Competitor News: Wal-Mart's Marketside On A Hiring Tear; Getting Closer to Opening Small-Format Fresh Food & Grocery Stores in the Phoenix, AZ Region

Wal-Mart, Inc.'s first four small-format (15,000 -to- 20,000 square foot) new combination fresh foods and grocery markets are getting closer to their upcoming summer opening in the Phoenix, Arizona Metropolitan region market.

As we reported previously in Fresh & Easy Buzz, Wal-Mart set up a new website specifically dedicated to Marketside--which also will have its own office in Arizona rather than being run out of corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas--and placed ads on the website for store managers and assistant managers for the four Phoenix-area stores in Mesa, Chandler, Tempe and Gilbert.

Wal-Mart has now added job postings for full-time store-level Pantry Controllers and full and part-time Meal Specialists for the four Arizona stores set to open this summer.

In addition to advertising for the positions on its website, Fresh & Easy Buzz reader and correspondent Reno Tom has found ads for Wal-Mart Marketside on job websites like College Recruiter.com, which is targeted to college students, as well as more general online job boards like SimplyHired.com and others.

Reprinted below in italics are the job descriptions from the Marketside website for each of those positions. The job descriptions for all positions are the same for all four stores. They also are the same for the full-time and part-time Meal Specialist positions.

Title: Full Time Pantry Controller

Description: Pantry Controllers work with the management team to provide customers what they are looking for every time they visit. Specifically, Pantry Controllers receive and stock merchandise, reconcile invoices and manage the administrative tasks of ordering and replenishment, actively managing overall inventory levels. In our small store format, Pantry Controllers also have the opportunity to be personally involved in engaging customers, modeling outstanding service and coaching Marketside Meal Specialists.

Location: AZ - Gilbert

About the Organization

Our Culture: We offer fresh product, value and convenience in a brand new way, and this is your opportunity to be a part of it!

The Opportunity includes:
- A chance to truly impact the retail industry
- The sense of pride and stability that comes with being a part of the world's largest retailer - Excellent opportunities for advancement

Title: Full Time Meal Specialists

Description: Meal Specialists work as a team to provide excellent customer service across all operational areas of the store. Their job is varied, including cashiering, food preparation and service, merchandising and store presentation. Perhaps the most fun however is the opportunity for this knowledgeable team to engage with customers, sharing cooking tips or providing recommendations for meal solutions.

Location: AZ - Chandler

About the Organization

Our Culture: We offer fresh product, value and convenience in a brand new way, and this is your opportunity to be a part of it!

The Opportunity includes:

- A chance to truly impact the retail industry

- The sense of pride and stability that comes with being a part of the world's largest retailer - Excellent

opportunities for advancement

Click here to view the ads on the Marketside website.

As you can see by the brief but descriptive enough job descriptions for both positions, the Marketside stores are going to be extremely fresh food-centric, as we've been reporting in Fresh & Easy Buzz since last year, when we were one of the first publications to report on the format development by Wal-Mart.

The Pantry Controllers at the Marketside stores, who will be full-time employees, will be combination store-level buyers/merchandisers and supervisors for the Meal Specialists, along with engaging in customer service activities.

The Meal Specialists will be the primary point-of-contact with customers, doing everything from operating the checkout stands and serving fresh, prepared foods to shoppers, to some stocking and merchandising and other customer service and store-related tasks. There will be a mix of full and part-time Meal Specialists in all four Arizona stores.

As we've reported previously, the Marketside stores will prepare fresh foods in-store for both take out and eating in. There will be a kitchen in each store, along with a small eating or dining area which can seat about 9 -to- 10 customers at a time right in the store.

Fresh & Easy Buzz has learned a number of Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market store-level employees are applying for the Wal-Mart Marketside positions in Arizona.

The Phoenix Metropolitan region is one of Tesco's three current markets for its small-format (10,000 -to- 13,000 square foot) Fresh & Easy combination basic grocery and fresh food format grocery stores.

Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market store-level employees are all part-time except for the store manager. Even the assistant manager, which Fresh & Easy calls a team leader, is part-time in most of the stores. The store-level workers are paid a starting wage of $10 an hour and get a limited health insurance plan as long as they work at least 20 hours per week. Each Fresh & Easy store employees about 20 workers, according to Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market.

According to our Wal-Mart source, a number of Tesco Fresh & Easy store-level employees who want to work full-time, which isn't an option at Fresh & Easy, are applying for the full-time Pantry Controller Positions, as well as the full and part-time Meal Specialists positions. Our source says the full and part-time Meal Specialist positions at Marketside start at about $12 an hour, which is $2 an hour more than Tesco's Fresh & Easy is currently paying.

We've also learned Wal-Mart's Marketside has interviewed more than one former and current Tesco Fresh & Easy corporate employee for its Phoenix, Arizona Metropolitan Marketside buying, merchandising and operations corporate office.

As we reported in this piece, "Competitor News: Wal-Mart Executive in Charge of Small-Format 'Marketside' Format Development Leaving to Join UK Bicycle Retailer Halfords Group PLC," on Friday, June 20, David Wild, Wal-Mart's senior vice president of business development and the company executive who's been in charge of the Marketside development from the start, is leaving the company to become the CEO of Halfords Group PLC, the United Kingdom's largest bicycle retailer. Wild, who is a British native and worked for Tesco PLC for 18 years, will start at Halford's on August 4.

Our source says one of the reasons Wild is waiting until August 4 to start at Halfords is because he wants to remain with Wal-Mart until the first Marketside store opens this summer, which means the first store will likely open before August 4.

The source tells Fresh & Easy Buzz that Wild wants to be around when the first Marketside store opens since he's been leading the format development since day one, as well as wanting to still be in the game so he can see the reaction from his former co-workers at Tesco PLC, Fresh & Easy's parent company.

RC-2: Reader Created Content: Fresh & Easy Buzz Reader and Correspondent Vegas Mike Reports on the Fresh & Easy at Lake Mead & Del Webb in Las Vegas

From the Fresh & Easy Buzz Editorial Desk: One of the ways among the many to better understand a food retailer like Tesco's Fresh & East Neighborhood Market is to pick a few stores and observe and study what happens in them--store customer counts, merchandising, costomer behavior and the like--on a regular basis.

Anthropologists for example call this type of research observational and ethnographical research. They will spend time among a culture, or in a more applied sense a business (or retail store), and observe what goes on in the culture, society or retail store over a period of time. They do so in what's called an unobtrusive manner; that is they don't tell people (in this case customers and workers) what they are doing, not do they ask questions like researchers do in a survey.

Rather, the applied ethnographer observes, focusing on a variety of variables and behaviors and noting how they change over time. Since retail stores, like cultures and societies, are dynamic rather than static, such applied observation can be a good way--along with other research such as surveys and other means--to better understand the evolution of a grocery store and food retailer. While one can't apply what goes on over time in one store to all stores, they can learn much about the whole (the chain) by closely observing the part (a handful of stores).

Fresh & Easy Buzz regular reader and correspondent Vegas Mike from Las Vegas has been doing just that--observing, analyzing and reporting over time--at the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market grocery store at Lake Mead & Del Webb in Las Vegas, Nevada, which is one of the Fresh & Easy units open the longest in the Las Vegas Metropolitan region.

We call his report--and other similar reports which we will be bringing Fresh & Easy Buzz readers--RC-2, Reader Created Content. It's a modified form of applied ethnography in that it also includes observations from a consumer point of view (the readers), along with suggestions and opinions on the stores(s), products and the like.

Below are Vegas Mike's latest observations and applied ethnographical report (including suggestions) on the Lake Mead and Del Webb Las Vegas region Fresh & Easy grocery store:

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market @ Lake Mead & Del Webb, Las Vegas, Nevada, Saturday, June 21, 2008: Observations and analysis by Vegas Mike

New items: Fresh & Easy has a set of new products for the grill in the meat aisle. The packaging label has a graphic of fire. These items include Honey Bourbon Pork Ribs and Boneless Chicken Breasts w/Chipotle BBQ Sauce. The items are under the fresh & easy store brand.

>They also had a few meat packs which contained a combined variety of beef, pork and poultry. Imagine a big plastic container with some steak, some chicken breasts, and some pork sausages. I don't know if they have excess inventory or if there's really a demand for this stuff packaged together instead of individually, but whenever one of those indivisual items in the multi-pack goes bad, a LOT of food is thrown away at once. fresh & easy store brand as well.

>The fresh pizza selection is expanded again, this time with fresh & easy brand Margarita Italian pizza.

Speaking of spoilage, they continue to tune their packaging to stop the mental suggestion that all the food in the place will spoil tomorrow. The phrase "Best by" has been changed to "Display by" on many products such as produce.

The old Nestle bottled water has been replaced with "Fresh & Easy Pure," which is bottled from the same facility that produces the Refreshe Water for Safeway/Vons, except Safeway's label suggests filtration and the addition of a minor amount of salts and minerals, whereas Fresh & Easy's mentions nothing of the bottling process and ingredient list; it simply lists well water. The price is right and the bottles are better than the flimsy Nestle-produced water bottles.

Further, Fresh & Easy still sells Arrowhead brand bottled water as an alternative. But I don't think they understand this bottled water thing. You have to at least give people the mental comfort the water is somehow improved over just turning on their faucet.

The fresh & easy store brand bottled water also doesn't list any Nutrition Facts, which I've seen on all bottled water before (even if water contains 0 calories, 0 fat, 0 sugar, and so on.) I'm not sure if this is a legal requirement on this product, but if it is, they're not meeting it.

Additional changes and new items

There were no more fresh & easy brand burger or hot dog buns for sale in the store. They were replaced by a new name, Puritan Bakery. While the fresh & easy brand hot dog buns were very doughy and heavy and probably made out of some kind of potato bread like the Brits like, these were tough and crumbly.

Fewer 50% markdown items; store busier

The 50% off section this time was very small. The store was fairly busy in the middle of Saturday and the parking lot was almost too full.

Store design observations, analysis and suggestions

Two problems: One, I realize they can't do much about it, but the glossy concrete floor causes unattended children to go running up and down to slide along on their feet and I nearly got clobbered by an out of control 11 year old.

The second and more honest problem is that those hybrid parking spots in the store's parking lot have never been used by hybrid cars when I've been there. Since this store is near a golfing retirement community, there were two golf carts parked around. They should just go ahead and have a new sign made to make the hybrid spots into hybrid and golf cart spots. It will make those spaces used and maybe foster a little loyalty with the resident golfers.

Of course, this is part of the whole failure to localize the stores that you've mentioned before.

Store service and checkout

Because the store was busy during the time I was there, there was again nobody available to help at the checkout, and if we weren't a party of two there would have been a mess when bagging while the next person scans in their stuff.

fresh & easy store brand products

The fresh & easy house brand has been more accepted in this household, with the occasional exception being I recently had a can of fresh & easy brand tuna that simply smelled bad and was unpleasant to eat the other week.

On the positive side, the fresh & easy brand ketchup is liked here by someone who was previously loyal to Heinz and at first refused to try a store brand, thinking the tomatoes were of lower quality. It's thought to contain less of a vinegar taste than Heinz.

The $5 coupons

We were given two $5-off- a $20+ grocery order purchase coupons that are valid over this next week. They seem to be encouraging more frequent small purchases.

Vocal Cast of Critics and Advocacy Groups to Attend Tesco's Annual General Meeting On Friday, June 27

Joseph Hanson, the Washington, D.C-based president of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, which represents 1.3 million American supermarket industry workers, including those working at the major chains in the U.S. states of California, Nevada and Arizona where Tesco has its 61 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market grocery stores, will be attending Tesco's three hour Annual General Meeting (AGM) on June, 27, according to the union.

UFCW spokesman Michael Bride says the U.S. supermarket clerks' union has requested several meetings with Tesco's senior exectutives, which they've thus far declined. Therefore, Bride says union president Hanson and some of his aids have decided to show up at the Tesco AGM, which we be held at the UK Birmingham Motorcycle Museum this year, "in order to get their voice heard."

"We're using the AGM as one opportunity to let the various stakeholders know about our strong desire to work with the company (Tesco on union issues in the U.S. with Fresh & Easy)," says union spokesman Bride.

As we wrote about here on June 4, the UFCW has launched a major campaign, with a member of Britain's Parliament (MP) on its side, in the UK, which is designed to bring pressure on Tesco to come to the table and meet with union leaders in order to discuss unionization of the retailer's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market chain in the U.S.

This campaign comes on the heels of various ongoing UFCW organizing activities in the U.S. states of California, Nevada and Arizona, where the Fresh & Easy stores are located, that the UFCW has been conducting since the first of the small-format grocery stores opened in November, 2007. [You can read some of our coverage of those activities here.]

Fresh & Easy Buzz has learned the UFCW-UK Tesco campaign group plans to hold a press conference outside the annual meeting on June 27, as well as maintain a presence out front of the Motorcycle Museum, site of the meeting, all day with pickets and protestors urging Tesco to meet with union president Hanson.

Tesco's public position is the UFCW is free to organize its Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA store-level employees per-U.S. labor laws, saying the decision to join or not join the union is the workers' choice.

The retailer hasn't offered any public statement as to why its refused to meet in a corporate capacity with the union's leaders and isn't required to do so by any U.S. labor law.

The American UFCW union won't be the only Tesco critic or advocacy group attending this years AGM on June 27. Far from it.

As we reported in this series of stories two weeks ago, UK chef and animal rights activist Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has placed a formal, written shareholder resolution on the agenda for the AGM. The resolution, if approved by shareholders, would force Tesco to change its current chicken welfare policy for the produced-in-the-UK chickens it sells in its stores.

The resolution if passed would no longer allow Tesco to sell "cheap chickens," which are birds raised in small battery cages, also called intensive chicken farming.


Tesco sells free-range and free-range organic chickens in its stores alongside the cheaper intensively-farmed birds. However, like at all supermarkets, the free-range and free-range organic chickens cost much more per pound. Tesco is famous in the UK for being the originator and biggest seller of the ~1.99 (British pound) per-Lb. chicken, which is in the price range most middle and lower income British consumers can afford.

If passed, Fearnly-Whittingstall's shareholder resolution could put Tesco at a serious competitive disadvantage when it comes to chicken selling vis-a-vis its food retailing competitors in the UK, as the resolution applies only to Tesco, leaving the other supermarket chains like Wal-Mart-owned Asda, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Aldi and others to sell the cheaper chickens, which comprise the vast majority of birds purchased in UK supermarkets by British consumers, although sales of free-range birds is growing.

Foodie and chicken welfare advocate Fearnly-Whittingstall has become at master at public relations behind the chicken welfare issue and his shareholder resolution, generating tons of press and publicity in the UK's newspapers and on television about the resolution to be voted on at the AGM on June 27.

In fact, we've learned he will be gearing up that PR media machine for the Tesco AGM, bringing a group of supporters with him, along with his own television crew, to record and broadcast the day's events.

Fearnley-Whittingstall also has lined up some afinity groups to support him and his shareholder resolution. These groups include The UK's RSPCA animal right organization, who's chicken welfare guidlines Tesco says it adheres to, and the animal welfare group Compassion for World Farming, which says it will hold a major protest or action outside the Motorcycle Museum while the AGM goes on inside.

Additionally, the chef/chicken welfare activist has lined up the support of UK institutional shareholder advisory group PIRC, which advises the UK's public sector pension funds--government, schools and the like--on corporate ethics and governance issues. The PIRC is advising public sector pension funds that hold Tesco PLC shares to vote in favor of Hugh Fearnley-Whittisnstall's Tesco chicken welfare resolution.

Despite this coalition of support, the word on the street in the UK is that the chef/chicken welfare activist's shareholder resolution is likely to fail at the June 27 AGM because the majority of institution and major indivisual investors, who hold the majority of votes, will vote against it.

However, there is some concern within Tesco, as well as with its major investors, that with the PIRC on board, along with the growing popularity Fearnley-Whittingstall has generated for the chicken welfare issue and his resolution in the UK, that although it isn't likely there will be enough votes to pass the resolution, there could be enough votes to create significant embarrasment and negative publicty for Tesco on the issue.

Competitors like Wal-Mart-owned Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons has been very low-key on the issue, although they are privately relishing it a bit, according to UK industry analysts. However, since all three are publicly held companies, and subject to the same UK law which allows such shareholder resolutions, they know they could be next.

In addition to the UFCW union and Hugh Fearnly Whittigstall, and their supporters, a number of other groups plan to attend the June 27 AGM to voice their respective criticisims and points of advocacy regarding various Tesco practices and policies.

These include:

>Animal welfare group Care for the Wild International. The group says it plans to protest what is says are instances of cruel and inhumane treatement of live turtles in Tesco's Chinese stores. Live turtle is a popular item among Chinese consumers.

>The non-profit organization War on Want, which says it will have a representative from one of Tesco's factories in India at the AGM to deliver what it says is a less than positive report about worker conditions in that factory.

>Compassion in World Farming, another non-profit group which also said it will address what it says is less than positive treatment by Tesco of workers at factory's the retailer owns or contracts with.

>The environmental group Friends of the Earth, which says it will be at the AGM to call on Tesco to do more in terms of its commitment to the environment and global warming.

Meanwhile, there is concern inside Tesco that this year's annual meeting does "not turn into a carnival or three ring circus," a UK source close to Tesco told Fresh & Easy Buzz. He added Tesco CEO Sir Terry Leahy "does not want to be the ring master either." He might not have a choice?

There's also expected to be considerable discussion about Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA venture and perhaps a litle breaking news from the company about it. However, Tesco has no plans to release any sales data about Fresh & Easy at the annual meeting on June 27.

It's suggested by our UK source that Tesco executives get a very good night's sleep on June 26, as he says the 2008 AGM on June 27 is likely to be the most intense annual meeting in company history, and he's been to a number of them.

Fresh & Easy Buzz will be offering extensive coverage of the June 27 AGM. Stay tuned.

Frugal Gourmets: Fresh & Easy's 50% Off Discounts Make it Into LA Times Piece on Eating Well Without Spending Like Crazy in These Tough Times

Frugal shopping and cooking in frugal times: Christine Jory has written the 99-Cents Only Stores Cookbook. She wrote it with the cooperation of the retailer but the book isn't a product of the 99-Cent Store Only chain.

Marketing consultant Shauna Dawson has learned well about Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's 50% discount or mark-down policy on fresh foods that are near their package out-of-code date it appears, based on a feature story by staff writer Jerry Hirsch in today's Los Angeles Times' Business Section.

Below is the opening paragraph of the helpful piece about how consumers can eat well--and even gourmet--without taking out loans in this current inflationary, and in California and numerous other states, darn right recessionary, U.S. economy:

Gourmet eating for less
Despite raging inflation, it's possible to eat well without spending like crazy, chefs and other food gurus say. You just need a strategy. ¶ Here are some of their secrets.

By Jerry Hirsch, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer June 20, 2008

Marketing consultant Shauna Dawson likes good food and good deals, and that has turned her into a bold shopper. ¶ The 34-year-old Carthay Circle resident will troll a Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, checking to see if the "sell by" date on a product is that very day. It's almost like food bingo. When Dawson finds something she wants, she asks a clerk for 50% off. ¶ "I bought a package of fresh cream puffs this way -- just the other day," she said. ¶ It can be tough these days to be a gourmet. With food prices rising at the fastest pace in 18 years, Dawson and other shoppers must look harder and shop smarter to get the special items they want. But they say they have figured out ways they can still afford some of those premium goodies such as a double-cream brie, perhaps a juicy rib-eye steak or even a small bottle of truffle oil. ¶ Despite raging inflation, it's possible to eat well without spending like crazy, Dawson and other food gurus say. You just need a strategy. ¶ Here are some of the secrets to eating well for less.

Read the entire Los Angeles Times feature article, "Gourmet eating for less," here.

Five Quick frugal gourmet and everyday shopping and eating for less tips from Fresh & Easy Buzz:

>Shop the 99-cent and dollar stores. They currently have lots of specialty, gourmet and natural foods items because many suppliers are having cash-flow and high inventory problems and thus are selling more shelf-stable specialty and gourmet grocery products to these format
stores than ever before.

You can buy gourmet oils, vinigars, condiments and other items for example for 50% -to- 75 less in the 99-cent stores than the items regularly sell for in supermarkets. You have to take what the 99-cent stores have though. They work on an in-and-out basis. What's there today might not be next week. But it can be fun shopping as well. They sometimes even have huge discounts on wines.

>Always shop the supermarket weekly advertising circulars. Supermarkets are running hotter and better promotions in their weekly advertising circulars currently than any time in the past 15 years. Value is in, and the retailers are hammering their suppliers for better deals and promotions to pass on to consumers in order to remain competitive and maintain sales and market share.

>Don't pass up store brands. Today's store brand items are in the main close to or as good as nearly all nationally branded products in terms of quality. There are exceptions of course. Fresh & Easy Buzz has never found a store brand liquid bleach as good as Clorox, for example--but we often purchase the store brand anyway.

The same is true with Mayonaise. It's hardto beat the taste of Best Foods brand, if you like or use mayo. But with store brands as much as 25% -to- 30% cheaper than Best Foods', we often buy them as well. Here's all you need to do, depending on the use of the mayo of course. Add a little crushed garlic and a squeeze of fresh lemon to the store brand mayo, especially if using it as a dressing and such. Not only does it give even Best Foods mayonaise a better, gourmet taste, it makes most store brands and Best Foods brand iindistinguisable in terms of taste.

>Use coupons, but only for those items you regularly buy. The majority of "cents-off" coupons distributed in newspaper free-standing-inserts or mailed to your home weekly are for items you likely wouldn't buy anyway. That's why many manufacturer's use the coupons; to generate consumer trial. However, many manufacturers--Proctor & Gamble which makes Tide, Crest Toothpaste, Downey Fabric Softner and numerous other top brands is a good example--of items you do buy regularly also issue coupons. Use the coupons you get for the items you regularly buy, but avoid using the coupons for the impulse items you don't regularly buy, and you will save lots of money.

>Coupons 2.0: Leverage store promotions with coupons. A great strategy with coupons is to combine them with items promoted in a retailer's weekly advertising circular. In other words, you get a double discount; the discount the retailer is giving on the promoted item, and the added discount from using the coupon.

For example, last week Safeway Stores had a mega-pack of Scott brand paper towels on sale for 30% less than its everyday price. The weekly newspaper FSI also had a $1.00-off coupon for that size package of paper towels. By combining the $1.00 coupon with the 30% discount, the total savings would be 40%. That's what we call shoppers' leverage. Also, if you are in an area where retailers use "double coupons," take advantage of it. But again only for those items you regularly purchase.

Vox Populi: Use the comments box below to share your frugal--gourmet or non-gourmet or both--shopping and cooking tips with your fellow Fresh & Easy Buzz readers. Fresh & Easy Buzz has many readers who are food and grocery industry experts, as well as having many smart and savvy readers from all walks of life. Share the wealth--and your knowledge.

Competitor News: Wal-Mart Executive in Charge of Small-Format 'Marketside' Format Development Leaving to Join UK Bicycle Retailer Halfords Group PLC

David Wild, Wal-Mart, Inc.'s senior vice president of business development and the company executive who's been in charge of its new small-format Marketside grocery and fresh food format stores, is leaving the world's largest retailer to accept a position as CEO of Halfords Group PLC, the United Kingdom's largest retailer of car parts and bicycles, according to a statement just released by the Redditch, England-based company.

Wild was named to the position of senior vice president of business development at Wal-Mart in January, 2007. He held other executive positions with the company prior to that appointment.

Wild, who spent 18 years with UK-based Tesco PLC, will start his CEO duties at Halfords Group PLC on August 4, according to the statement.

In an interesting twist, he succeeds former CEO Ian McLeod, who left the car parts and bicycle retailer to run Australian supermarket chain Coles Group Ltd. as CEO. Halfords Group PLC apparently likes food and grocery retailing CEO's, as its replacing one, Ian McLeod, with another, David Wild. McLeod and Wild aren't strangers either. Both worked for Wal-Mart in Germany before the mega-retailer exited the German market in 2006.

During his 18 years with Tesco PLC, Wild was heavily involved with the retailer's European expansion, including having a hand in the development of its successful Tesco Express small format combination convenience and grocery stores in Europe.

"He (David Wild) brings over 20 years' retailing experience, gained at two world-leading businesses (Tesco and Wal-Mart), and clearly has the skills and ability to move the company forward,'' Halfords Group PLC Chairman Richard Pym said in the statement. "We are confident that David will add tremendous value to Halfords.''

Wal-Mart put David Wild in charge of spearheading its Marketside small-format combination grocery and fresh foods store development project in part because of his extensive experience at Tesco, which has been an innovator in small format food retailing with its Tesco Express stores in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, and now with its Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market small-format, convenience-oriented grocery markets in the Western USA.

Wild led the Marketside development team, as we first reported in late 2007, in San Francisco where the group first conducted extensive format and consumer research and planned, developed and honed the concept and format. Wal-Mart has an office near San Francisco where it operates aspects of its Wal-Mart.com business.

Wild has also been the corporate cheerleader for Marketside inside Wal-Mart, Inc., and was the one who championed having the stores' prepare fresh foods in-store in kitchens rather than having the fresh, prepared foods made at a central kitchen and shipped to the stores like Tesco is doing with its Fresh & Easy Neighborhood market stores.

Wal-Mart's first four Marketside stores are set to open in the Phoenix, Arizona Metropolitan region this summer, as we've reported in Fresh & Easy Buzz.

Additionally, as we reported here (just scroll down a bit at the link), Wal-Mart is looking for sites for the small-format Marketside stores in both Northern and Southern California. We also reported here that Wal-Mart is likely to be locating a Marketside store in this new development in Reno, Nevada.

Since the development phase for Marketside is complete, and the first four stores are set to open soon, its unclear if Wild's leaving Wal-Mart will be a setback for the retailer and Marketside. At this point, according to our Wal-Mart sources, operations is taking priority over development with Marketside, as the company has set up an office in Phoenix and is currently hiring managers and assistant managers for the four stores, along with getting the stores ready to open.

As the senior vice president of business development, Wild was preparing to move on to some new ventures in his position at Wal-Mart, therefore his timing in terms of leaving and accepting the CEO position at Halfords isn't likely to create a major shakeup with Marketside, although as the new format's head developer and cheerleader he will obviously leave somewhat of a void.

Wild isn't starting at Halfords Group PLC until August 4. And our Wal-Mart sources tell us in part that's because he wants to be around when the first of the Marketside stores opens in Arizona. In other words--and you read it here first--the first Arizona Wal-Mart Marketside grocery and fresh foods store will open before August 4, 2008.

Fresh & Easy 'Critical Mass' Model Retailer Starbucks Opens First of its New Format Starbucks Merchandise Stores in Southern California; What's Next?

Photo Credit: Natural~Specialty Foods Memo.

We often compare the retail location strategy of Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, which we call its "critical mass" store location strategy, to that pioneered in U.S. retailing by the likes of Starbucks, Rite Aid drug stores and drug chain Walgreens. That strategy is to locate stores within just a couple miles of each other in market regions so as to become the de facto neighborhood retailer in a respective format in the given market: coffee, drug and in the case of Fresh & Easy grocery retailing.

No retailer of any format type in the U.S. has been more aggressive in this strategy than Starbucks. In many major U.S. cities, there are a Starbucks cafes often just a few blocks from each other. We call that "critical mass squared."

Tesco's strategy with its Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market small-format combination basic grocery and fresh foods grocery stores thus far in Southern California, the Phoenix, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada Metropolitan region markets where its current 61 stores are located is similar. Tesco's plan is to locate Fresh & Easy stores within about 1.5 -to- 2 miles of each other in its markets, thereby helping the grocer to theoretically become the de facto "neighborhood food store" in each neighborhood in these regions.

Since Starbucks is a key model in the U.S. for Tesco's Fresh & Easy--despite of course the two being different format and types of retailers--Fresh & Easy Buzz keeps a close eye on what Starbucks is up to, especially at retail.

As a result of this "close eye," we've discovered the King of coffee retailing has done a little format-bending of its own. Starbucks has created a new format retail store under its Starbucks brand, called Starbucks Merchandise outlet. The first of these stores (pictured at the top), which opened Tuesday at the Ontario Mills Mall in Ontario (Southern), California, is about 4,000 square feet and sells a wide range of Starbucks branded general merchandise, along with brand name items.

The food and grocery industry blog Natural~Specialty Foods Memo published a piece about the new Starbucks format and store yesterday. The piece offers an overview of the store, including the merchandise its selling, as well as a review of it along with lots of photographs of the store.

You can read the Natural~Specialty Foods Memo piece about Starbucks new Merchandise outlet store at the Ontario Mills Mall in Ontario, California here.

We don't think Starbucks will be carrying out a "critical mass" new store opening strategy for the general merchandise format stores. Rather, what we hear is the stores are just that, an outlet store.

It's likely Starbucks will open a few of the stores in various parts of the country in a regional manner, like other retailers do with outlet stores. The Ontario Mills Mall is primarily an upscale outlet center. For example, the Starbucks store, which by the way doesn't currently sell coffee of any type, prepared or packaged, is located next to an outlet store of the upscale Saks Fifth Avenue chain.

We see Starbucks putting the GM stores in a select few other, similar malls in the U.S.--Seattle, The San Francisco Bay Area, the east coast and the like--rather than blanketing the earth with them like it does with its Starbucks cafes. The outlet stores might have legs overseas as well, since Starbucks is an international brand and retailer.

Since taking over once again as CEO just a few months ago, Starbucks founder Howard Schultz has been busy on multiple marketing fronts.

He's putting a renewed focus on merchandising the Starbucks cafes as a "third place" where neighborhood residents can spend time rather than as merely coffee retailing stores which had been the case prior to his taking the CEO position over again, along with keeping his Chairman title. Schultz in part is doing this by opening fewer drive-through Starbucks for example, while concentrating on creating what he calls "The Starbucks Experience" of making the cafes people places as well as coffee selling stores once again.

Starbucks also is increasing its branded product development: creating more packaged coffees for sale at supermarkets and specialty stores, doing more branded joint ventures like the one its has with PepsiCo, Inc. for its Starbucks iced coffee line, rolling out new Starbucks branded items like its recent line of Starbucks premium chocolates, and now creating the Starbucks Merchandise outlet store, among other developments.

This is "critical mass" from a corporate marketing perspective to be sure. What's next (tongue planted slightly in cheek)? Perhaps a chain of Starbucks small-format, combination specialty foods, fresh foods, coffee, fresh baked goods and beverage stores with an in-store cafe that serves as the neighborhood social hub? It might have legs?

Feast and Famima: Japanese C-Store Retailer Set to Open One of its Upscale Famima!! Prepared Foods, Convenience Stores in Fountain Valley, California

Japanese convenience store retailer FamilyMart Group is set to open one of its Famima!! upscale hybrid fresh foods/convenience stores at 9380 Warner Avenue in the Orange County city of Fountain Valley in Southern California on July 9, reports 'Fast Food Maven' blogger Nancy Luna. The Famima!! store will be nearby the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market store set to open on July 16 at 9475 Warner Avenue in Fountain Valley. Welcome neighbors.

Fresh & Easy Buzz is very familiar with FamilyMart Group and its Famima!! retail store format, having toured the company's stores in Japan, which is the land of convenience stores having more per-capita than any other nation in the world, as well as having visited the Los Angeles store in the past. Famima!! is the Japanese retailer's brand for its upscale U.S. stores. FamilyMart Group operates traditional convenience stores in Japan (the Japanese word for convenience store is konbini), as well as some upscale format version in the country as well.

FamilyMart Group already has a couple Famima!! stores in Southern California, including one in Los Angeles, as mentioned above. However, not too long ago the Japanese retailer closed two of its stores in the city of Long Beach for sales underperformance reasons. That isn't keeping the retailer from opening more trendy Famima!! stores in California--and perhaps elsewhere--however, albeit not at a pace even near on-par with Tesco's Fresh & Easy.

The Famima!! stores are upscale hybrid convenience and fresh foods stores, with lots of ready-to-eat prepared foods, grab-and-go items and lots of upscale snacks, beverages and related items.

For those who are familiar with the Wawa hybrid convenience/fresh foods/grocery stores in the Mid-Atlantic and Eastern parts of the U.S., Famima!! is similar to the convenience/fresh foods aspect of the Wawa stores in a number of ways.

In terms of design, Famima!! stores aren't your uncle Ralph's American convenience store. Rather, they look more like something you aunt Pheobie from Beverly Hills would want in a convenience store: upscale, trendy and geared as much to woman as to men. Typical U.S. convenience stores like 7-Eleven target men more than they do woman.

The Famima!! and Fresh & Easy store formats are very different, although they have the prepared and grab-and-go fresh foods merchandising element in common. They also are after different customers in the main: Famima!! is more convenience, small-order driven, while Tesco's aim with Fresh & Easy is to be "the" neighborhood grocery store for those residents who live around the stores.

However, there's only so much "share of consumer stomach." Therefore with these stores being near neighbors, and both having ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat prepared foods as a central element of their respective merchandising schemes, by virtual of the "share of stomach" rule, they will be competitors with each other in part.

Read the 'Fast Food Maven's' June 18 blog report here and another here.

You can read more about the Southern California Femima!! stores in this piece (with photographs) from the LA Weekly.

Fresh & Easy Buzz will be offering some in-depth analysis on Femima in an upcoming piece.