The Twitter Agenda: Tesco CEO Philip Clarke Meets With the Troops About Social Media

The Insider - Heard on the Street

As I write this column, Tesco's new CEO Philipe Clarke and his deputy Tim Mason, Tesco's new group deputy CEO and the CEO of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA, are meeting with various members of the company's management team in the United Kingdom and one of the key items on the meeting agenda is social media and social commerce.

As we've previously reported in Fresh & Easy Buzz, one of Clarke's first initiatives since taking over from Terry Leahy on March 2 as CEO of Tesco plc is to increase the use of social media throughout Tesco's global operations, which range from the United Kingdom and parts of Europe, to Asia and the United States (Fresh & Easy.) [See - [See - February 24, 2011: Dormant No More: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Tim Mason is Now Tweeting on Twitter.]

Tweeting with the CEO

One of Clarke's social media platforms of choice is Twitter, which he started using in November 2010. Under the new CEO's initiative, nearly all of Tesco's senior managment and numerous members of its mid-management team have been setting up Twitter accounts over the last few weeks.

Among these "tweeters" is Clarke's deputy, Tim Mason, who as we reported on February 24, 2011 [Dormant No More: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Tim Mason is Now Tweeting on Twitter] has had a Twitter feed since 2009 but only recently started tweeting on it.

Tesco's El Segundo, California-based Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, which operates 169 stores in California, Arizona and Nevada, was out in front of parent company Tesco in using social media in general and Twitter specifically. Fresh & Easy, with the help of a social media savvy PR consultant, set up Facebook and Twitter accounts in early 2009, along with a Flickr photo-sharing site. Previous to that the grocer had a YouTube channel, which it continues to use as part of its multi-channel and multi-site social media efforts.

When will "TescoStores" go live on Twitter?

Fresh & Easy wasn't the only Tesco entity to set up a Twitter Feed in early April 2009. Tesco plc itself set up a corporate Twitter account, "TescoStores," which you can view here, on April 3, 2009. However, its first and to date only two tweets were made on that very same day, April 3, 2009. The two April 3, 2009 tweets:

>All Easter Eggs Half Price This Weekend Only - Hurry While Stocks Last! 2:33 AM Apr 3rd, 2009 via web

>Every Little Helps - Welcome to Tesco on Twitter! 2:33 AM Apr 3rd, 2009 via web.

"TescoStores," which is a "real" and not pseudo Tesco Twitter feed - it's followed for example by CEO Philipe Clarke, deputy CEO Tim Mason and other Tesco executives - has remained dormant since those first - and last - two tweets on April 3, 2009, despite the fact the corporate feed has 6,165 followers at the time this piece is being published. That's a good number of followers for a Twitter feed that's had zero activity for two years.

Since the corporate feed was set up in April 2009, Tesco has established a number of Twitter feeds that it's using regularly, one of the newest being its food-oriented "TescoRealFood." It also has separate Twitter feeds for Tesco Magazine, clothing at Tesco, Tesco digital and other specific categories.

When I heard this morning that one of the topics of the meeting led by Tesco CEO Philip Clarke today was going to be social media and commerce, I immediately thought about the "TescoStores" Twitter feed, since I've noticed that nearly all the new Tesco tweeters have been following it over the last few weeks but that it remains dormant.

One Tesco executive recently suggested to me in confidence the reason the Tesco corporate Twitter feed has yet to see any action post the two April 3, 2009 tweets is because no decision has been made on how to use it or even if to keep it, adding it would be a shame not to use it considering how many followers there are despite not being in use.

Perhaps one of the outcomes of today's meeting at Tesco corporate headquarters in the UK, where social media and social commerce are being discussed, will be a decision about how to use the long dormant "TescoStores" Twitter feed, which really is a no-brainier. It's a corporate feed - use it as such, just like Walmart and others do, adding whatever special emphasis and meaning it can to brand it as Tesco. And one of the great things about Twitter feeds is they're works in progress and can be fine-tuned in real time.

After all, using Twitter is something CEO Clarke has rapidly implemented within Tesco, the result being an explosion of new Tesco executive and employee Twitter feeds being set up over the last few weeks. Not all of the new feeds are being used though. And only a handful of the Tesco executives who've recently set up the new Twitter feeds are using them in any regular sort of way.

'Tweet me up' Philipe: Every Little Helps

CEO Clarke and Tesco should think about the "TescoStores" Twitter feed in this way: Hub-and-spokes. The Tesco corporate Twitter feed is the hub (or mothership) from which all of the Tesco specialty (Tesco Magazine, Tesco.com, Tesco clothing, digital, ect.) and individual (executives, employees, divisions like Fresh & Easy, Tesco Asia, ect.) Twitter feeds look to for information and inspiration, while at the same time providing grass roots (divisional and individual tweeters) information and inspiration to the hub, or mothership. The concept is similar to the hub-and-spokes wheel Tesco uses in its overall strategy planning.

After all, a dormant mothership, be it on Twitter or elsewhere, makes for an incomplete family. Therefore, decision or not at today's meeting, Tesco should either start using "TescoStores" or just get rid of it, as dormancy is something that's neither good for fresh fruit, grocery stores, or social media sites.

My prediction: Tesco will start posting tweets on "TescoStores" no later than two weeks from today.

From a personal and editorial perspective, If I'm wrong and Tesco doesn't do so, then I'm merely wrong on a prediction (which the editor hates me to make) as your humble columnist.

But if my prediction is wrong, from the wider Tesco corporate perspective it means Tesco is really wrong, because leaving the corporate Twitter feed dormant, which is analogous from a corporate social media perspective to leaving the storefront of a grocery store dormant and unattended - it's kind of like forgetting to turn the sign on the shop door over from "Closed" to "Open for Business" each morning. (Yes, it's a sort of a win-win then either way for your humble columnist.)

For a retailer, God, or the devil depending on your preferred usage, is in the details, both in its stores and in the social space it uses (or leaves dormant) in cyberspace. And like it's said by one major global retailer - Tesco - when it comes to its making sure each and every detail is just right: "Every Little Helps."

- The Insider

[Fresh & Easy Buzz Readers: Read all 'The Insider's' past columns in Fresh & Easy Buzz at this link - The Insider, including his news-breaking reporting and analysis on the Sprouts Farmers Market-Henry' Farmers Market acquisition-merger.

A 'Sign of the Times': New Form of Customization and Localization Spotted at Fresno Fresh & Easy Store

The "Sign of the Times" pictured above was spotted and photographed today by @thehieb (on Twitter) at the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market store at Cedar and Nees (3040 North Cedar Avenue) in Fresno, California. Tesco has seven Fresh & Easy markets in the Fresno metro region.

As you can see in the photo at top, the store manager, most likely, or a store employee, decided to customize and localize the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market standard issue corporate sign, which the grocer installs in all the stores, by adding: "Even if you just came in here to cry" at the bottom, using what looks to be a Magic Marker.

Here at Fresh & Easy Buzz we've said since 2008 that one of Tesco's week points with its 169 Fresh & Easy stores in California, Nevada and Arizona is senior management's failure to customize and localize its stores based on the demographics and lifestyle criteria in the neighborhoods where the stores are located. But we frankly haven't thought about doing the same with the hand wash signs. But then we can't think of everything.

One example of our lack of custom and local-focused product mix critique of Fresh & Easy is this: The Fresh & Easy stores in Riverside and San Bernardino counties in Southern California, which just-released U.S. Census Bureau figures show both have a population that's nearly 50% Latino, as is the case in many other parts of Southern California, the Central Valley and metro Phoenix, Arizona, is identical to the product mix in the stores where the Latino population is less than 10%, such as in parts of Southern California's Orange County.

The store-level Fresh & Easy managers can't doing anything about the product merchandise mix situation however: It's controlled and dictated by Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's corporate buying and merchandising department in El Segundo, California.

But in the case of the standard issue hand washing sign, one of which goes up inside every Fresh & Easy store when it's built, it does appear that some customization and localization is going on at store-level, at least at the Fresno store at Cedar and Nees.

And in terms of the 'crying in the bathroom' customization aspect and the local angle explanation, Fresno currently suffering from a variety of economic ills, including having an unemployment rate of about 15%, along with having one of the highest housing foreclosure rates in the U.S. So perhaps that's it? At least we hope its that or something similar in the macro sense that might elicit the potential crying in the bathroom rather than the crying being a reflection on how the store employees feel on a regular basis because of store management.

Either way, it's a creative form of store-level customization and localization. And it's ... a "Sign of the Times."

[Readers: If you spot something you think is unique at a Fresh & Easy store, or in any grocery store or supermarket, shoot a photograph of it and send it to us at freshneasybuzz@yahoo.com. Or if you use Twitter, tweet it to us @FreshNEasyBuzz. If we think it's a suitable "Sign of the Times" we'll use it in Fresh & Easy Buzz.]

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Opens Stores in Concord and Vacaville Today; Makes Five Markets in Northern California

Tesco's Fresh & Easy in Northern California - 2011

United Kingdom-based Tesco opened two of its small-format Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores today in Northern California.

The two stores, in the East Bay Area city of Concord (at Clayton & Ygnacio Valley Road) and at 615 Elmira (Elmira & Nut Tree) in Vacaville, which is midway between the Bay Area and Sacramento, are Tesco's fourth and fifth Fresh & Easy markets in Northern California and the grocer's first in each of the two respective cities.

Both stores opened at 10 a.m. this morning and held grand opening celebrations all day.

Ryan Gizdich, the store manager at the Vacaville Fresh & Easy market, told Fresh & Easy Buzz that a good crowd of people showed up for the grand opening this morning and that business was steady for most of the day.

Another Fresh & Easy Buzz correspondent who was at the Concord opening reports that shoppers and the mere curious started flowing into the store when the doors were opened at 10 a.m.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy, which now has 169 stores in California, metropolitan Las Vegas, Nevada and metro Phoenix, Arizona, has so far this year opened five of its fresh food and grocery markets in California.

On Wednesday, March 2 the retailer opened two Fresh & Easy stores in the Bay Area cities of San Jose and Danville. Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market followed the openings up last Wednesday (March 9) by opening its store in Pacifica.

The Northern California store openings continue next Wednesday (March 23) when Fresh & Easy opens two stores - one at Ygnacio Valley Road & San Carlos Road in Walnut Creek, which is next door to Concord, and another unit at Oakdale Road & Lancey Drive in Modesto, which is in Stanislaus County in the Northern Central Valley. Modesto is a little over an hour's drive from Walnut Creek and Concord.

Following the two store openings on March 23, Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has four stores scheduled to open in April - one unit on April 13 and three stores on April 27. The stores, locations and opening dates are:

April 13th, 2011
>Rosewood Dr. & Santa Rita Rd., Pleasanton, California

April 27th, 2011
>Mission Blvd. & Rousseau St., Hayward, California
>Imola Ave. & Jefferson St., Napa, California
>Saratoga Ave. & Payne Ave., San Jose, California

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Tim Mason didn't make it to the Concord and Vacaville store openings today, like he did on March 2 when he opened the San Jose store in the Willow Glen Village shopping center, because he's currently at Tesco's global headquarters in the United Kingdom.

Mason, who this month was given the added title of Tesco group deputy CEO, reporting to new Tesco CEO Philip Clarke, also was given, in addition to his position running Fresh & Easy USA, a couple added responsibilities for Tesco's global operations. The two areas of responsibility are for Tesco's corporate branding and its climate change initiatives.

In addition to meetings with Tesco CEO Clarke, who took over in early March from Terry Leahy who retired, and others at UK corporate headquarters, We've learned Tim Mason met yesterday in London with representatives of three of Tesco's marketing/advertising/communications agencies - EHS, RBR and DHA - and today visited Tesco stores and those of its competitors, including a Sainsbury's supermarket in Stanway, UK.

Back in America, in the Northern California cities of Concord and Vacaville specifically, Tesco's Fresh & Easy held a variety of events throughout the day, as it does with all of its new store openings, to welcome shoppers to its two newest stores in the region. Those events included food sampling, music and in-store contests. Free reusable canvas shopping bags were also given to shoppers who bought $10 or more worth of groceries today.

Related Stories

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

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

March 11, 2011: First Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Billboard Spotted in Northern California

March 9, 2011: Northern California Launch: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Opens Store in Pacifica Today

March 7, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, Superior Grocers, Mollie Stone's All Opening New Stores in California Wednesday

March 2, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Opens First Two Stores in Northern California Today

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

February 14, 2011: First Look: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store in Northern California's Danville Set to Open on March 2

February 3, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Spokesman Confirms Our South-to-North Distribution Reports in Talk to Pacifica, California Group

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

Influential Magazine Fast Company Ranks Trader Joe's Near the Top as One of 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World

Analysis/Commentary

Influential magazine Fast Company has named Southern California-based grocer Trader Joe's the 11th most innovative company overall and second most innovative in the food category - with PepsiCo first - in the 2011 version of its annual 50 most innovative companies in the world ranking.

Here's what Fast Company says about the Monrovia based Trader Joe's in awarding it at the top of its list as a global innovator:

Trader Joe's
For vaulting past Whole Foods to become America's favorite organic grocer

"Though Trader Joe's masquerades as a neighborhood store, it boasts $8 billion in annual profits. Its stores carry 4,000 different products, compared to typical grocery stores' 50,000. This meticulous stocking helps it sell $1,750 per square foot - twice as much as Whole Foods. Trader Joe's brand-name products offer low prices and 'pizzazz beyond plain old corn flakes,' says analyst Bob Goldin. It's a company that manages to borrow from the best of its competitors, with more than 350 stores compared to Whole Foods' 300."

Trader Joe's vs. Fresh & Easy

To put Trader Joe's amazing sales-per-square-foot and average weekly sales in perspective, the grocer's stores average about 10,000 square-feet in size and have combined average weekly sales of $500,000-plus per-store. In contrast, the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA stores owned by United Kingdom-based Tesco, also average about 10,000 square-feet but currently have average weekly sales of under $100,000 per-store.

Trader Joe's operates about 350 stores and has estimated annual sales of $8 million. There are 169 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores with sales estimated by Fresh & Easy Buzz of about $800 million. In October 2010 Tesco reported mid-fiscal-year 2010/11 year sales of $388 million for Fresh & Easy. [See - October 5, 2010: Philip Clarke's Early Welcome to America: Tesco Logs $151 Million Half-Year Loss For Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market.] Tesco's 2010/11 fiscal year ended at the end of February 2011. It reports its preliminary financial results in April 2011. Our about $800 million in sales estimate for the year is based on the mid-year numbers and our research.

Trader Joe's, which is privately-held and owned by a trust in Germany set up by the late Theo Albrecht (he died in July 2010) for his children, has been around for 30 years. Tesco's Fresh & Easy is only a little over three years old. Therefore we aren't suggesting Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, which does have average store sales that are considerably below the U.S. grocery retailing industry standard, should be on par with Trader Joe's from a store-count-to-sales perspective.

Rather we use the example for two reasons, which are: To highlight the exceptional performance of Trader Joe's vis-a-vis a very similar format, Fresh & Easy, and to illustrate how far Tesco has to go with Fresh & Easy to even come close to doing 50% of what iconic Trader Joe's does in sales, let alone in profit. (See the October 5, 2010 story linked above for Tesco's mid-year loss with Fresh & Easy.)

Innovation in food and beyond

Trader Joe's is one of just two grocers to make the Fast Company 50 list. The other food and grocery retailer is United Kingdom-based Marks & Spencer, which came in as the 36th most innovative company in the world out of the 50 named by the magazine this year.

In the "food" category, which mixes retailers, food-makers, restuarants and other food-related companies all together, Fast Company named 10 innovators. Three of the ten - number one (in the food category) PepsiCo , Trader Joes and bean-to-bar chocolate-maker Madecasse (number three in the food category) - ranked in the overall 50 most-innovative companies ranking.

The other seven food innovators named are:

>04 / Cargill
For charging into the sweetener market with a plant-based product that's aims to be eco-aware and health-friendly. The agricultural giant has perfected a process to grow and refine sweet leaf extracts from stevia, a type of South American plant, allowing it to quickly command a sizable slice of the faux-sweetener market.

>05 / Foodhub
For creating an online tool to connect local food producers to food buyers big and small. Think of FoodHub as the Match.com for the locavore movement. Wholesale food buyers log on to access thousands of small and regional producers, as well as info on varietals sold, minimum orders, insurance, and delivery options. Launched by environmental not-for-profit Ecotrust, FoodHub has already signed on hundreds of Portland restaurants, grocery stores, and businesses and expanded to neighboring states.

>06 / Current Energy
For greening restaurants (and saving them money in the process). Fast food eateries such as Jack in the Box and Qdoba are turning to this Dallas-based energy firm's smart sensors to majorly slash their energy use (and costs). For instance, sensors can ping restaurant managers with text messages if a walk-in refrigerator is left ajar for too long, or coordinate pizza-oven temperatures based on real-time sales.

>07 / Chipotle
For boldly taking advertising in-house. After burning through four ad agencies in five years, the burrito mecca took on its own advertising, including replacing wacky promotions with on-message marketing. For instance, "Boo-rito" giveaways for Halloween were replaced this year by a campaign to promote how truly scary other fast food is, with sales of discounted meals going to support Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.

>08 / McDonald's
For changing the way we think about the most iconic restaurant in the world. With a $2.4 billion budget, McDonald's is launching its first total makeover campaign since the Carter administration, redoing at least 400 domestic outposts, refurbishing 1,600 restaurants abroad, and building another 1,000.

>09 / Bolthouse Farms
For its ambitions to double the $1 billion baby-carrot business by using junk food tactics. Jeff Dunn has tapped his past as a Coca-Cola exec to goose baby carrots from a flat industry to a hotly marketed snack food, from adrenaline-fueled ads (think: Mountain Dew) to snazzy grab-and-go bags (think: Doritos).

>10 / Max Burger
For being the first carbon-footprint fast-food chain. Calories printed on fast-food menus seems downright quaint compared with Max Burger, which is one of the first burger chains in the world to print the carbon emissions of each sandwich right alongside its cost.

The five top overall most innovative companies out of the 50 all except for one, auto-maker Nissan, come from the high-tech, Internet and social media spaces. The top five most-innovative companies in the world, according to Fast Company are:

(1) Apple, (2) Twitter, (3) Facebook, (4) Nissan and (5) Groupon. Google came in at number six.

You can view the entire list and details of Fast Company's 50 most innovative companies in the world here.

Innovative grocers

In our analysis, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods Market and Wegmans are currently the three most innovative food and grocery chains in the U.S. Close behind in our analysis is Texas-based H-E-B and the fast-growing natural foods chain Earth Fare, which is based in North Carolina. There are a number of other food retailers neck-to-neck in terms of innovation though. But key is looking at overall innovation, across everything a grocer does. That's our criteria.

If you expand that universe to the entire world, it makes picking a top three much more difficult. For example, United Kingdom-based Marks & Spencer, which Fast Company included as the 36th most innovative company for 2011, is one of the world's most innovative, as is fellow British grocery chain Waitrose, to name just two.

The global small-format, hard-discount chain Aldi, which is headquartered in Germany, has to be on any short list when it comes the world's most-innovative food and grocery retailers as well, in our analysis and opinion.

And Walmart is fast-moving up in terms of innovation because of its green, organic and health initiatives, its multi-format and multi-channel retailing strategy - huge stores, medium-sized stores and small-format stores, along with Walmart.com - along with a number of other initiatives.

In terms of picking one grocery chain, we really can't argue with Fast Company's choice of Trader Joe's, although if the magazine had chosen Whole Foods, which has been named by Fast Company in its ranking in the past, or Wegmans (and perhaps Aldi), we wouldn't put up much of a fight either, as we think all have very high levels of innovation.

But looking at performance - those amazing sales-per-square-foot numbers Trader Joe's turns in, for example - and profitability, if push came to shove and we had to pick one out of our top three, at this point in time we too would choose Trader Joe's. The grocer is not only innovating strongly but it's firing on all cylinders in everything it does (that overall crieteria we noted earlier), from operations and customer service to private brand development, merchandising and marketing.

Related Stories

March 15, 2011: There's Nothing Pie-in-the-Sky About Trader Joe's 'Elegantly Simple' Pie Recipe Contest

January 5, 2008: Learning From Trader Joe's: Setting the Bar High For Fresh & Easy

February 14, 2009: Bloggers-At-Large - Weekend Frolic: Video Blogger Spoofs Trader Joe's in YouTube Video Commercial Spot

January 15, 2009: Small-Format Food Retailing USA -Trader v. Trader: Gristedes Complies With Judge's Order; Covers Up 'Trader' Portion of its 'Trader John's' Store Sign and Small-Format Food Retailing USA: The Big Apple Won't Be A Two-Trader City: Judge Says No to Gristedes' 'Trader John's' 'Trader Joe's' Knockoff

November 14, 2008: Store Brands: Trader Joe's Long Private Label Products Journey - How Do Fresh & Easy's Store Brands Stack Up to Those Created & Sold By Trader Joe's?

November 10, 2008: Competitive Retailer Wine Category Report: First Person Singular - 'How I Sold 37 Bottles of Wine in 45 Minutes at Trader Joe's'

October 27, 2008: Southern California Market Report: Beverages & More to Join Trader Joe's and Fresh & Easy to Form Manhattan Beach Food and Beverage Retailing Triangle

June 6, 2008: Manhattan Beach First Look: Fresh & Easy Buzz Has First Photos of First New Fresh & Easy Grocery Store Set to Open After the Three Month Pause

July 22, 2008: Obituary: Innovative Trader Joe's Head Wine Buyer and Popularizer of Value Wines Robert Berning; 73

March 4, 2008: In Vino Veritas: Fresh & Easy Store Brand Wines Win Two Silvers and Lots of Bronze Medals; Trader Joe's 'Two-Buck Chuck' Chardonnay Wins a Double-Gold

July 9, 2008: In Vino Veritas: Fresh & Easy Announces 63 Wine Awards to Date; Will Face Off Again Against Wine Award Winning 'Big Kahuna' Trader Joe's at State Fair

September 22, 2008: Fresh & Easy Buzz Strategy Session: Trader Joe's and the Key to Enlightenment?

November 6, 2008: Serendipitous Marketing & Cooking With the Trader: Trader Joe's Hits A Marketing Home Run Without Doing A Thing

June 11, 2008: Vox Populi: Let The People Speak: Fresh & Easy Vs. Trader Joe's On QVC: The TV Shopping Channel's Online Food Forum...Not Actually On TV

March 11, 2008: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Surpasses Competing Phoenix, Arizona Area Small-Format Grocers in Total Store Count...But Not in Sales and Market Share

There's Nothing Pie-in-the-Sky About Trader Joe's 'Elegantly Simple' Pie Recipe Contest

Private Brand Showcase
Private Brands and Promotional Merchandising

Among the various ingredients that make Southern California-based Trader Joe's so successful are its unique use of humor and its "elegant simplicity," by which we mean that in all aspects of its operations, from the design and day-to-day operation of its stores to its private brand development, merchandising and marketing communications, the iconic grocery chain always keeps things simple, clear and understandable to the consumer, doing so with its own private brand of whimsy.

A perfect example of how Trader Joe's regularly combines these various elements into a seamless whole is a new recipe contest the grocery chain just launched which is as easy as, or as simple as, pie.

In fact, that's what the recipe contest focuses on - pie.

Specifically, Trader Joe's is challenging Americans to "Create a recipe for pie that is easy as pie." The contest is part of TJ's "2011 HiiP (Highly innovative ingredient Pairing) Recipe Showdown."

In terms of the pie recipe contest Trader Joe's keeps it simple rather than taking a pie-in-the-sky approach. Here's the "elegantly simple" criteria for the recipe contest:

EASY AS PIE HiiP RECIPE GUIDELINES

• An Easy As Pie HiiP Recipe uses up to 5 Trader Joe’s products. Nothing else. Binders (i.e., salt, pepper, butter, cooking oil, etc.) do not count as ingredients.
• And just to be fair to all of our chefs under the age of 21, the use of alcohol is not allowed in Easy As Pie HiiP Recipes.
• Easy As Pie HiiP Recipes must take 20 minutes or less for preparation; the actual cooking can take longer.

The instructions on how to enter the pie recipe contest are equally simple.

HOW TO ENTER

• In an e-mail, list ingredients and explain cooking steps as concisely as possible.
• Include your name and preferred method of contact (in case your Easy As Pie Recipe is selected).
• Send to hiiprecipes@traderjoes.com by April 1, 2011.

That's it - as easy as pie.

The winning criteria are also "elegantly simple," as you can see below under the "REWARDS" heading. Innovative, yummy and - "as easy as pie." That's it. And really, when it comes to pies is there really anything else that matters?

The recipe contest winners also will be rewarded by Trader Joe's in a simple but meaningful way, as the grocer spells out plain and clear in its "elegantly simple" one-page contest entry form here).

REWARDS, REWARDS, REWARDS!

• Pie Recipes will be evaluated first by the Trader Joe’s (R2 ) Recipe Review Panel. Pies will be judged on how highly innovative the ingredient pairings are (HiiPness); how "easy as pie" the recipe is; and, naturally, how yummy it is.
• 5 Easy As Pie HiiP Recipes will be selected for further judging by the Trader Joe’s community (to be announced in our May eNewsletter), who will vote on 3 winning Easy As Pie Pies.
• Aside from the honor of having your culinary art recognized on our website for millions of Trader Joe’s community members to enjoy, the creators of the 3 selected recipes will each receive a Trader Joe’s Gift Card in the amount of $25 dollars + one of our hip reusable bags + a super

There you have it, a pie recipe contest that's as easy, or as simple, as pie. Take some Trader Joe's private brand frozen pie crusts, add some fresh peaches (or apples perhaps) from TJ's, along with the grocer's own brand milk, sugar and butter (plus a few more things), and you have one version of a simple and easy yet potentially yummy peach or apple pie. It's not a very innovative one. But its simple and therefore makes for a good illustration.

And as you can see here, Trader Joe's is offering numerous suggestions about the potential universe of pie recipes that budding bakers entering the contest might want to create. For example, there are your basic dessert pies - apple, peach, berry and cream, for starters. But there's also custard, mince, chess, pizza, savory, meat, curry and even...pie-in-the-sky.

There is one ingredient that if used in a pie will send a potential winner to pie recipe purgatory. That ingredient, or class of ingredients: alcoholic beverages of any kind.

But before you think the booze prohibition is because Trader Joe's is exercising a moral prerogative, think again. Rather, the prohibition against the use of adult beverages in the pie recipes was instituted in order to create a level playing field for those budding pie-maker/contestants who happen to be under the legal drinking age, according to Trader Joe's.

Arguably the most important "elegantly simple" criteria for Trader Joe's in its "easy as pie" recipe contest is this one: "An Easy As Pie HiiP Recipe uses up to 5 Trader Joe’s products. Nothing else. Binders (i.e., salt, pepper, butter, cooking oil, etc.) do not count as ingredients."

After all, from a simple product sales standpoint Trader Joe's is going to get numerous consumers to participate in the recipe contest, particularly as word-of-mouth spreads the yummy news. As a result, the iconic grocer is going to be selling a whole lot of those up to five Trader Joe's ingredients used to make the pies, along with a considerable amount of those "binders" - the salt, pepper, butter, cooking oil, etc. that although aren't among the up to five main ingredients for the pies must be used to hold them together and give some added flavor.

Look at it from an average market basket sales perspective. The ingredients - apples, pie crust, cinnamon, nutmeg - and those binders - milk, sugar, brown sugar, butter, ect. - needed to make an apple pie to enter in the recipe contest would, if all the items were bought at a Trader Joe's store, easily add $10 or more onto a customer's average market basket purchase. In other words, if Jane Jones planned to spend $40 at her local TJ's but decides to enter the recipe contest and pick up what she needs to make her pie, the $40 purchase can easily turn into a $50-plus buy one. The bigger the average market basket purchase size the happier a grocer is. The contest encourages incremental sales. And it does so in a soft-sell and fun way.

But even more important, the simple and easy pie recipe contest hangs a lantern on Trader Joe's private brands, reinforces the grocer's humorous and whimsical style, operations, merchandising and marketing approach, continues to create buzz for the chain, which spends little or nothing on traditional advertising already, and further positions its private brand products as being equal to or even better than manufacturer national brands.

After all, many moms will be making pies and entering the recipes in the contest. And as we all know, mom would never make a pie without using the "best" brands and ingredients.

Readers

Click on the following links - private brand showcase, Trader Joe's, Trader Joe's store brands, store brands, private label brands, promotional merchandising - for a selection of related stories. Click on the "older posts/newer posts" links at the bottom of the linked pages for additional pages/stories.

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

The Fresh & Easy store in the Pedro Point shopping center in Pacifica, California (pictured above), which opened on March 9, continued it's grand opening activities over the weekend. On Saturday the store featured a guitar player and a balloon artist, who made various creations out of balloons.

The store at 5550 Coast Highway in Pacifica also had a bit of excitement on Friday when it, along with other merchants along the coast in Pacifica, had to close for part of the day because of the tsunami warning triggered by the earthquake in Japan. The Fresh & Easy store was able to open later in the day after local authorities sounded the all clear.

Meanwhile, the less-than-week-old Pacifica Fresh & Easy is thus far receiving mixed reviews on the popular review site yelp.com. Some love it; others hate it. A few are not sure. Read the reviews here.

A number of the yelp reviewers express a dislike for aspects of Fresh & Easy that we've identified and pointed out since 2008 are problems for the chain, in our analysis. Those aspects include: its self-service-only checkout, non-acceptance of manufacturers cents off coupons, offering only free plastic grocery bags but not paper, mostly pre-packaged produce; and a couple others.

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

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is preparing to open three additional stores, besides the three units it's already opened so far this year in San Jose, Danville and Pacifica and the eight stores it's set to open this month and in April, Fresh & Easy Buzz has learned.

The three stores at the top of the next store opening round for Fresh & Easy in Northern California are:

>San Francisco - 32nd & Clement
>Antioch - Lone Tree & Golf Course
>Fairfield - Beck Avenue & West Texas

The San Francisco store at 32nd Avenue & Clement Street is one of two units Fresh & Easy originally planned to open in the February-April time period. The other store is at 5800 Third Street in San Francisco's Bayview District. [See our story from yesterday - March 14, 2011: Opening of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store at 5800 Third Street in San Francisco Held Up Pending Approval of Liquor License. Also see - February 1, 2011: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Still Plans April-May 2011 Openings For First Two San Francisco Stores.]

Depending on the resolution of certain circumstances (see the story linked above) Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, which is owned by United Kingdom-based Tesco, would like to open the 32nd & Clement and 5800 Third Street stores in San Francisco at around the same time.

The Antioch location at Lone Tree & Golf Course is a site Tesco's Fresh & Easy has had since at least January 2008. It's a build-from-the-ground up store location in a shopping center where CVS Pharmacy is also building a new drug store next to the Fresh & Easy market. The new CVS is also set to open soon.

Antioch is in Contra Costa County (East Bay Area), where Tesco's Fresh & Easy is opening its first store at Clayton Road & Ygnacio Valley Road in Concord on Wednesday, March 16.

The following Wednesday, March 23, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is opening its second store in Contra Costa County. That store is in Walnut Creek, at Ygnacio Valley Road & San Carlos Road. Walnut Creek is next door to Concord.

Farfield, where Tesco's Fresh & Easy will soon open its store at Beck Avenue & West Texas, a location it also acquired in early 2008, is in Solano County. It's about 30 minutes by car from Vacaville, where Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is opening a store at Elmira Road & Nut Tree Road, also on Wednesday.

When the Concord and Vacaville Fresh & Easy stores open on Wednesday, they will make five stores thus far in Northern California for the Tesco-owned fresh food and grocery chain, which is based in the Southern California city of El Segundo and currently has 167 stores in California, Nevada and Arizona.

Six additional Fresh & Easy stores are slated to open from March 23 -to- April 27. Those stores, their locations and opening dates are:

March 23rd, 2011
>Oakdale Rd. & Lancey Dr., Modesto, California
>Ygnacio Valley Rd. & San Carlos Rd., Walnut Creek, California

April 13th, 2011
>Rosewood Dr. & Santa Rita Rd., Pleasanton, California

April 27th, 2011
>Mission Blvd. & Rousseau St., Hayward, California
>Imola Ave. & Jefferson St., Napa, California
>Saratoga Ave. & Payne Ave., San Jose, California

Based on our current information from sources, and as we always say, new store opening dates are a fluid and dynamic thing at Tesco's Fresh & Easy, the 32nd & Clement unit in San Francisco could be opened as early as April, although May is the more likely opening month at this point in time.

The Antioch and Fairfield Fresh & Easy stores currently are slated for May or June openings, depending on a few variables.

Based on our reporting to date, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market currently has at least 60 store locations planned in Northern California, and continues to acquire new sites for future stores.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy has yet to announce the dates of any additional store openings in Northern California beyond the first 11 it's opening in March and April 2011.

However, in addition to the stores we are reporting on in this piece, Fresh & Easy plans to open additional units in Northern California this year. Stay tuned.

Reader Resources

Readers: Click on the following links - Fresh and Easy Northern California, Fresh and Easy San Francisco Bay Area, Northern California Market Region, Tesco's Fresh and Easy in Norcal 2011, Northern California Special Report, Northern California, 5800 Third Street - for complete coverage of and analysis on Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in Northern California. Use the "newer posts"& "older posts" links at the bottom of the linked pages for additional pages/stories.

Also, for a specific look at each of the three Fresh & Easy stores that have opened in Northern California so far in 2011, read the stories linked below:

March 2, 2011; Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Opens First Two Stores in Northern California Today March 1, 2011: Two Years On: Tesco Opens First Two Northern California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Tomorrow; January 17, 2011: First Look at the Willow Glen-San Jose Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store Set to Open March 2, 2011; February 14, 2011: First Look: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store in Northern California's Danville Set to Open on March 2; December 27, 2010: First Look at the Pacifica, California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store, One of the First Opening in Northern California in Early 2011; March 9, 2011: Northern California Launch: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Opens Store in Pacifica Today.

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

As the sign on the window of the future Fresh & Easy store at 5800 Third Street in San Francisco pictured above says, as of today Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market hasn't received approval to sell alcoholic beverages at the store. The application is a premise-to-premise transfer (purchase of a liquor license by Fresh & Easy) from one party to another. Usually these types of applications get faster approval then those for a new license application do.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy in Northern California - 2011

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's announcement about when it plans to open its store at 5800 Third Street (at Carrolm Avenue) in San Francisco is being held up as the Tesco-owned grocery chain waits for approval from the California Alcohol-Beverage Control (ABC) agency for its application to sell hard liquor at the store, which is located in the new "5800 Third Street" condominium development in the city's Bayview Neighborhood, Fresh & Easy Buzz has learned.

Additionally, since its liquor license for the store has not yet been approved, Tesco's Fresh & Easy is holding off on doing the finishing work, painting and installing refrigeration cases, shelving and checkout stands inside the about 12,000 square-foot store, until that approval comes from the ABC. (Pictured below is the inside of the 5800 Third Street store as of today.)

The exterior of the store (pictured here) has been completed for about three months.

We've reported extensively on the back-and-forth decision-making process at Tesco's Fresh & Easy regarding when it would open the 5800 Third Street store in San Francisco's Bayview District.

The location is a key one for the grocer. For example, it held a major press event at the site in early 2008 to announce its then plans to enter Northern California in 2009.

Additionally, as we've previously noted, in our analysis it has the potential to be one of Fresh & Easy's better performing stores. [See -February 1, 2011: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Still Plans April-May 2011 Openings For First Two San Francisco Stores, and December 14, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Open 5800 Third Street 'Flagship' Store in San Francisco Later in 2011 Than Originally Announced .]

Tesco's Fresh & Easy also owns the store building in the 5800 Third Street development. The grocer announced its plans to open a store in the development in January 2008.

5800 Third Street timeline

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market first announced in a press release on August 19 that it planned to launch into Northern California in early 2011, saying it would open its first eight stores in the region then. Included in the announcement was the store at 5800 Third Street in San Francisco.

The first eight stores listed in the August 19, 2011 press release were:

>San Francisco: Third Steet & Carroll Avenue
>San Jose: Bird Avenue & Minnesota Avenue
>Danville: Diablo Boulevard & Highway 680
>Pacifica: Cabrillo Highway & Linda Mar Boulevard
>Vacaville: Elmira Road & Nut Tree Road
>Modesto: Oakdale Road & Lancey Drive
>Walnut Creek: Ygnacio Valley Road & San Carlos Drive
>Concord: Clayton Road & Ygnacio Valley Road

[Read our story about the announcement - August 19, 2010: Tesco Will Open its First Eight Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores in Northern California in 'Early 2011.']

But on November 10, 2010 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market issued a second press release in which it said it would open 12 rather than eight stores in Northern California in early 2011. However, the store at 5800 Third Street in San Francisco was no longer on the list. [See - November 12, 2010: Postponed But Not Abandoned: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Gearing Up For Northern California Launch.] The San Francisco store at 32nd & Clement was added to the list in its place though.

Still later on, Fresh & Easy amended its Northern California opening plans, announcing on January 12, 2011 it would open 11 stores in Northern California in early 2011. [See - January 12, 2011: First Northern California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Opening March 2; Nine More to Follow March-April. Also see - December 14, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Open 5800 Third Street 'Flagship' Store in San Francisco Later in 2011 Than Originally Announced.]

Not only was the 5800 Third Street store still off the list, but the unit at 32nd & Clement in San Francisco was also removed this time around. [See this story for additional background: February 1, 2011: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Still Plans April-May 2011 Openings For First Two San Francisco Stores.] Click here to see the locations of the 11 stores, three of which - Willow Glen/San Jose, Danville and Pacifica - have opened so far.

In its January 12, 2011 press release, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market said it would be announcing the opening dates for the two San Francisco stores at 5800 Third Street and 32nd & Clement in "the coming weeks."

It's now been about eight weeks since January 12 and no announcement has come yet from Tesco's Fresh & Easy about the San Francisco store opening dates.

The future Fresh & Easy store at 32nd & Clement is on track to be completed soon. The exterior is finished and the inside is progressing well.

But because it's waiting to get approval from the California ABC on its liquor license, work inside the 5800 Third Street store in San Francisco's Bayview neighborhood is on hold. As you can see in the photo below, the building's interior awaits finishing work, painting, the installation of equipment, shelving, checkout stands and other detailing. A full-crew can have the inside of the store ready to go in a couple weeks though, as installing the Fresh & Easy interior package is much less time-consuming than is the case with larger supermarkets.

The California ABC is currently accepting comments from residents of the neighborhood regarding Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's application to sell hard liquor as well as beer and wine at the 5800 Third Street store.

The Bayview is a low-income neighborhood and historically numerous residents and neighborhood groups, along with some city officials, have opposed allowing any new stores or existing stores not already selling hard liquor, and even in some cases beer and wine, to do so.

At present it appears Fresh & Easy will get approval to sell hard liquor at the store. The reason is because the area is a "food desert" and the residents of the neighborhood we've talked to say having the store open, even if it offers hard liquor for sale, trumps not having a store in the location, since the neighborhood is underserved by grocery stores that offer fresh foods and groceries for reasonable prices.

Some of the Fresh & Easy stores in California, Arizona and Nevada sell hard liquor along with beer and wine. But the majority of the grocer's 167 markets sell beer and wine only.

Based on our current reporting, we expect that the 5800 Third Street Fresh & Easy store will open in May, or June at the latest, unless there's some last minute problem with the approval of the liquor license application. And even if there is the store can always open offering beer and wine only, which requires just a permit and not a license in California.

Readers

Click on these links - Fresh and Easy Northern California, Fresh and Easy San Francisco Bay Area, Northern California Market Region, Tesco's Fresh and Easy in Norcal 2011, Northern California Special Report, Northern California, 5800 Third Street - for complete coverage of and analysis on Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in Northern California.