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

Private Brand Showcase

Pleasanton, California-based Safeway Stores, Inc. this week is introducing a new line of carbonated soft drinks under its 'refreshe' private brand. Previously, Safeway used the 'refreshe' brand only on bottled drinking water.

The new 'refreshe' brand soda line comes in 6-pack/12 ounce cans and in 2-liter plastic bottles.
The colorful new soda line if offered in 21 flavors.

The 'refreshe' soda brand packaging features a pop art-like graphic and includes a "refreshing" droplet of soda on the label. Each SKU is color-coded, based on it's flavor. Safeway is using the tag lines "sipsational" and "quenchtastic" for the sodas. [You can view a detailed graphic of the 'refresh' brand soft drink line here.]

The 'refreshe' brand sodas have the Safeway logo around the bottom of the can and around the bottom of the label on the 2-Liter drinks. We would eliminate it. In our analysis and opinion, the co-branding by using the small Safeway name and a small Safeway logo on the cans and labels doesn't add anything to the brand's value. We're open to counter-arguments via the "comments" link at the end of this post though.

Safeway Stores, which operates 1,712 supermarkets throughout the U.S. and Canada, and is the third-largest traditional supermarket chain in the U.S. (after Kroger Co. and Supervalu, Inc.), officially launched the new 'refresh' brand soda line today in its weekly advertising circular, as well as on its website. The grocery chain attached a full-page leaf on the front of the multi-page paper ad circular, which it direct mails to homes and distributes in daily newspapers, promoting the new line. The ad features full-color pictures of the canned and 2-Liter 'refreshe' brand soft drinks, along with promotional price points for the items.

And those promotional price points are hot: Safeway is promoting the 'refreshe' canned soda's at four six packs (which equals a 24-pack which shoppers can mix & match among all the 21 flavors) for $3.49. Customers must buy four 6-packs to get the price.

To put the promotional price in perspective, the hottest advertised price-point generally for any grocery chain or mass merchandiser for 24-packs of Coke or Pepsi in the U.S. tends to be $5.99 -to- $6.99. In contrast, Safeway is promoting its 'refreshe' private brand soft drinks for nearly half that price. Additionally, we don't often see retailer brand sodas at or near the $3.49/24-pack promotional price Safeway is offering this week.

The 2-Liter 'refreshe' sodas are being offered at the promotional price of $2 for $1.00 (or 50 cents each) this week. A rather hot price point as well. Customers have to use their Safeway Club Cards to get the promotional pricing for both the cans and 2-Liter sodas.

Safeway is also introducing a new line of beverage mixers in plastic bottles under its 'refreshe' brand this week.

Additionally, Safeway Stores has redesigned the packaging of the 'refreshe' bottled drinking water items it already sells in its stores. To tout that fact its offering 24-pack/16.9 ounce cases of 'refreshe' bottled drinking water at $2.99 this week, as part of its "brand refreshe" soft drink line launch and promotion.

Safeway Stores, Inc. has sold a full line of soda's first under its 'Safeway Select' private brand then under the Safeway brand for over a decade. The 'refreshe' brand replaces the Safeway brand as the chain's private label soda brand and line.

We like the 'refreshe' brand for the soft drink line because it allows the grocery chain to create a private brand grouped around a specific functional category - beverages.

We like the strategy because it's our analysis that grocer's should, when they can and when it makes sense, use various private brands, grouping them around functional product categories (which differs from branding all organic items under one private brand, for example) whenever possible. Doing so offers the potential for strong marketing and brand building.

Safeway operates hundreds of supermarkets under the Vons, Vons Pavillions and Safeway banners in California and southern Nevada, and under the Safeway banner in Arizona, the three states where Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has its 159 fresh food and grocery stores.

Recent Private Brand Showcase Features in Fresh & Easy Buzz:

July 17, 2010: New Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Clock-Shaped Private Brand Candy Line Hits the Shelves at Fresh & Easy

July 12, 2010: Tesco Launches Private Brand 'Lasagne Sandwich' in the UK Today...With No Apologies to The Earl of Sandwich

June 24, 2010: New Fresh & Easy Clock Logo-Shaped Candies Are A Pretty Sweet Idea

May 11, 2010: Tesco Might Want to Get 'fresh & naked' at 'fresh & easy'

April 2, 2010: Fresh & Easy's New 'EatWell' Healthier Fresh, Prepared Foods Brand to Hit Stores on April 7

April 11, 2010: When it Comes to Fresh, Prepared Foods, New York City's Duane Reade is Simply 'deLish' for Walgreens

February 22, 2010: Food, Drug Retailers With Stores in California, Nevada & Arizona Honored for Private Label-Store Brands' Excellence

Vacant Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store in Pacifica, California Has the City's Mayor in a Pickle

Pacifica, California Mayor Jim Vreeland at the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market location at 5550 Coast Highway in the city's Pedro Point neighborhood, where the mayor just happens to live, in October 2008. As you can see in the photograph, the store is near completion at the time. It was fully completed not long after, and has been sitting vacant ever since. (See here.) [Photo credit: Pacifica Tribune.]

Northern California Market Special Report - San Francisco Bay Area

In his most recent column - Sunday, July 18, 2010: When it Comes to Northern California - its Competitors are Rome Burning and Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is Nero Playing the Fiddle - our 'The Insider' columnist wrote about Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's long-postponed launch into Northern California.

In the column, 'The Insider' mentioned and discussed the Fresh & Easy store at 5550 Coast Highway in Pacifica, California's Pedro Point neighborhood, and how the fact it's been sitting vacant for nearly two years has and is putting the Mayor of Pacifica, Jim Vreeland - who not only lives in the Pedro Point neighborhood but used the fact he helped lure Tesco's Fresh & Easy to the city and neighborhood as part of his political campaign, offering it as an example of his efforts to bring a grocery store to a part of the city that's been in need of such a store for many years - in a bit of a pickle with his constituents and neighbors.

Here's what 'The Insider' said (below in italics) in his July 18 column:

The situation is similar with many residents in the Pedro Point neighborhood in Pacifica, California, where a completed and unconfirmed but reported on and verified by Fresh & Easy Buzz Fresh & Easy store location sits in a new shopping center, of which the store is supposed to be the anchor. The building, with Fresh & Easy colors painted on it, has been sitting empty since early 2009. Fresh & Easy Buzz has been communicating with numerous residents of the Pacifica neighborhood for over two years - and let's just say Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has little-to-zero goodwill among those folks. [You can read more about the Pedro Point, Pacifica Fresh & Easy store and the issue here.]

The city's mayor, Jim Vreeland, also lives in the Pedro Point neighborhood, and was instrumental in getting Tesco to locate a Fresh & Easy store at the location. He's been frustrated over the lack of information from Tesco because, when asked when the Fresh & Easy store will open, he has no answer to offer. Interestingly though, a number of neighborhood residents told me recently that they've given up so much on the Pedro Point Fresh & Easy store's ever opening, that the mayor these days gets few questions about it when he's out making his rounds. Not a ringing endorsement for Tesco's communication with the Mayor of Pacifica though.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has to date not confirmed the Pacifica store as one of its sites in Northern California. The coastal city of Pacifica is located in the San Francisco Bay Area, just a few miles from San Francisco.

However, Fresh & Easy Buzz first reported on the Pedro Point neighborhood Fresh & Easy store location in June 2008, in this story - June 24, 2008: Upcoming New Markets News: Tesco to Locate Yet Another Fresh & Easy Store in San Francisco Bay Area; 21 Thus Far By Fresh & Easy Buzz's Reporting.

Additionally, in October 2008, representatives of Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market met with residents of the Pedro Point Neighborhood Association to address concerns and answer questions about the planned Fresh & Easy store at 5550 Coast Highway. [See - October 7, 2008: Fresh & Easy Corporate Reps to Meet With Pedro Point Pacifica, CA Neighborhood Residents to Address Concerns Over Store to Open in 2009]

It was also in October 2008 when Pacifica Mayor Jim Vreeland went public about the Fresh & Easy store in his neighborhood in Pacifica. [See - October 13, 2008: Pacifica Riptide & Fresh & Easy Buzz Join Together to Offer Pacifica, California Citizen Opinions On the Fresh & Easy Store Coming to the City. [Read more here.] As you can see in the photographs at the link, the store is nearly completed in October 2008.

In other words, despite the fact Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has never confirmed the location, if you're a Fresh & Easy Buzz reader, or live in Pacifica, the vacant Fresh & Easy store at 5550 Coast Highway in Pacifica's Pedro Point neighborhood is about the best kept secret since the "rumor" about Lindsay Lohan going to jail.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy has announced and confirmed 37 store locations in Northern California - 19 in the Sacramento/Vacaville region and 18 in the San Francisco Bay Area, doing so over two and a half years ago.

However, Fresh & Easy Buzz has uncovered and reported on an additional 14 future Fresh & Easy store sites in Northern California. The 14 include the Pacifica location. [See our Northern California Fresh & Easy Store List.]

In his Sunday column, 'The Insider' was spot-on about the stalled Fresh & Easy store in Pacifica causing the city's mayor grief with his constituents: This morning, a Fresh & Easy Buzz reader who lives in Pacifica e-mailed us a Tuesday, July 20 post from "Jeff's Big Mouth," a local blog written by Jeffrey W Simons, that reports on and comments about the political, business and cultural environment and issues in the city of Pacifica, including focusing on the performance of Mayor Vreeland and the Pacifica City Council.

In his post the blogger takes Mayor Vreeland to task over the vacant, white elephant Fresh & Easy store at 5550 Coast Highway in the city's Pedro Point neighborhood, although he correctly points out it's Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market that's responsible for not opening the store, and not the mayor.

Read what local blogger "Jeff's Big Mouth" has to say on the topic and issue here.

Since Mayor Vreeland has no idea when Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market plans to open the store in his neighborhood, he's in a bit of a pickle when it comes to answering questions on the topic from not only his constituents (and Jeff) - but also from his neighbors in Pacifica's Pedro Point neighborhood.

The Fresh & Easy Buzz 2010 Northern California Market Special Report Series:

July 18, 2010: When it Comes to Northern California - its Competitors are Rome Burning and Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is Nero Playing the Fiddle

July 14, 2010: Tony Bennett Has Nothing on Whole Foods Market When it Comes to Loving San Francisco...That City By the Bay

July 6, 2010: Walmart Looking for Store Sites in Northern California For 20,000 Sq-Ft Neighborhood Market by Walmart Prototype Store

June 28, 2010: Smart & Final to Open its New Format SmartCo Foods Stores in California and Arizona

June 26, 2010: Tesco Planning to Announce in July When First Northern California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores to Open

June 14, 2010: Newly-Named Whole Foods Market CO-CEO Walter Robb Comes Full Circle With the Opening of the New Store in Mill Valley CA

June 5, 2010: Sprouts Farmers Market Opens First Northern California Store in Sunnyvale; Strikes Up Partnership With Local Non-Profit Farm

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

May 28, 2010: First Phase of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market-Anchored Condo Development in San Francisco's Bayview Set For Completion in June

April 19, 2010: Tesco Debating Whether to Launch Fresh & Easy Into Northern California This Fiscal Year... or Wait

May 9, 2010: A Whopping 15 of Whole Foods Market's 41 New Stores in Development are in California - And Nine of The 15 Are In Northern CA

May 8, 2010: Sprouts, and Likely Henry's to Beat Fresh & Easy to Northern California Despite it's Big Head Start

May 6, 2010: Going Smaller & Getting 'Hybrid': Walmart's Smaller Supercenter in Vacant Retail Buildings Strategy Began in 2008

Additionally: Click here to read a selection of past stories on Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market and Northern California. Click the "older posts" link at the bottom of the linked pages for additional posts on the topic.

California's First-in-the-Nation Plastic Carrier Bag Ban Legislation Looks to Be On its Way to Victory

Bagging Single-Use Plastic Bags in the 'Nation State' of California: News/Analysis/Commentary

California Assembly Bill 1998, which would ban single-use plastic carrier bags from being used in the Golden State's grocery and drug stores, appears on the road to becoming law.

Assembly Bill 1998 (The Single-Use Bag Reduction Act), authored by Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, a Democrat from Santa Monica, passed on June 1 in the California State Assembly, by a 41-27 margin.

[Read - Fresh & Easy Buzz - June 19, 2010: 'Paper or Plastic' Likeley to Be Replaced By 'Reusable or Paper' (For a Fee) in California Grocery Stores]

After passing in the State Assembly, the bill went over to the California State Senate Environmental Quality Committee, which recently approved the legislation in a 5-2 vote.

The bill is now in the California State Senate Appropriations Committee, where it's set to be voted on by August 14.

If the bill passes in Appropriations - which more than likely will be the case - the legislation then goes to the full California State Senate for a vote. In order to meet the legislative deadline, the bill must be voted on and passed by August 31, 2010.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he intends to sign AB 1998 if passed and sent to him.

The legislation bans single-use plastic carrier bags at grocery and drug stores in California. The single-use plastic bag ban would be phased in over two years, starting with supermarkets and any other format store over 10,000 square-feet containing pharmacies. Convenience stores would have until July 1, 2013 to comply with the law.

The bill also allows grocery and drug stores to offer paper grocery bags to shoppers, which the retailers would have to sell to customers for a minimum of five cents per bag. California grocers are already required by law to offer reusable shopping bags in their stores.

As we outlined in our June 19 story, the legislation is supported by the California Grocers Association (CGA), the state's trade association, which represents chain and independent grocers with stores in the Golden State.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is a CGA member, and therefore supports the legislation banning single-use plastic bags, as does Safeway Stores, Inc., Save Mart Supermarkets, WinCo Foods, the Rite Aid drug chain and numerous other food and drug retailers, many which are listed below.

Below is a listening of some of the key supporters and opponents of the single-use plastic carrier bag ban legislation.

Supporters:

California Grocers Association
Californians Against Waste
Heal the Bay
1 Bag at a Time Inc
AFSCME
Amerigreenbag.com
Association of Communities United of South Los Angeles
Ballona Creek Renaissance
Bay Area Council
California Association of Environmental Health Administrators
California Coastal Coalition
California Coastkeeper Alliance
California League of Conservation Voters
California State Lands Commission
Chico Bag
City of Burbank
City of Del Mar
City of Long Beach
City of Newport Beach
City of Pasadena
City of San Buenaventura
City of San Clemente
City of Solana Beach
City of Ventura
Clean South Bay
Clean Water Action California
Defenders of Wildlife
Downtown Encinitas MainStreet Association
Duro Bag Manufacturing Company
Earth Resource Foundation
Earthwise Bag Company
East Bay Municipal Utility District
Environment California
Envirosax
ForestEthics
Fresh and Easy Neighborhood Market Inc.
Friends of Five Creeks
Global Green USA
Green Sangha
Humboldt Coastkeepers
Humboldt County Board of Supervisors
Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County Solid Waste Management Committee/ Integrated Waste Management Task Force
Marin County Board of Supervisors
Monterey County Board of Supervisors
Monterey Regional Waste Management District
Natural Resources Defense Council
Neighborhood Market Association
Northcoast Environmental Center
OCEANAOrange County Coastkeeper
Ormond Beach Observers
Planning and Conservation League
Plastic Pollution Coalition
PW Supermarkets Inc. (San Jose)
Rainforest Action Network
Rite Aid
San Diego Coastkeeper
San Francisco Chamber of Commerce
San Luis Obispo County Integrated Waste Management Authority
Santa Barbara Channelkeeper
Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors
Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission
Santa Monica Baykeeper
Save Mart Supermarkets
Seventh Generation Advisors
Sierra Club of California
Solid Waste Solutions Inc
StopWaste.org – Alameda County Waste Management Authority
Steven Bochco Productions
Super A Food Inc. (Commerce)
Surfers’ Environmental Alliance
Surfrider Foundation
State Lands Commission
Urban Semillas
Washington Elementary PTA
Western States Council of the United Food & Commercial Workers
WiLDCOAST
Wild Heritage Planners
WinCo Foods Inc.
Wisdom Academy for Young Scientists
Youth Opportunities for High School and Associations of Communities United of South Los Angeles

Opposition:

American Chemistry Council
American Forest & Paper Association
Biodegradable Products Institute
Bradley Packaging Systems
California Film Extruders & Converters Association
California Forestry Association
Californians for Extended Producer Responsibility
Central California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Command Packaging
Corona Chamber of Commerce
Crown Poly Inc
Great American Packaging
Heritage Bag
Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
Metabolix
Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce
Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce

If the legislation passes - all current indications are that it will and the Governor has said he will sign it into law - California will be the first state in the U.S. to impose a ban on single-use plastic carrier bags at grocery and drug stores.

The law also will preempt all city and county bag ban laws in the state, accept San Francisco's, which has an exemption in the legislation.

But once passed and signed by the Governor, California's single-use plastic bag ban law could find itself spending years in the courts.

The single-use plastic carrier bag industry, through its trade association, has been successful in getting municipal bag ban laws in California cities like Oakland and Manhattan Beach struck down by the courts.

Many observers believe the single-use plastic carrier bag industry will file suit against the California law not long after it's signed by the Governor. One key reason it could do so is because the California law would be the first such statewide ban in the U.S., and likely will serve as a model that other states will follow. This is something the single-use plastic carrier bag industry wants to avoid - the establishment of the first statewide ban.

On the other hand, since California's grocery and drug retailers are in favor of the ban, the single-use plastic carrier bag industry would find itself in a strange position if it does file suit. In doing so, it would essentially be fighting to keep the use of plastic carrier bags legal in California grocery and drug stores, even though the primary users of the bags - the grocers and drug chains which operate those stores - are in favor of banning the bags.

California's grocers are in favor of the legislation because they want one single, uniform statewide law, rather than a patchwork of municipal and county single-use plastic carrier bag laws, whcih require the retailers to do one thing in city A and another in City B. For example, Safeway can't offer single-use plastic carrier bags at its stores in San Francisco. However, it can offer them at its store in South San Francisco (it's own municipality) which is literally next door to San Francisco. The same with other grocery chains and multi-store independents.

Therefore, if the single-use plastic carrier bag industry does file suit against the California law (assuming it passes of course), we suspect the California Grocers Association will join the State of California in arguing to uphold the law, thereby pitting the plastic bag industry against the grocers, sonething it should think twice about doing, since many of the chains like Safeway Stores are major customers for single-use plastic carrier bags for company-owned chains and stores outside of California.

Reader Resources:

>Ronald Fong, president and CEO of the California Grocers Association, authored an opinion piece in Sunday's (July 18) Sacramento Bee, in which he describes why the state's grocers are in favor of the single-use plastic bag ban legislation. You can read his Op Ed here. Look to the write of Fong's Op Ed. There are two other opinion pieces offering different perspectives.

>Also on Sunday, July 18, Kroger Co.'s Fred Meyer food and general merchandise chain, which has 130 stores located in the Pacific Northwest and Intermountain regions in the Western U.S., announced it would stop offering single-use plastic carrier bags in its 10 stores in Portland, Oregon. beginning on August 1, 2010.

Oregon is considering bag ban legislation similar to California's. Fred Meyer has decided to get out in front of the pending legislation by doing a unique test - which you can read about here - at its 10 stores in Portland.

>Fresh & Easy Buzz has been reporting on, writing about, and offering analysis and opinion on the single-use plastic carrier bag, reusable bag, and related topics and issues since early 2008. Click here, here, here and here to read a selection of those posts.

Twitter Trivia + In-Store Treasure Hunt Promo Next Up On the 2010 Promotional Hit Parade at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market

'The 'Kitchen Table,' which along with Twitter is part of a new promotion (see heading below in the story) starting on July 30 at the 34 Fresh & Easy stores in Metro Phoenix, Arizona, is inside all Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores.

Promotional Merchandising & Promotional Events

It's been in the neighborhood of two years since we first started suggesting in our analytical, prescriptive-oriented posts in Fresh & Easy Buzz that one of the things Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market should do in order to create some excitement in its stores, along with doing so likely helping to increase sales, is to create and conduct frequent promotional product merchandising events and other types of special events in a coordinated, regular and consistent way.

We've also suggested doing this could be a way for the grocer to potentially wean itself from the chronic use of its $5 (off purchases of $20 or more), $6 (off $25 or more) and $10 (off $50 or more) store coupons, which, because Fresh & Easy issues them so often, and are used by shoppers so often, eat into the grocery chain's already poor margins.

The use of the coupons is a quick (sales) fix tactic. Good grocery merchandising-oriented promotions are a strategy. Tesco director and Fresh & Easy CEO Tim Mason is responsible for the chronic use of the deep-discount store coupons though. We aren't in the business of promoting co-dependency, after all.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy has tried to stop using the store coupons more than once - and eventually took our advice and started offering the $10 off ($50 or more) coupons in place of the $5 off coupons in 2009 - but it gave up trying because sales in the stores drops significantly when the gorcery chain doesn't have one of the coupons in circulation. [See - May 1, 2009: Fresh & Easy Brings Back $6-Off Deep-Discount Store Coupon; Latest Version Good For Nearly One Month; New Promo Strategy Didn't Last Long and May 7, 2009: 'They're Back' in Full-Force: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Adds New $6-Off Online Coupon to Just-Recently Direct-Mailed $6-Off Coupon; Tough to 'Terminate']

In weening itself off the chronic use of the store coupons, we've also suggested eliminating the $6 off store coupon and replacing it with the $10 off ($50 or more) and a $25 off store coupon on purchases of $100 or more. Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market tried the $25 off ($100 or more) coupon a couple times but dropped it, going back to the $6 off, which it now uses regularly, along with the $10 off ($50 or more) voucher. Why? Because the average market basket size at Fresh & Easy stores is right around the $25 -to- $35 range. Few of the $25 off ($100) coupons were redeemed. Also, far fewer $10 off ($50 or more) Fresh 7 Easy store coupons are redeemed than its $6 off ($25 or $30 or more) coupons are. Again, it's a function of average market basket size. [Read some of our past stories on the deep-discount store coupon issue here.]

As regular Fresh & Easy Buzz readers are aware, we've said - and written regularly about since 2008 - that Fresh & Easy needs to eliminate the chronic use of the deep-discount store coupons completely if it ever hopes to obtain the gross margins it needs to break even, and eventually turn a profit. If it followed our "weening off" advise starting in 2008, it might have been able to do so by now, without seeing such a big drop in sales whenever it doesn't have a store coupon in circulation. Maybe.

But Fresh & Easy Buzz is used to focusing on a topic, like the store coupons, like the need for Fresh & Easy to do promotional product merchandising on a consistent and regular basis, and like the fresh food and grocery chain's now but not always the case weekly advertising flyer, and seeing our suggestions implemented some time later.

For example, speaking of the Fresh & Easy advertising flyer, which is weekly but wasn't always that way, back in 2008, when the grocer was issuing its ad flyer every three weeks and sometimes every two weeks, we pointed out it was making a big mistake in doing so, since weekly advertising flyers are the norm among U.S. grocers, including those in California, Nevada and Arizona, and as such Fresh & Easy was creating for itself a competitive disadvantage by not following convention. It took Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Tim Mason and his senior executive team about a year to catch up with our suggestion that the chain needed a weekly advertising flyer - but they did adopt the suggestion, as we reported and wrote about in this early March 2009 story - March 11, 2009: Fresh & Easy Buzz Redux: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Changes its Promotional Advertising Flyer to 'Weekly;' Something We've Been Suggesting For About A Year.

And of course, it was in 2008 when we first pointed out that Tesco's Fresh & Easy doesn't take WIC Vouchers. The first Fresh & Easy store is set to start accepting WIC on July 29, 2010. See - July 16, 2010: South Los Angeles Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store to Accept WIC Vouchers July 29; Additional California Units to Follow. Fresh & Easy has missed plenty of sales in the over two years since we first suggested they accept WIC. And once all 159 Fresh & Easy stores - particularly those in lower-income neighborhoods - are accepting WIC, the CEO Mason and his team will wonder (or at least should) why they waited so long.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood market is now clearly catching up with our suggestions going back to 2008 that it needs to offer food and grocery merchandising-oriented promotions and other promotional events on a regular and consistent basis, as a way to create excitement in its stores and to sell more food and grocery products, thus increasing sales - and it hopes average shopper market basket size.

Beginning in February 2010, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market launched the first of what's been a regular schedule of a wide-variety of food and grocery product merchandising-oriented promotions and special event type promotions. We've given the grocer overall high marks for doing so - and for the quality of the promotions and events.

We've reported on and written about each of the recent key merchandising-oriented and event-oriented promotions mentioned above since February. All are at the links below:

>June 3, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Teams Up With The Los Angeles Dodgers in 'Game & Grill Sweepstakes' Promo

>June 23, 2010: Integrated Retail & Twitter Wine Promotion Rates Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market A Gold Medal

>February 8, 2010: 'I Taste Therefore I Tweet': Fresh & Easy Set to Hold 'Twitter (Wine) Tasting' Tomorrow Night

>April 19, 2010: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Joins Kroger Co. in Holding Earth Month-Earth Day Reusable Bag Design Contest

>June 17, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Picks Eight Finalists in its Reusable Bag Design Contest; Website Voting Through June 30

>May 11, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Promotion Benefits America's Wounded Warriors

>May 16, 2010: Two Grocers, Fresh & Easy and Raley's Offer Two Very Different Approaches to Ready-to-Grill Fresh Meat Merchandising

>March 23, 2010: Fresh & Easy Kicks Off Three Week 'From Grapes to Gold Medals' Wine Promotion Tomorrow

>April 25, 2010: Thousands Get 'Cheesy' at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Co-Sponsored Grilled Cheese Competition in Los Angeles (Note: This promotion was initiated by a Fresh & Easy store manager.)

>June 7, 2010: 'Bigmista' Hits the Stores in Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets' Free Barbeque Road Show

>July 9, 2010: 'Bigmista' Hits the Road Again For Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Free Neighborhood BBQ Road Show

Twitter trivia + in-store treasure hunt promo set for July 30

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's promotional hit parade continues.

On July 30, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market will kick off a back to school trivia and treasure hunt-type contest for its 34 Metro Phoenix, Arizona stores only - and using its Twitter account, which is @fresh_and_easy.

The contest will run from July 30 -to- August 8 2010. Fresh & Easy hasn't formally announced the promotion yet.

In the contest, the grocer will post three tweets each day on its Twitter feed. The tweets will be "clues." Based on the clues, Arizona shoppers are supposed to figure out which of the 34 Metro Phoenix stores are being referred to in the respective tweet. Once a person determines the specific store, they are then to visit the Fresh & Easy Kitchen Table (pictured at top) in the store, where they tell the clerk working in the area what the tweet/clue or promotional code from the tweet is. (The shopper can write it down.) The twitter clue is what we're calling the "trivia" aspect of the promotional contest. The in-store element is the "treasure hunt" aspect.

If the person doing the above is one of the first ten people to do so at that particular Fresh & Easy Arizona store that day, they will win a $50 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market gift card. There will be 10 winners each day of the contest.

Prior to playing, people who want to enter have to sign an entry form, which we assume will be located on the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market website.

The promotion is creative. We look forward to seeing how it plays out. Tesco's Fresh & Easy needs to make sure its explained very simply though, as we can see the potential for problems if it isn't made extremely clear to potential players.

The promotion also fits with a key suggestion we've been making regarding most of the promotions (there are some exceptions) Fresh & Easy launches, which is that the grocer tie-in store-level product promotion with external media sources, like Twitter and Facebook, as well as radio and other forms of external media when appropriate and affordable. The reason is the in-store promotional event benefits from external ways of driving (pulling) shoppers into the stores. It's simple - but important. In this case, Twitter is designed to be the pull-force, to borrow a marketing term.

It's also not a surprise to us that Fresh & Easy chose Arizona to do the promotion. The grocer needs to significantly boost sales at its 34 stores in Metropolitan Phoenix.

We've been saying for well over two years that Fresh & Easy needs to localize its merchandising and promotions. For example, there's no reason not to do promotion A in Southern California, B in Nevada and C in Arizona. And there's no need to do ABC in all three markets, either at the same time or at all. Regionalism and localism are key elements when it comes to grocery merchandising and promotions. The can also save a grocer money.

If Fresh & Easy executes the Arizona stores' trivia and treasure hunt promotion well, including doing some creative and fun publicizing of the event - which should start soon we would expect since July 30 is only two weeks away - the promotion could be a good one.

One final offering: If Fresh & Easy fails to create product displays featuring back to school type products, including having signage on the displays that ties-in the back to school twitter + in-store promotion, in its 34 Arizona stores during the 60-plus day promotion, it will be making a huge mistake, along with missing out on added sales.

When it Comes to Northern California - its Competitors are Rome Burning and Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is Nero Playing the Fiddle

The Insider - Heard on the Street

I've been casting about in search of a good historical metaphor or legend in which to frame Tesco's multi-year postponement of the opening of its 37 confirmed - and numerous unconfirmed - Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market fresh food and grocery stores in Northern California, along with it's neglect in announcing when it plans to start opening some of the stores - even if that date ends up being in late 2011 or early 2012.

My search has ended.

Historical legend (I call it legend because the facts of what actually happened remain in dispute among historians) has it that in 64 AD, as Rome burned to the ground - either by arson or accident - Nero - the emperor at the time who many blame for having the fire set - and who blamed the Christians for it and had them severely punished - relaxed in the confines of his comfortable residence and played the fiddle.

Whether or not its true Nero actually played the fiddle while Rome burned - for example, many historians say it wasn't a fiddle since the particular stringed instrument had yet to be invented at the time, and Cassius Dio said Nero didn't play the fiddle at all but instead sang the "Sack of Ilium" in stage costume as the city burned - the legend none the less created a saying - "Fiddling while Rome burns" - that exists to this day as a reference, roughly defined as meaning when a person, organization, institution or business takes its eyes off the ball and "fiddles" around while others do the opposite.

In terms of Tesco and the Northern California market, I see it this way: While Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's numerous competitors in California, Nevada and Arizona - along with other grocers - continue to move forward opening new stores and planning to open new stores - including in the case of Arizona-based Sprouts Farmers Market and Southern California-based Smart & Final-owned Henry's Farmers Market both opening their first stores in Northern California this year, having only announced their respective intentions to do so in early 2010 - Tesco continues to play the Fresh & Easy fiddle when it comes to the northern part of California.

In other words, if 'The Insider' was producing a food and grocery retailing-themed play based on a historical legend - Rome and Nero in this case - and centered in the Northern California market - I would cast many of its competitors, plus some other grocers, as Rome (burning white hot in Northern California), and Tesco's Fresh & Easy as the modern day Nero.

To demonstrate my point, since April of this year Fresh & Easy Buzz has been running its "2010 Northern California Market Special Report Series," in which the blog is reporting and writing about what various competitors of Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market are doing in Northern California, as well as analyzing the market overall and in relation to Tesco's eventual launch of its Fresh & Easy stores in the region.

Linked Below (in italics) are the stories in the series published thus far (and it's only July). Call it Exhibit A of my "Rome and Nero" analogy.

If you read the stories linked below, you will see how, despite, and in some cases because of, the economic recession - which Tesco continues to say when pressed is why it hasn't opened any Fresh & Easy stores in the region - grocers of all shapes, sizes and formats are doing just the opposite: They're opening new stores, proposing new stores, remodeling existing stores, and in the case of Sprouts and Henry's entering the Northern California market for the first time. [See a summary of some of that activity here, for example.]

>July 14, 2010: Tony Bennett Has Nothing on Whole Foods Market When it Comes to Loving San Francisco...That City By the Bay

>July 6, 2010: Walmart Looking for Store Sites in Northern California For 20,000 Sq-Ft Neighborhood Market by Walmart Prototype Store

>June 28, 2010: Smart & Final to Open its New Format SmartCo Foods Stores in California and Arizona

>June 14, 2010: Newly-Named Whole Foods Market CO-CEO Walter Robb Comes Full Circle With the Opening of the New Store in Mill Valley CA

>June 5, 2010: Sprouts Farmers Market Opens First Northern California Store in Sunnyvale; Strikes Up Partnership With Local Non-Profit Farm

>May 28, 2010: First Phase of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market-Anchored Condo Development in San Francisco's Bayview Set For Completion in June

>May 9, 2010: A Whopping 15 of Whole Foods Market's 41 New Stores in Development are in California - And Nine of The 15 Are In Northern CA

>May 8, 2010: Sprouts, and Likely Henry's to Beat Fresh & Easy to Northern California Despite it's Big Head Start

>May 6, 2010: Going Smaller & Getting 'Hybrid': Walmart's Smaller Supercenter in Vacant Retail Buildings Strategy Began in 2008

My point in using the "Rome and Nero" analogy, and in linking the stories in Fresh & Easy Buzz's Northern California series thus far, is to offer a couple observations.

The first observation and argument being that the clock is ticking on Tesco in terms of announcing what it plans to do - and when - in Northern California.

For example, members of the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association in San Jose, where one of the 18 confirmed San Francisco Bay Area future Fresh & Easy store sites is located, told Fresh & Easy Buzz on Twitter a couple weeks ago that they've "given up" on Tesco ever opening the Fresh & Easy store at Bird and Minnesota in the neighborhood.

The Fresh & Easy store in the neighborhood was announced going on three years ago, along with the other 17 in the Bay Area. Recently a contractor painted the vacant Albertsons store building at Bird and Minnesota a pale beige. Nearly two years ago some work was started by Tesco on the building, including installing a white roof. Since then, however, no remodeling work has been done to the building - until the beige paint job earlier this year, that is. The building previously had "Fresh & Easy green" painted on it.

The situation is similar with many residents in the Pedro Point neighborhood in Pacifica, California, where a completed and unconfirmed but reported on and verified by Fresh & Easy Buzz Fresh & Easy store location sits in a new shopping center, of which the store is supposed to be the anchor. The building, with Fresh & Easy colors painted on it, has been sitting empty since early 2009. Fresh & Easy Buzz has been communicating with numerous residents of the Pacifica neighborhood for over two years - and let's just say Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has little-to-zero goodwill among those folks. [You can read more about the Pedro Point, Pacifica Fresh & Easy store and the issue here.]

The city's mayor, Jim Vreeland, also lives in the Pedro Point neighborhood, and was instrumental in getting Tesco to locate a Fresh & Easy store at the location. He's been frustrated over the lack of information from Tesco because, when asked when the Fresh & Easy store will open, he has no answer to offer. Interestingly though, a number of neighborhood residents told me recently that they've given up so much on the Pedro Point Fresh & Easy store's ever opening, that the mayor these days gets few questions about it when he's out making his rounds. Not a ringing endorsement for Tesco's communication with the Mayor of Pacifica though.

There are numerous other examples just like the two above. But they serve to make my point, which is that Tesco's window of opportunity is pretty close to closing in terms of it's being time now for the grocer to announce when it plans to open its first stores in Northern California - or if not, what it plans to do in the market in general.

San Francisco City Supervisor Eric Mar agrees with 'The Insider' on this matter. For example, at a recent neighborhood meeting in San Francisco's Richmond District, Mar told the residents he represents that, based on conversations he's recently had with Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market executives, he thinks some sort of announcement is coming soon. if not, he - and the San Franciscans he represents - are going to be more unhappy than they already are. [Read - June 26, 2010: Tesco Planning to Announce in July When First Northern California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores to Open] Again, this translates to a lack of goodwill for Fresh & Easy.

In April, Fresh & Easy Buzz wrote this piece [April 19, 2010: Tesco Debating Whether to Launch Fresh & Easy Into Northern California This Fiscal Year... or Wait], reporting on an internal discussion at Tesco about Northern California.

On June 26, Fresh & Easy Buzz followed up with this story [June 26, 2010: Tesco Planning to Announce in July When First Northern California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores to Open], reporting, that as of June 26, Tesco would likely announce before the end of July when it plans to open its first batch of Fresh & Easy stores in Northern California.

'The Insider' - and Fresh & Easy Buzz in general - won't be surprised if the end of July comes and goes and Tesco hasn't announced anything about when it plans to open its first stores in Northern California. The fact is, when it comes to Northern California, talking about the region and its future launch into the market has been a constant moving target for the grocer since late early 2009 - and remains so today. As of today, Tesco does plan to go forward with opening stores in Northern California, based on my source information.

But it's mid-2010 now - not early 2009. And the clock has been ticking for well over a year since then. In fact, the alarm on the clock went off at the end of 2009, in my analysis and opinion. The alarm being the signal that Tesco should have announced something about Northern California in early 2010. There's even some evidence that suggest to me - remember Tesco is Nero and its competitors are Rome in terms of Northern California - that the clock has stopped.

If no announcement by Tesco regarding Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market and Northern California is made by the end of July, it's my view that it could be near-impossible to reset that clock. Rome (Fresh & Easy's competitors) is burning white hot - and grocery shoppers in Northern California aren't the sort to wait until the fiddle-player decides to perform before they choose up sides and declare loyalties.

Recent columns by 'The Insider':

~July 13, 2010: A Few Words on The Life and Death of Veteran Southern California Grocer Roger K. Hughes

~June 27, 2010: The Insider: Will Tesco Acquire Supervalu, Inc. and Change its 'Fresh & Easy' Game in America?

~June 12, 2010: Will Phil Clarke Shake Things up at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA When He Becomes Tesco CEO in 2011?

~May 20, 2010: Welcome to Discountopia USA

~April 29, 2010: Heard on the Street: There's Something About Albertsons ... In Southern California

New Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Clock-Shaped Private Brand Candy Line Hits the Shelves at Fresh & Easy

Private Brand Showcase

In our June 24, 2010 Private Brand Showcase feature we wrote about a new line of candy, shaped like the clock on the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market logo, that was set to hit the shelves of the 159 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores in California (Southern and the Central Valley); Metropolitan Las Vegas, Nevada; and Metro Phoenix, Arizona the week of July 7, 2010.

[Read the June 24 feature here: June 24, 2010 - New Fresh & Easy Clock Logo-Shaped Candies Are A Pretty Sweet Idea]

The clock-shaped candies, called "fresh&easy Fruit Candies and Licorice," come in the following varieties: Super Fruit, Soft Fruit, Sour Fruit and Chewy Black Licorice. The line is packaged in 10 ounce clear plastic tubs.

The new Fresh & Easy private brand candy line is now on the shelves at all of Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores.

The fresh food and grocery chain is currently promoting the fruit and licorice candy line for $2.99 per 10 oz container.

According to Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, the "fresh&easy Fruit Candies and Licorice" are made without the use of any artificial colors or flavorings, and don't contain the increasingly controversial high-fructose corn syrup sweetener.

In closing, we'll pass along a suggestion a Fresh & Easy Buzz reader sent after we published the June 24 piece featuring the new candy line. The reader's suggestion is: Fresh & Easy should create an orange-flavored Fresh & Easy clock-shaped fruit candy variety and name it... "A Clockwork Orange."

Recent Private Brand Showcase Features:

July 12, 2010: Tesco Launches Private Brand 'Lasagne Sandwich' in the UK Today...With No Apologies to The Earl of Sandwich

June 24, 2010: New Fresh & Easy Clock Logo-Shaped Candies Are A Pretty Sweet Idea

May 11, 2010: Tesco Might Want to Get 'fresh & naked' at 'fresh & easy'

April 2, 2010: Fresh & Easy's New 'EatWell' Healthier Fresh, Prepared Foods Brand to Hit Stores on April 7

April 11, 2010: When it Comes to Fresh, Prepared Foods, New York City's Duane Reade is Simply 'deLish' for Walgreens

February 22, 2010: Food, Drug Retailers With Stores in California, Nevada & Arizona Honored for Private Label-Store Brands' Excellence

South Los Angeles Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store to Accept WIC Vouchers July 29; Additional California Units to Follow

[Photo credit: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market.]

Breaking Buzz

We reported on July 7, 2010 in this story - Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Start Accepting WIC Vouchers at Central & Adams Store in South Los Angeles This Month - that the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market store at 1025 East Adams in South Los Angeles, California (pictured at top) would start accepting WIC Vouchers (Woman, Infant & Children Program) this month.

We can now report that the store, located at Central and Adams in South Angeles, will start accepting WIC Vouchers on Thursday, July 29.

Additionally, Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market will start excepting WIC Vouchers at numerous other Fresh & Easy grocery stores in California - including additional units in Southern California, as well as at stores in the Bakersfield and Fresno regions in the Central Valley - starting 30-45 days after the South Los Angeles store's July 29 start date, Fresh & Easy Buzz has learned. The current internal target date is to have some of the additional stores accepting the vouchers one month from July 29.

Interestingly, read what we wrote in the three paragraphs (in italics) below, from our July 7, 2010 story:

According to our sources, the south Los Angeles store will be the only one of Tesco's current 159 Fresh & Easy stores that will accept the WIC Vouchers for a while. Sort of a test. But if all goes well - and it should since 99% of the grocery stores in California have been accepting WIC Vouchers for as long as the program has existed - its likely Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market will then start accepting the vouchers in some of its other stores, beginning with those in low-income neighborhoods like in Compton.

Were we Fresh & Easy, we wouldn't wait very long to roll out the acceptance of WIC to all 159 stores. Why wait? It's an accepted method of payment to nearly all grocers in the United States. A number of convenience stores even accept WIC, as do a growing number of farmers markets.

In fact, we suspect once Fresh & Easy sees the nice sales boost it gets at the Central & Adams store on WIC-eligible items (and thus an overall store sales boost) like infant formula, whole milk, juice, eggs, cheese, whole grain breads and cereals, peanut butter, beans and legumes, fresh produce and more, it just might (or at least should) want to accept WIC right away at its other stores.

The Central and East Adams Fresh & Easy market in South Los Angeles will be the first store in the chain of 159 units to accept WIC Vouchers, as we've previously reported.

Including the Bakersfield and Fresno regions in the WIC Voucher-acceptance roll out will benefit Fresh & Easy in the form of added sales at the stores it designates to accept WIC in the two Central Valley regions. In fact, as we've said since 2008, the fresh food and grocery chain should accept WIC at every one of its stores in California, Nevada and Arizona.

Based on a recent analysis we completed of WIC usage patterns at grocery stores in the Central Valley region, we believe Fresh & Easy could increase its overall sales in the Fresno and Bakersfield regions by at least 5% overall by accepting WIC at all the stores.

California's Central Valley has been one of the hardest hit regions in the U.S. in terms of high unemployment and added poverty since the recession hit three years ago. For example, the unemployment rate in the region currently ranges from 15% -to- 20%, depending on the county. That's compared to an overall rate of 12.6% in California. Much of the Central Valley, like South Los Angeles (and other parts of Southern California), also suffers from high non-recession rates of poverty.

Additionally, the Central Valley, including the Bakersfield and Fresno regions, has among the highest percentage of WIC Voucher users in California. The vouchers are distributed by California WIC to low income mothers who qualify. WIC Vouchers can only be used to purchase specific healthy and nutritious food and beverage items, such as infant formula, whole milk, whole grain bread and cereals, juices, fresh produce and other similar items. Learn more about California WIC here.

Every state in the U.S., including Nevada and Arizona where the other Fresh & Easy stores are located, has a program similar to California WIC. Funding for WIC Vouchers is provided to the states primarily by the U.S. Federal Government.

South Los Angeles has a high percentage of WIC Voucher users, as noted in numerous past stories on the topic in Fresh & Easy Buzz.

In fact, employees at the Central and Adams neighborhood Fresh & Easy, which opened in February of this year, for the last five months have regularly had to explain to the numerous customers with WIC Vouchers, that the store - and Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market - doesn't except WIC. Beginning on July 27 the store workers at the South Los Angeles Fresh & Easy market will no longer have to do so. [See - February 23, 2010: Food Deserts & WIC Vouchers: Half A Loaf For the New Fresh & Easy Store Opening Tomorrow in South Los Angeles and February 24, 2010: Fresh & Easy Store Opens its Doors in South Los Angeles

[Editor's Note: Nearly three years ago, Fresh & Easy Buzz first pointed out and reported on the fact that Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, which opened its first stores in November 2007, didn't accept WIC Vouchers.

Additionally, in analysis and commentary pieces beginning in 2008 - and right up until the grocer decided to accept the vouchers at its first store, which will be the Central and Adams unit in South Los Angeles, on July 29 - we've also pointed out in detail how, from both business (added sales) and ethical grocer perspectives, Fresh & Easy was missing the boat by not accepting WIC in its stores. [Suggested reading: September 7, 2008: Analysis & Commentary: Should Tesco's Fresh & Easy Put An Asterisk Next to its Motto? Yes; Unless it Corrects Four Operational Omissions and December 29, 2008: Tesco's Fresh & Easy, 'Food Deserts' and WIC Vouchers; A 'Year-End' Analysis & Commentary]

Below is a selection of some of those past, and related, stories from Fresh & Easy Buzz:

July 7, 2010: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Start Accepting WIC Vouchers at Central & Adams Store in South Los Angeles This Month

September 7, 2008: Analysis & Commentary: Should Tesco's Fresh & Easy Put An Asterisk Next to its Motto? Yes; Unless it Corrects Four Operational Omissions.

December 29, 2008: Tesco's Fresh & Easy, 'Food Deserts' and WIC Vouchers; A 'Year-End' Analysis & Commentary

February 10, 2008: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Opens Latest New Store in 'Food Desert' City of Compton, California

July 2008: Tesco's to Open A Fresh & Easy Grocery Market in Low Income, Underserved South Central Los Angeles Neighborhood

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

July 11, 2008: 'Food Desert' Neighborhoods and Southern California: More on the Fresh & Easy Store Planned For South Central Los Angeles

July 15, 2008: Fresh Food to Bloom in An Inner-City Food Desert: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Breaks Ground For New Store in Underserved South Los Angeles Neighborhood

February 23, 2010: Food Deserts & WIC Vouchers: Half A Loaf For the New Fresh & Easy Store Opening Tomorrow in South Los Angeles

February 24, 2010: Fresh & Easy Store Opens its Doors in South Los Angeles

April 22, 2010: Breaking Buzz: Tesco's Fresh & Easy to Accept WIC Vouchers at its East Adams Store in South Los Angeles

May 14, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Not Yet Accepting WIC Vouchers at South L.A. Store; No Start Date Set

July 6, 2008: Former NBA Great Earvin 'Magic' Johnson is Working His Business Magic in Urban, Inner City Neighborhoods; We Offer An Idea For Tesco's Fresh & Easy

May 12, 2008: Food Deserts: Coalition to Create 'Blue Ribbon' Commission, Draft Report to Encourage Grocers to Open Stores in Underserved Los Angeles Neighborhoods

February 13, 2008: Leading Democratic Candidate for President Barack Obama Joins Group in Asking Tesco's Fresh & Easy to Put More Stores in Underserved Neighborhoods

June 3, 2008: Fresh & Easy Buzz Redux: Barack Obama to Tesco's Fresh & Easy in Our February 13 Piece: 'Build More Stores in Underserved Neighborhoods'

September 23, 2008: Food Retailing, Society & Economics: 'Food Deserts' and Public Health

March 20, 2009: Federal Government Spending Bill Increases WIC Voucher Program Dollars by $1.2 Billion; 21 Percent Increase

May 28, 2008: Las Vegas Market Report: A 'Food Desert' Neighborhood to Get A New Grocery Store; But it's Not A Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market

April 27, 2008: New Study Points to Increasing Urban 'Food Deserts' In North America: Locating Stores in 'Food Deserts' A Part of Fresh & Easy's Strategy

March 7, 2008: Former NBA All-Star and Sacramento Native Kevin Johnson is the Driving Force Behind a Fresh & Easy Market in Sacramento's Oak Park Neighborhood

July 29, 2008: Tesco's Fresh & Easy and San Francisco's Tenderloin Redux: Upcoming Developments Offer First Mover Opportunity For Fresh & Easy or Competitors

You can read additional stories on the topic from the archives here