chain is achieving this by buying wind power credits for 100% of all the energy the store consumes. Safeway has been doing this for some time for the stores throughout the U.S. in which it operates fueling or gas stations alongside the supermarkets. Every Safeway fueling center is powered by wind energy in the form of Safeway buying wind power credits equally the energy used by those gas stations.

As Safeway opens more "The Market" format stores, the retailer plans to put a major emphasis on the dual and compatible concepts of the environment and community with the small-format stores.

Green issues are front and center currently at Safeway. In addition to the wind power credits, Safeway is in the process of putting solar panel arrays on about 35 of its supermarkets in Northern California. The solar panels are designed to provide about 35% of a stores total energy use. Additional panels are set to be installed on more stores in Northern California as well as on a number of stores in Southern California.

Safeway also is converting its entire trucking fleet from traditional fossil based diesel fuel to biodiesel fuel, made from vegetable oils. The retailer initiated this program last year, before the price of diesel fuel soared, primarily for environmental reasons. However, with diesel fuel edging towards $6 a gallon, the economics of converting its huge trucking fleet to biodiesel should pay off well for the grocery chain much faster than it anticipated they would.