Fresh Buzz - News & Notes About Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market: 'Drought' Ends; Hollywood Fresh & Easy to Start Selling Beer and Wine

Breaking Buzz: After 16 Long, 'Dry' Months, Hollywood, California Fresh & Easy Store on Hollywood Boulevard to Start Selling Beer and Wine This Week

The Hollywood, California (7021 Hollywood Boulevard & Sycamore) Tesco Fresh & Easy store (pictured at top) will finally begin selling beer and wine this week, Fresh Buzz has learned.

Beginning this week, the Hollywood Boulevard store will start offering beer and wine but not hard liquor, which requires a separate license.

The Hollywood Fresh & Easy market, which opened on January 23, 2008, until this week was one of just two Fresh & Easy units Fresh Buzz is aware of in Southern California that since opening haven't sold alcoholic beverages of any kind, including beer and wine. There are 61 Fresh & Easy stores in Southern California.

The other store, the Fresh & Easy market at 15230 Vanowen Street in the Van Nuys area of Los Angeles, still doesn't sell any alcoholic beverages. [Learn more here - October 9, 2008: Reader Reponse: Details on Tesco Fresh & Easy Stores Denied Licenses and Permits to Sell Spirits, Beer and Wine in Southern California.]

The reason the Hollywood Fresh & Easy market hasn't sold beer and wine (or spirits) until this week is because the retailer's applications for a liquor license and beer and wine permit for the Hollywood store were both denied after the Rite Aid drug store chain, which has a store next to the Hollywood Boulevard Fresh & Easy unit, opposed granting the store the permits because of an ordinance in the city that requires there only be a set number of stores within a given geographical area that are allowed to sell spirits, beer and wine.

The Rite Aid drug store next to the Hollywood Fresh & Easy sells hard liquor, wine and beer.

The issue has now been resolved regarding beer and wine only, allowing the Fresh & Easy market to start selling the adult beverages this week.

In Fresh Buzz's analysis the ability to now offer wine and beer for sale at the Hollywood Boulevard Fresh & Easy store is a plus for the grocer for a variety of reasons.

First, the neighborhood's demographics -- lots of younger consumers and wine and beer drinkers -- means added sales for the store. Many shoppers have complained since the store opened in January, 2008 about not being able to pick up a bottle of wine or a six pack of beer with their other purchases while in the store. Now they can.

Second, the Hollywood Boulevard neighborhood is a major tourist area. Hollywood tourists are known to sometimes enjoy a bottle of wine or a six pack of beer. Now when tourists shop at the Fresh & Easy store for prepared foods, they can add beer and wine to their purchases.

Additionally, since Tesco's Fresh & Easy offers numerous (over 60 SKUs) proprietary wine blends -- including its $1.99 a bottle ($2.99 in Nevada and Arizona) Big Kahuna brand Australian wine -- the store's wine category offerings will provide some differentiation to shoppers -- and for the grocer -- vis-a-vis the nearly next door Rite-Aid drug store's wine selection. This is a plus for the Hollywood Fresh & Easy store since its offerings aren't just a duplicate of the drug store's.

Fresh & Easy stores also sell numerous varieties of micro-brew beers, which also should appeal to the neighborhood's consumer demographics. The nearby Rite-Aid drug store offers fewer micro-brew beer selections than Fresh & Easy markets do, for example.

Lastly, Tesco's Fresh & Easy offers its own store brand version of the popular Corona brand beer. That Fresh & Easy store brand beer is called Taurino. The proprietary store brand beer is brewed in El Salvador and comes in a 12-pack.

Fresh & Easy often offers its Tourino store brand beer on sale, something that should appeal to the numerous struggling actors and screenwriters (and others) that populate the Hollywood Boulevard neighborhood near the Hollywood & Sycamore Fresh & Easy store. The 12-packs of Tourino beer sell for about $6.99 everyday at the Fresh & Easy stores.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy says the imported Tourino store brand beer is the top-selling beer brand at its grocery and fresh foods markets in California (Southern and Bakersfield), southern Nevada and Metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona.

Selling beer, wine and spirits is a sales plus for grocers because the items help to increase the average customer market basket size (total dollar amount per purchase), which is a key metric for food retailers. Shoppers pick up a bottle or two of wine with their food purchases and buy snacks and other complementary items along with their beer purchases, for example. It's a win-win for grocers.

Customers can now do so to their hearts (or palates) content beginning this week at the Hollywood Bloulevard Fresh & Easy grocery and fresh foods market.

Related Stories From Fresh & Easy Buzz:

>October 9, 2008: Reader Reponse: Details on Tesco Fresh & Easy Stores Denied Licenses and Permits to Sell Spirits, Beer and Wine in Southern California

>January 23, 2008: Big 'Hollywood Style' Premere Today for New Hollywood Fresh & Easy Store

>January 16, 2008: Fresh & Easy Goes Hollywood: New Store to Open Next Week

>February 18, 2009: Oscar Night Marketing: Fresh & Easy Scores A Gold With Just Out Academy Awards Night Tie-In News Release

>September 2, 2008: Fresh & Easy Gets Local; Creates Free 'Indie' Music Concert Series at its Hollywood, CA Store For September

>July 14, 2008: Breaking News & Analysis: CA Assemblyman Introduces 'Tesco Fresh & Easy Law' to Ban Stores With Self-Checkout-Only From Selling Alcoholic Beverages

>June 11, 2008: Out of His Compound and Hitting the Street; the 'Militant Angeleno' Shops and Reviews the Hollywood, California Fresh & Easy Grocery Store

>June 17, 2008: Celebrity Sightings: The Los Angeles Nomad Spots Long Tall (John) Salley at the Hollywood, California Fresh & Easy On Hollywood Blvd.

>February 10, 2008: the Haphazard Gourmet Girls Visit the Hollywood, California Fresh & Easy, and 'Love it Dahling'

>May 14, 2008: New Foods At Fresh & Easy: Los Angeles' 'Homeboy Bakery' and Tesco's Fresh & Easy Could Be A Match 'Made in Heaven'

>January 29, 2009: Breaking News: New-Wave, Hybrid Food-Grocery-Convenience Store 'Locali Conscious Convenience' to Open Tomorrow in Hollywood, California

>September 11, 2008: 'Locali Conscious Convenience:' New Small-Format Hybrid Convenience-Grocery Store Coming to Hollywood, California

>October 27, 2008: Category Management Report: Fresh & Easy Conducting Wine Category Review and SKU Rationalization; We Offer Some Analysis

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

Reader Reponse: Details on Tesco Fresh & Easy Stores Denied Licenses and Permits to Sell Spirits, Beer and Wine in Southern California

In this October 7, 2008 piece, "Sacramento's Oak Park Neighborhood Association Files Appeal On Design of Proposed Neighborhood Fresh & Easy Store; Hearing Set For Oct.15," about Sacramento's Oak Park Neighborhood Association and its appeal of the design of the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market small-format grocery store set to be built in the neighborhood, we mentioned that a Fresh & Easy store in Southern California had stopped selling alcoholic beverages because of protests by various community groups.

Fresh & Easy Buzz has received a number of requests via email to provide some additional information and details about the store and the issue.

First, we need to clarify a bit. The store didn't stop selling alcoholic beverages. Rather Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market pulled its liquor license application (after having its approval initially denied) that was on file with the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) because of the intense opposition and objections from the various organizations and community and neighborhood groups to the store's being able to sell alcoholic beverages in the neighborhood.

The store is located at: 15230 Vanowen Street, Los Angeles, California, 91405. It's referred to as the Vanowen & Sepulveda Fresh & Easy store.

We first reported on the development on March 13, 2008 when the California ABC denied Fresh & Easy's request for a hard liquor license for the store. Below is our March 13 report:

Spirits are down--beer and wine only: The state of California has refused to approve a liquor license application for a Fresh & Easy grocery store in Van Nuys, (Southern) California after a coalition of community and neighborhood groups based in Los Angeles petitioned and lobbied the state booze board, arguing there are already too many stores selling spirits in the area. The state liquor license review board agreed and denied Tesco's application.

The store can still sell beer and wine, since virtually any retailer in the state can sell the beverages in the adult drinks categories as long as they meet minimal qualifications and pay for and legally obtain a permit. However, it's not known if Tesco will go forward with the Van Nuys Fresh & Easy store absent being able to sell spirits at the proposed location. A Tesco spokesman said one option would be to not locate a store in the city at all. The other would be to go forward and sell just beer and wine at the proposed Van Nuys unit.
Van Nuys is a district in the city of Los Angeles and part of Los Angeles County. The Los Angeles-based coalition tells us it plans to protest other Fresh & Easy proposed store liquor license applications in Los Angeles County, and perhaps in other Southern California counties as well.

On August 18, 2008 the supermarket industry trade publication Supermarket News then reported the following:

Fresh & Easy Reportedly Pulls Liquor Application
Aug 18, 2008 6:00 AM, By ELLIOT ZWIEBACH

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market here has reportedly pulled its application for a liquor license at a store it opened earlier this month in Van Nuys, Calif., after the Los Angeles City Council said it would vote on whether to rescind the license that was pending. Fresh & Easy executives could not be reached for comment. According to the Alliance for Healthy & Responsible Grocery Stores, a coalition of over 25 labor-, environmental-, faith- and community-based organizations that has been at odds with Fresh & Easy over various issues during the past year, the chain originally was denied approval for a liquor license at the Van Nuys store by the city's zoning administration for that area, but that denial was overruled by the area's planning commission; however, when the city councilman who represents Van Nuys sought to have the entire council reconsider the appeal last week, Fresh & Easy withdrew the liquor application, the alliance reported. The alliance said Van Nuys citizens were concerned that the area — which the alliance said has seen an increase in alcohol-related crimes — is already over-saturated with liquor licenses, and there were also concerns that Fresh & Easy's self-checkout policy might make it easier for minors to buy liquor.

Regarding the concerns about Fresh & Easy's self-checkout policy (the stores offer only self-service checkout although store employees will assist customers if asked to do so by the shopper) perhaps making it easier for minors to buy liquor, we were the first to report in this July 14, 2008 piece, "Breaking News & Analysis: CA Assemblyman Introduces 'Tesco Fresh & Easy Law' to Ban Stores With Self-Checkout-Only From Selling Alcoholic Beverages," on new legislation proposed by California Assemblyman Hector De La Torre that if passed would ban the sales of alcoholic beverages of all kinds at stores in California like Fresh & Easy which offer only self-service checkout.

Very few if any food and grocery stores in California other than Tesco's Fresh & Easy offer self-service checkout only. Some such as Winco, Ralphs Fresh Fare, Safeway's "the market by Vons" in Long Beach, California and selected Wal-Mart-owned stores, along with a few others, offer a combination of self and full-service checkout. However we aren't aware of one major -- or minor-- chain that has stores in California offering self-service checkout-only like Fresh & Easy does.

The Assembly Bill, AB 523, wasn't voted on in this session, along with numerous other bills, because of the California State Legislature's failure to pass a state budget on time. The budget, which was more than 3 months overdue past its deadline, was only recently passed by the California Assembly and Senate and signed by the Governor. As a result of so much of the lawmakers focus going to hammering out a budget compromise, the leaders in the Assembly and Senate decided to table numerous pieces of legislation (including AB 523) and not take the time to vote on them in this session.

Assemblyman Hector De La Torre, a Democrat from South Gate in Southern California, has yet to say if he will reintroduce the legislation in the next session of the Assembly.

Vanowen & Sepulveda Fresh & Easy

The Vanowen & Sepulveda Fresh & Easy store hasn't been approved to date to sell not only hard liquor/spirits but was unable to even obtain a permit to sell wine and beer. Therefore the store currently is unable to sell alcoholic beverages of any kind. We varified this status with the store.

Originally, after being unable to sell spirits, it was thought by even members of the groups in opposition to the Fresh & Easy store being able to offer wine and beer for sale that the store would be granted an off-sale beer and wine sales permit, since such permits are seldom denied in California. However, as mentioned above, even that permit was denied the Vanowen and Sepulveda Fresh & Easy.

Hollywood, California Fresh & Easy

The Vanowen & Sepulveda Fresh & Easy isn't the only one of the grocery chain's stores in Southern California unable to sell alcoholic beverages.

Its Hollywood, California Fresh & Easy unit also doesn't sell liquor, wine or beer.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's applications for a liquor license and beer and wine permit for the Hollywood store were both denied after the Rite Aid drug store chain, which has a store next to the Fresh & Easy, opposed granting the store the permits because of some sort of ordinance in the city that requires there only be a set number of stores within a given geographical area that are allowed to sell spirits, beer and wine. The Rite Aid drug store next to the Hollywood Fresh & Easy sells hard liquor, wine and beer. It appears Rite Aid saw a competitive advantage to opposing the Fresh & Easy Hollywood store's ability to sell spirits, beer and wine.

Big 'Hollywood Style' Premere Today for New Hollywood Fresh & Easy Store

There were Marilyn Monroe and Paris Hilton look-a-likes strutting their stuff on a red carpet today on Hollywood Blvd., in Hollywood, California. There were men dressed in black tales and white tie, and numerous women looking elegant in designer dresses and high heels. A band played music, people danced, others sipped champagne.

No, it wasn't an early start to the famous Hollywood Academy of Awards celebration. Rather, it was a Hollywood style grand-opening for the newest Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market store. The new market is located at the intersection of Hollywood Blvd. and Sycamore, Hollywood's famous "Street of Dreams."

In typical Hollywood style, Fresh & Easy CEO Tim Mason officially opened the grocery market by placing his hands in wet cement in front of the store, and cutting a ribbon made of movie filmstrip, the Hollywood version of a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Once completed, the store's doors were open for the numerous shoppers and just curious to go inside and see what Fresh & Easy is all about. Hollywood-style of course.

The newest Fresh & Easy, the grocer's 33rd store to open to date in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada, is located right across the street from the famous Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Just steps away from the store's entrance are the famous "Hollywood Stars," those iconic sidewalk stars with the names of thousands of celebrity's emblazoned on them. Nearby, on what has been called "The Street of Dreams" is Mann's Chinese Theatre, a historic Hollywood landmark. And, also nearby is the newer Kodak Theatre,where the Academy Awards, Emmy Awards, and other showbiz events are regularly held.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is now part of this "Street of Dreams," where famous and infamous actors and others once waited tables at its restaurants, or tended bar or served cocktails at night while auditioning for movie roles during the day. Hollywood Blvd. also has seen its share of shattered dreams. It's streets are still filled with runaway teenagers, former hippies, drug users and prostitutes who've lost their American dream; at least for now.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy grocery market however is part of a new urbanism that's happening on Hollywood Blvd. Over the past five years or so the "Street of Dreams" has become more residential, with new condos and apartments being build in the neighborhood. Lots of retail stores have been added, making it a popular shopping venue for those who live nearby and not so nearby.

The neighborhood also has become a prime night spot. Just like those who were at the Fresh & Easy store grand opening today saw a Paris Hilton look-a-like, if you are out-and-about on Hollywood Blvd. on any given evening, you're likely to see the real Paris, along with a host of other celebrities, eating sushi, Italian food or other cuisine at one of the neighborhood's many new, upscale eateries. There's also new bars, cafes and nightclubs, all filled nearly every night.

The neighborhood should be a good one for the Fresh & Easy market. There aren't many food stores nearby, so the store should sell lots of basic grocery items. Additionally, the growing residential population in the neighborhood is young and primarily professional, which is a good target market for Fresh & Easy's prepared foods offerings.

In many ways, locating a store on Hollywood Blvd.--the "Street of Dreams"--is symbolic for Tesco's Fresh & Easy venture. Like the millions of people from all over the world who have come to Hollywood to become a success in show business, the British Tesco is hoping to achieve it's American dream with it's Fresh & Easy convenience-oriented grocery stores in the western U.S. And like Frank Sinatra crooned in his famous song..."(On) The Street of Dreams," Hollywood Blvd. is as good a place as any to try to achieve that success.

As part of its grand-opening celebration today, Fresh & Easy made a cash donation to the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles. The hospital was chosen by the store's employees to receive the donation. Fresh & Easy makes a cash donation to a local non-profit group or other organization each time it opens a new store.

"Opening in such an iconic neighborhood is exciting," said CEO Mason in summing up the day. "Everybody wants fresh, wholesome food at affordable prices and we think Fresh & Easy will be a great addition to the neighborhood."

Putting the 'Neighborhood' in Neighborhood Market: 'Localism' and Tesco's Proposed Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in Sacramento's Oak Park

Fresh & Easy Buzz has received a number of notes today via email about our piece yesterday about the Oak Park Neighborhood Association's appeal of the design of the proposed Fresh & Easy grocery store to be located in Sacramento's Oak Park neighborhood.

[Click on the headline link to read the piece published in the Blog yesterday: "Sacramento's Oak Park Neighborhood Association Files Appeal On Design of Proposed Neighborhood Fresh & Easy Store; Hearing Set For Oct.15."]

The basic thrust of the contents of those notes is this question: Has Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market built and opened any stores to date in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona that are intentionally "Localized" in terms of their design to a specific community or neighborhood?

Here is what we know based on our observations, research and coverage of Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market:

Tesco basically has two store design formats for Fresh & Easy.

The first design format is the one for the Fresh & Easy stores it puts in vacant retail box-style buildings that formerly housed drug stores, supermarkets, big box stores and other retail formats. Fresh & Easy guts these buildings and then remodels them into a Fresh & Easy store.

At this link is a photograph of what the typical Fresh & Easy store that's located in a formerly vacant and then remodeled standard box retail store looks like. The stores can differ in exterior look in terms of their profile/ scale and facade depending on if they are in a former drug store, supermarket or big box store. But they have the same basic exterior design look.

The particular store in Manhattan Beach, California pictured in the link above went into a portion of a vacant Office Depot big box store. The store's profile/scale is higher (vertically) than those Fresh & Easy stores located in former supermarkets and drug stores. But the design look is essentially the same.

The interiors of the Fresh & Easy stores in remodeled retail standard box stores are essentially the same regardless of which market region, city or neighborhood the respective Fresh & Easy store is located at or in.

Fresh & Easy is in the process of adding interior design enhancements to the existing Fresh & Easy stores located in remodeled retail buildings. Therefore, although it has converted most of the existing stores to this new interior package, there still might be a couple not yet finished. Therefore they would look a bit different inside than the ones already converted since those stores would still lack the interior design enhancements. However, once finished all of the stores in this class will look essentially the same inside.

The exteriors of the stores in the remodeled standard box retail buildings also all look pretty much the same, as we mentioned above.

In some cases different types of graphics such as signage are used on the exteriors, along with a couple other differences in a few instances. But in the main the typical Fresh & Easy store located in a remodeled retail standard box building looks the same on the exterior, be it in Southern California, Metropolitan Las Vegas, Nevada or in the Phoenix, Arizona Metropolitan region.

At this link is a photograph of the exterior of a Fresh & Easy store in Anaheim, California that uses a slight signage addition (the metal backing on the sign) and a color change (the four-tone paint job on the exterior) which makes its exterior look a bit different than most of the other existing Fresh & Easy stores in remodeled standard box retail buildings do.

There also are a few Fresh & Easy stores in remodeled formerly vacant retail buildings that have a slightly different look on the outside then the Fresh & Easy store norm in this class because those existing buildings had for example brick on part of the exterior, such as a Fresh & Easy store in Las Vegas we have seen has, or has an archway or two in the front, such as another Fresh & Easy store (the Las Vegas Sun City store) located in a former vacant retail building we are aware of has. But those are a handful of exceptions, and the design isn't purposeful or local. It just happens to be what the existing building looked like in the main.

One significant exception to the standard design norm we are aware of is the Hollywood, California Fresh & Easy store. This store, which was put into an existing building, looks much different than all of the other Fresh & Easy stores located in existing buildings. This is primarily because the space the store went into is different than the former drug stores, supermarkets and other vacant standard retail buildings the majority of the Fresh & Easy stores (those not built from the ground up) are in.

The Hollywood Fresh & Easy store is in an urban center along Hollywood Blvd. The space it went into is of a design unlike those other typical retail boxes. Therefore the store is different from a design perspective because the existing space it went into is different. In other words, the Hollywood Fresh & Easy wasn't custom built to look different. Rather it followed the existing design of the space it went in.

Click here for a photograph of the exterior of the Hollywood, California Fresh & Easy store.

The second design format Tesco has for its Fresh & Easy stores is its built from the ground up new store prototype. Tesco uses this design for all of the new stores it is building from the ground up on empty parcels.

At this link is a photograph of a built from the ground up Fresh & Easy store. All of the new construction Fresh & Easy stores to date use this design or blueprint.

Some of these new store format stores might and can have certain cosmetic additions on the exterior. However, they are limited to graphics differences or slight additions as well.

Based on what we know, Tesco has thus far proposed to customize and localize somewhat one store. That store is a proposed unit in Fresno, California that would go into a popular former restaurant in the city. We reported on this development in Fresh & Easy Buzz on July 23, 2008.

Below is the July 23 piece from Fresh & Easy Buzz:

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Fresno, California Fresh & Easy Grocery Store to Be First in Chain to Include Local, Community and Neighborhood Design Elements and Features

The Fresno, California City Council last night approved plans for an approximately 15,000 square foot Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market at 2820 Tulare Street in the Central Valley city in California.

The 2820 Tulare Street location is the site of Fresno's historic old Hofbrau restaurant, pictured at top, which once was a city landmark famous for its generous portions of roasted beef, turkey, ham, pastrami and other meats and side dishes, along with its numerous varieties of cold draft beers, before it was closed down.

Fresh & Easy Buzz has learned the Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market at the old Hofbrau location in Fresno will be the first store in which the grocery chain plans to incorporate local, community and neighborhood elements into the design theme of, which is something we've been suggesting since January Tesco do with its Fresh & Easy stores.

Plans for the Fresh & Easy grocery market going into the old Hafbrau include the store having a clock tower as part of the design, a masonry facade and murals that reflect the historic and cultural nature of Fresno and the 2820 Tulare Street neighborhood.

Including local (community and neighborhood) design features, including using murals with a local flair, is something Fresh & Easy Buzz has suggested in numerous blog pieces Tesco do with its Fresh & Easy stores in order to localize them, better fit into the communities and neighborhoods where it has its stores, and create a better "sense of place" to enhance the shopping experience in the stores for customers.

A member of the Fresno planning department told Fresh & Easy Buzz Tesco wants the store to fit into the historic elements of the neighborhood, as well as play up on the old Hafbrau's historic home there.

We've argued for a number of months that it's important--and will lead to greater success for the grocery chain--for Tesco to localize some of the design elements of its stores so as to respect and reflect the history and culture of the communities and neighborhoods it locates its small-format, combination grocery and fresh foods markets in because doing so will make the retailer not only a more accepted member of the neighborhood, but will pay dividends in the form of increased sales and customer loyalty in return.

As we were the first publication to report on March 17 (with a detailed follow up piece in May), Tesco plans to open at least an initial five Fresh & Easy grocery stores in the Fresno Metropolitan region, and likely will open additional stores in the region down the road. The first Fresno market region stores should start opening in early 2009.

We haven't heard anything from our Fresno sources, both within the city government and in the commercial real estate and business community in the city, about any of the other four planned Fresno region Fresh & Easy stores having localized design enhancements like plans call for the 2820 Tulare Street store going into the old Hofbrau to have. We are continuing to investigate that aspect however.

Meanwhile, based on the overview we received from a source who was at last night's Fresno City Council meeting, it appears the plans for the old Hofbrau building Fresh & Easy grocery store are singularly unique compared to the 63 small-format grocery stores the grocery chain has opened thus far in that the retailer is taking some local community and neighborhood elements and aspects into consideration in the design of the store, rather than it being a cookie cutter-designed grocery market like the current stores, the majority of which have gone into remodeled existing buildings, are.

Like we've been suggesting since December, 2007--localization of some elements of a grocery store's design, along with some aspects of its product mix, is key in today's food retailing and local consumer-conscious society. Or, as the late, longtime former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Thomas "Tip" O'Neill used to say when asked to explain his fabulous success in politics..."Everything is local."

[Note: Here is a link to the original story from the Blog. At this link are links to a number of past Fresh & Easy Buzz about the "Localization" of store design and retail product selection. Those links are located at the bottom of the story at the link.]

[Reader Note: If any Fresh & Easy Buzz readers are aware of any existing Fresh & Easy stores that have customized, local design elements which were intentionally included in the store's design by Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in order to fit into the style, history and culture of a given neighborhood, please let us know at: freshneasybuzz@yahoo.com. Please tell us the specific store and where it's located. Thank you. You also may offer any comments in that regard or in any regard on the topic using the "comments" link below.]

The proposed Oak Park, Sacramento Fresh & Easy

The Fresh & Easy grocery store slated to be built (and opened in 2009) in Sacramento's Oak Park neighborhood is a built from scratch store. Therefore, what the members of the Oak Park Neighborhood Association refer to in this piece as Fresh & Easy's "original design" is the built from the ground up format described above and pictured (the San Diego store) at the link above.

Theoretically and practically, if it wants to Tesco's Fresh & Easy can make any exterior additions and modifications to one of these new built from scratch stores that it desires. They can be painted different colors or multiple colors, different signs and graphics can be used on the exterior, bike racks can be added outside, as can umbrella tables with chairs and other additions. These modifications and additions can be added at very little cost in the larger scheme of things.

Additionally, Tesco can change how such stores face the street or how they are situated on the parcel without much added expense and very little effort, since the stores are built from the ground up.

Further, certain physical design modifications can even be made to the store exteriors at very little added cost.

Such neighborhood customization and "Localization" is done all the time by retailers ranging from Wal-Mart, Inc. and Safeway Stores, Inc. to Whole Foods Market. These are three very different chains. One is a traditional supermarket chain (Safeway), the other a natural foods retailer (Whole Foods), and the other the largest discount food and general merchandise products retailer in the world.

For example, if you look at Whole Foods' four stores in the city of San Francisco each one looks distinct from the other. Each has certain exterior (and interior) design elements intentionally designed-in so the store fits into its respective neighborhoods look, character, history and culture. They may not be what all neighborhood residents desire, which seldom is the case. But the point is the design elements are included intentionally to "Localize" the store to its neighborhood.

Whole Foods did this most specifically in the 55,000 square foot Oakland, California store it opened in September, 2007 near the city's downtown. That store, which is located in an old car dealership building Whole Foods' gutted, is designed like a European Food Hall.

Whole Foods did this on its own. There was no demand from either the city of Oakland or community groups to do so.

The reason Whole Foods designed the store this way is because the very popular historic Oakland Housewives Market, which closed down years ago, used to be nearby the new Whole Foods food market hall-style store.

The retailer wanted to pay honor to that historic market by making its store "Localized." At the same time the retailer knew doing so made good business sense because residents of a city love stores (and shop in them) that take local elements into consideration. The food hall-style Whole Foods Market store has received praise from Oakland residents, the local press and city officials. And it's doing very well.

Safeway Stores does this "Localization" throughout the U.S. with its Lifestyle supermarkets as well, both for new stores built from scratch and store remodels.

The supermarket chain currently has a proposal to remodel and expand a Safeway store in Washington D.C.'s Georgetown neighborhood for example that's specifically designed to fit into that historic neighborhood in the nation's capital. The neighborhood residents who've viewed the plans are even referring to it as the "Social Safeway," according to the Washington Post, because of how the design, which includes a patio and other features, for the remodeled store fits into the Georgetown neighborhood much better than the existing store does.

Safeway also has proposals for two San Francisco Bay Area store remodels -- one in Berkeley and the other in Oakland -- which include specific local elements suggested by community and neighborhood groups and associations. In fact the discussion involving additional design changes with a focus on neighborhood local elements is ongoing between Safeway and these groups in both cities.

Even Wal-Mart, which receives its share of attention for perhaps not being community minded enough, has in recent years put a major focuses on "Localizing" a number of its huge 160,000 -to over 200,000 square foot Supercenters.

For example, Wal-Mart opened a new Supercenter in Clinton, Tennessee On May 21 of this year that has specific local design elements incorporated into the entire store.

Additionally, Wal-Mart opened a "Localized" Supercenter in July, 2008 in Austin, Texas that included building and paying for the following local amenities: A bike path; a new road behind the store; a newneighborhood bus stop; and three retention ponds. The retailer also paid for and installed two traffic lights to improve neighborhood traffic management.

In 2007 Wal-Mart also built and opened a localized Supercenter in Highland Village, Texas, which is a city with a strong bicycling culture.

Wal-Mart bought additional land around the Supercenter where it built a system of bike paths for neighborhood and city residents. The bike paths connect to the shopping center.

Next to the Supercenter Wal-Mart built a gazebo for neighborhood bike riders. The gazebo features bike racks, drinking water fountains, benches to rest on and compressed air hoses cyclists can use for free to fill their bike tires. Wal-Mart also put a bicycle sales and repair shop inside the Supercenter, demonstrating how going local can also be smart merchandising.

Using local design elements and focusing on additional forms of community and neighborhood "Localization" actually is becoming more the norm rather than the exception for Wal-Mart not only with its Supercenters but with all of its various format stores. This includes paying for, creating and building local neighborhood improvements like it did in the stores mentioned above and has and is doing with numerous others. Wal-Mart is far from the perfect neighbor. But there's no question it has and is becoming a much better "local" retailer.

Epilogue

We end by mentioning what we think is an ironic twist.

Tesco chose the name "Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market" for its small-format grocery and fresh foods stores specifically because it wants the stores to be the primary neighborhood grocery shopping choice for residents who live in the neighborhoods where the stores are and will be located. In other words Fresh & Easy is your neighborhood food store.

In the specific case of Sacramento's Oak Park neighborhood there are significant numbers (the members of the neighborhood association and others) of neighborhood residents who care so much about their neighborhood they want to have an impact on how what will be the neighborhood's only supermarket when it opens looks and is situated at its location, along with having an input on a few other design and related elements.

It seems to us Tesco's Fresh & Easy is missing out on a huge opportunity which presentins itself in Oak Park. That opportunity is to work closely with the Oak Park Neighborhood Association in the design of the neighborhood Fresh & Easy store. Bring them into the design and building process. Adopt as many of their ideas as they can -- that make sense and don't cost astronomical sums of money. After all it is their neighborhood

Follow that old saying: "If you aren't part of the solution, you're part of the problem." If one or more of the group's ideas for the store's design and siting don't make practical or economic sense, tell them so. Argue a bit. Debate. Explain why. They know the retailer has the last say if a final design is approved by the city.

But bringing them into the process will most likely create a better Fresh & Easy store for the neighborhood. It also will go a long way towards making the Oak Park Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market the neighborhood's market once it opens. After all, unless we missed something really big, isn't that Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's mission statement?

Mid-Week Fresh & Easy Roundup: Fresh & Easy Gets Caught in A Land Use Dispute; Those Near-Famous Mixed Grill Packs; More On Manhattan Beach

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market

Land use dispute puts Fresh & Easy in the middle of squabble

The San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper is reporting today about an escalating land use dispute between commercial developer Pacific Development and a competing commercial developer and non-profit group over a 4.3 acre vacant piece of land in the city-owned by the Southeast Economic Development Corp.--an arm of the city of San Diego Redevelopment Agency--that's set for a major development. Tesco is in the middle of this escalating dispute by virtue of the fact one of its Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market grocery stores is set to be the retail food store anchor of the large commercial development.

Read the interesting piece in today's San Diego Union Tribune here. Tesco currently has six Fresh & Easy grocery stores in San Diego, with two more new stores currently in development.

Those near-famous Fresh & Easy mixed meat grill packs

On Tuesday July 1, we wrote here (see the item: "Fresh & Easy offering A 4th of July cookout for the frugal,") about Fresh & Easy's 4th of July holiday promotion--a mixed grill meat pack featuring beef burgers patties, mild sausage and chicken parts--along with a 12-pack of the retailer's store brand Latin or Hispanic-style beer--for twelve bucks.

We mentioned (tongue planted near-fully in cheek) in our Tuesday piece that since the promotion combined the meats and beer, non-beer drinkers might be out of luck, or perhaps would have to give the beer away and keep just the mixed grill pack.

In a press release distributed today (July 3), Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market added some clarification (perhaps by coincidence or perhaps not) to the mixed meat grill pack and beer promotion, pointing out in the release that the mixed grill can be bought by itself for the promotional price of $4.99. At nearly five pounds total, that's about $1 per-pound.

In our piece yesterday, we pointed out we thought the twelve buck deal for the meats and 12-pack of beer was a good value because among other things, we estimated a super-hot deal for a 12-pack of beer like the one being promoted would be about $5.99 plus tax, thereby offering the mixed grill meat pack for about a dollar a pound, which is super-cheap.

Looks like we were, as our British friends say, rather "spot on" in terms of the respective promotional price of the mixed grill meat pack and the 12-pack of beer.

In its press release issued today, Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market said it sold nearly 1,400 packages of the mixed meat grill packs during a 12-hour period yesterday. There was no mention of how many 12-packs of the Latin-style beer were sold however.

More on the Manhattan Fresh & Easy store grand opening

UFCW union reps vs Fresh & Easy store employee throw down: As we reported yesterday representatives of the United Food and Commercial Workers retail supermarket clerks union were out in force picketing yesterday at the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market new store grand opening at 1700 Rosecrans in Manhattan Beach, (Southern) California. The store is the 62nd Fresh & Easy market and the first new store to open since the retailer took a three month new store opening break in early April.

The Fresh & Easy Buzz correspondent covering the store grand opening yesterday reports a scene occurred between about two dozen UFCW picketers and a group of Fresh & Easy store employees. While Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Tim Mason was speaking, the group of UFCW picketers began heckling him, at which point a group of Fresh & Easy store employees began a round of loud cheers attempting to drown out the verbal protests from the union representatives. The union representatives eventually stopped.

CEO Mason has thus far refused to meet with UFCW leaders who want to discuss potential unionization of the Fresh & Easy chain. U.S labor laws do not require him to meet with the union.

Does this outburst of cheers by the non-union Fresh & Easy store employees mean the UFCW could be alienating the very store-level workers it wants to organize and bring into the union? Or was it just an appropriate response by the employees to the picketers rudeness?

Could the union's tactics, such as the picketing and verbal demonstrating at yesterday's Manhattan Beach store grand opening, along with the negative-oriented brochures, which as we reported here the union distributed to neighborhood residents a few days before the store opened, be causing a backlash against the union among Fresh & Easy employees?

Perhaps the UFCW needs to take a lesson from Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama--who the union supports for President and even got to send a letter to Tesco CEO Terry Leahy and Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Tim Mason, asking them to meet with union leaders--and conduct a positive campaign, as Senator Obama has vowed to do in his bid to be President of the United States.

After all, after many years of trying and using similar strategies and tactics, the UFCW has failed to unionize non-union food and grocery retailers Wal-Mart, Inc., Whole Foods Market, Inc, Trader Joe's and a few others.

Perhaps the union would be wise, and more successful, if it created a campaign based on communicating all the positive aspects, of which there are many, being a member of the UFCW could bring to Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market and other non-union supermarket chain store-level employees?

The last thing one wants to do after all--be it in food retailing, politics or union organizing--is to alienate the precise constituency you are trying to get to be a customer, vote for you, or become a member of your union. It's food for thought on the eve of Independence Day.

Cold and Sterile to warm and fuzzy? At yesterday's Manhattan Beach store grand opening, Simon Uwins, director of marketing for Fresh & Easy, said the following to members of the press, including the Fresh & Easy Buzz correspondent, at the event: "There were some who said it felt a little bit cold and sterile (the inside of Fresh & Easy grocery stores)," Mr. Uwins said. "We went into all our stores and, if you like, warmed them up, telling them about what we're about and adding color."

The warming up Mr. Uwins is referring to is the new interior design package Fresh & Easy first installed in its store in Laguna Beach, (Southern) California in May, as we wrote about in this May 16 piece, and is in the process of implementing in all of its existing stores.

Since January of 2008, Fresh & Easy Buzz has argued the stores are just that, a bit cold, sterile and lack a sense of place. Of course, from January to just recently, Mr. Uwins and the other Fresh & Easy Neighborhood market senior executives have in so many words claimed that position was rubbish, despite the fact we first even thought about it because numerous Fresh & Easy store-level employees and shoppers (and ex-shoppers) expressed that opinion to us.

Mr. Uwins said yesterday the Fresh & Easy executives came to the conclusion the stores are/were a bit sterile and cold based on customer feedback in the form of consumers filling out comment cards, emails to the effect sent to corporate headquarters, and from interviews in the stores with customers.

We're glad to hear Fresh & Easy listened to its customers, and to those store-level employees who spoke up about the store design. However, its fair to say..."What took you so long?" It's also fair to ask: "Why the absolute denial for so long that there just might be a problem with the look and feel of the stores?" But, we cheer the retailer's consumer response to the interior design issue in the form of Fresh & Easy's attempt to improve it with the new interior design improvements.

However, we've seen the Laguna Beach store interior post enhancements. It is improved. But the jury is still out on by how much.

The store interior look is warmer and a bit less sterile. However, the store still lacks a feeling of a sense of place, and in our analysis needs a few other changes and enhancements in order to provide the type of customer shopping experience Tesco needs to create in order to achieve its goal of making the Fresh & Easy stores primary shopping venues. But, we'll save that for another time. After all, there can always be a round two of enhancements now that the Fresh & Easy guys have listened to the customers, something we give them props for doing.

Short takes

All in the family: Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Tim Mason was joined at the Manhattan Beach store grand opening yesterday by his son and three daughters who all live in the United Kingdom. We wish them an enjoyable Independence Day holiday weekend visiting California. Don't forget to spend some time at the pier in Santa Monica, check out Hollywood Blvd., (while there you can do a store check for Dad at the Hollywood Blvd. Fresh & Easy), enjoy the beaches, and hit an expensive restaurant every night. After all, with the U.S. dollar so low, you can live large with British pounds and Euros right now in America. And, the California economy needs all the help it can get.

Two hundred Fresh & Easy stores by end of February 2009: Marketing chief Simon Uwins said at the grand opening Tesco plans to have 200 Fresh & Easy stores open by the end of February 2009. This is the latest estimate in terms of store count by the retailer. Originally, Tesco hoped to have 200 Fresh & Easy stores opened by the end of this year. later it revised that number down to 150. However, if it meets the goal, having 200 stores opened by the end of February, 2009 is pretty close timing to that original estimate.

To get to 200 stores opened by the end of 2009, Tesco's Fresh & Easy will need to open 138 new stores between now and then, over that eight month period. That's lots of new store openings in eight months. There are currently 62 Fresh & Easy stores open. The retailer has announced it will open at least 30 new stores between July and of this year. That will give Fresh & Easy about 92 stores by the end of September, meaning in order to reach 200 stores by the end of February, 2009, it will need to open an additional 108 stores in the five month period from October 1, 2008 -to- the end of February, 2009. Achieving that is questionable.

For example, in the six month period from November, 2007 -to- April, 2008, Tesco opened 61 Fresh & Easy markets, which was a rapid pace in and of itself. In order to reach 200 stores by the end of February, 2009, the retailer will have to open more than twice that many new stores in a period of time with only two additional months (eight month period) than from November, 2007 -to- April, 2008. 138 new stores in eight months amounts to opening one new store about every other day between now and the end of February, 2008. Hold on to your grocery aprons folks.

Opening day customer count: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market says 2,600 shoppers came through the doors of the new Fresh & Easy grocery store in Manhattan Beach on grand opening day yesterday. Wonder if that's counting the UFCW picketers and all the employees from Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market corporate headquarters--which is less than a mile away from the store--who were at the grand opening yesterday?

All teasing aside, 2,600 is a good number for an opening day for the retailer. And, based on Fresh & Easy's report that 1,400 packages of the mixed grill meat pack on promotion were purchased yesterday, that amounts to more than one mixed grill pack for every other customer who visited the store sold. But at a buck a pound, how could they resist.

Store employee counts: Speaking of counting, numbers and press releases, we hope the same person who's been counting Fresh & easy store-level employees didn't do the customer and mixed grill meat pack sales counts yesterday.

In the press release issued today Tesco's Fresh & Easy PR department says the average number of employees per-store is between 20 -to- 30 people. In the July 1 press release about the mixed grill pack promotion, and in the July 2 release about the Manhattan Beach store grand opening, the PR department wrote each Fresh & Easy store employs an average of 25 people. In most all of Tesco Fresh & Easy's press releases prior to the July 1 release, the PR department said Fresh & Easy stores employee about 20 people per-store.

Having written more than one press release, Fresh & Easy Buzz knows how boring of a task it can be. We aren't nit-picking over the numbers: 20, 25, 30, all in the same ballpark. But we suggest the PR folks just stick to one scheme. If its closer to 20 people per-store, go back to that. If closer to 25, stick with that number. If its too hard to call, go with the 25 -to- 30 range figure.

On becoming the store check store of the chain: The Fresh & Easy Buzz correspondent covering the Manhattan Beach store grand opening asked a few of the store's employees yesterday how they felt working at the store in the chain located the closest (less than a mile) form the corporate headquarters, and thus becoming the store where company executives and others will be spending lots of time on a regular basis doing store checks, as well as using it as the store where they bring visitors, by virtue of the fact its so close to the main office.

Our correspondent says most all of the employees asked said they really hadn't even thought about it. However, the correspondent reported a couple of the employees did raise their eyebrows a bit shortly after the question was asked; and one said: "I will think about it now."

The three month pause and press coverage: Tesco's Fresh & Easy is garnering much more press coverage over the Manhattan Beach store grand opening than it normally would have if the retailer had not taken the three month new store opening break from early April until yesterday, when the store opened, in Fresh & Easy Buzz's analysis.

There's a good marketing and PR lesson in that, which is: when the media gets too much of something, like a new store opening every two or three days, it tends to habituate to it and thus give it less coverage.

On the other hand, the press loves stories. And the opening of the first new store after a three month new store opening pause lends itself to story telling, although we must say if you look at much of the coverage its essentially amounts to the reprinting of Fresh & Easy's press releases with a few words changed around and perhaps an original headline added. Such is mainstream media economics today, especially in the daily newspaper business. Good job by the Los Angeles Times and a few other daily newspapers though. The LA Times' piece: Fresh & Easy sets up shop a few paces from rival Trader Joe's. [The writer also is a Fresh & Easy Buzz reader, which we don't hold against him.]

The Trader Joe's next door: The Fresh & Easy Buzz correspondent checked out the Trader Joe's grocery store, which is located just a hop, skip and a jump from the Manhattan Beach Fresh & Easy store in the Manhattan Beach shopping center, twice at different times yesterday. The Fresh & Easy is at 1700 Rosecrans and the Trader Joe's is at 1800 Rosecrans. Both stores even share the same parking lot. [Read our photo piece, "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," which discusses and depicts the proximity of the two stores in words and pictures.]

On both Trader Joe's store check instances, the correspondent said the TJ's was full of customers. Perhaps the Fresh & Easy grand opening had a spill-over effect for the TJ's: shoppers hit the grand opening, did some shopping, then also hit the Trader Joe's across the way. It will be interesting to observe over time how the two small-format grocers do respectively being so close to each other in the shopping center.

UFCW Union, Activists and Employees Hold Pro-Union Rallies at 25 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores in California

Tesco's Fresh & Easy and the UFCW Union
News/Analysis

The United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, organized labor activists, supporters and employees of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market yesterday held rallies at 25 Fresh & Easy stores in California, in a show of support for employee organizing at the 171-store Tesco-owned fresh food and grocery chain.

Yesterday was the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. The rallies at the 25 Fresh & Easy stores in California were part of a national day of action in which U.S. labor unions and supporters organized a variety of different events throughout the nation. Organized labor held the day of action on the 43rd anniversary of the death of Dr. King to draw attention to trade unionism in America, particularly in light of the recent battles over collective bargaining going on in Wisconsin and Ohio between those states Governors and unionized public employees.

The UFCW and its various union locals in California deployed hundreds of activists and supporters to the 25 Fresh & Easy markets - 24 stores in Southern California and one grocery market in Northern California - yesterday afternoon, holding rallies in front of each of the stores. The pro-union activists held signs, passed out informational leaflets to shoppers and rallied the troops with speeches given by union officials local elected officials and pro-union Fresh & Easy store workers

One of the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market store workers who participated in a rally was Lisa Austin, an employee of the Fresh & Easy store at 1000 W. West Covina Parkway in West Covina, California, and one of the leaders of a company-wide group of employees organizing for union representation at the grocery chain. Austin (pictured above) spoke to a crowd outside the West Covina store yesterday about the employee group's efforts to seek union representation at Fresh & Easy. (Behind Lisa Austin is Connie Leyva, president of UFCW local 1428 in Southern California. Leyva also spoke at the store event.)

Another Fresh & Easy store worker, Carlos Juarez, who works at the Fresh & Easy grocery market in Los Angeles' Glassell Park/Eagle Rock neighborhood and is another leader of the pro-union employee group, said at the rally in front of the store where he works: "We stood together for a voice on the job, and Fresh & Easy said 'No', and judges in two states and the National Labor Relations Board (NRLB) have found that Fresh & Easy broke the law by illegally surveilling, threatening and interrogating workers like me who want to form a union."

What Juarez is referring to in the latter part of his statement above is a recent ruling by the NLRB's board on two labor relations cases filed against Tesco's Fresh & Easy last year by store employees and the UFCW. In the cases, Administrative Law Judges ruled in favor of the employees and the union and against Fresh & Easy on the majority of charges or findings brought against the grocery chain.

We reported on the ruling by the two judges in favor of the employees and the union in these two stories last year - March 4, 2010: Administrative Law Judge Finds Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Violated Labor Relations Act in Ex-Store Employee, UFCW Union Complaint>June 20, 2010: NLRB Judge Rules Against Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in Spring Valley CA Store Labor Law Violation Case.

In the Spring Valley/San Diego store case (June 20, 2010 story linked above) the NLRB's board found on January 31, 2011 that Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market "violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by promulgating and maintaining rules prohibiting employees from talking about the union and discipline, but not other subjects, while working and by implicitly inviting employees to resign because of their protected concerted activities. The finding upheld the thrust of the decision made on June 3, 2010 by Administrative Law Judge William G. Kocol. You can view the board's January 31, 2011 decision here: (21‑CA‑38882, et al.; 356 NLRB No. 90).

Also on January 31 of this year the NLRB's board adopted the Administrative Law Judge's finding in the Las Vegas case (details in the March 4, 2010 story linked above) that the respondent (Fresh & Easy) "violated the NLRA by maintaining an over-broad no-distribution rule, interrogating employees and creating an impression of surveillance.

The NLRB's board also adopted the dismissal of allegations that two discharges violated the NLRA, finding that the respondent (Fresh & Easy) showed that the two employees would have been discharged for lawful reasons even if they had not engaged in protected activity. This was a ruling the judge made in favor of Fresh & Easy. The board upheld the finding.

The Board did not adopt the judge’s finding that the respondent cured its unlawful, company-wide no-distribution rule in September 2009, and therefore found that corporate-wide remedial notice-posting is necessary with respect to that violation. The judge ruled in favor of Fresh & Easy on this charge. However the NLRB's board overruled the judge in favor of the employee and the UFCW. You can view the board's January 31, 2011 decision here: (28-CA-22520, et al.; 356 NLRB No. 85).

The "voice on the job" that Juarez refers to in the first part of his statement has to do with a group of employees at the Eagle Rock/Glassell Park store who've been attempting so far without success to have a meeting with Fresh & Easy's senior human resources executive and/or CEO Tim Mason to discuss the employees' desire to be represented by the UFCW union, as we reported in a series of stories here in Fresh & Easy Buzz.

Tesco and Fresh & Easy's long-stated position is that if employees want to join the union they should call for an election as is stipulated by the National Labor Relations Act. None of the employees at any of the Fresh & Easy stores, in cooperation with the UFCW, has done so to date.

The Glassell Park employees, who at one time said they had a majority of store workers in favor of joining the union, recently said they have no current plans to call for an election at the store.

Juarez was joined by fellow Glassell Park Fresh & Easy store worker Michael Acuna, who's also a leader of the pro-union employee group, and Rabbi Jonathan Klein, who's with Southern California's Clergy & Laity United for Economic Justice group. Rabbi Klein and Acuna also spoke at the rally outside the store. [The three men are pictured in the photograph above. Left-to-right: Rabbi Klein (in suit), Michael Acuna (in the Fresh & Easy shirt) and Carlos Juarez (far right, black shirt).

Explaining why he was attending the event, Rabbi Klein said: "We want Fresh & Easy to know we don’t care how big you are or how much money you have. In our state, in our country, in our community we respect the rights of workers to organize and we stand with Fresh & Easy workers who want a real voice on the job."

Yesterday's pro-union events at the 24 Fresh & Easy stores in Southern California and the Walnut Creek unit in the San Francisco Bay Area (see the list of the 25 stores at the end of this piece) is the largest single day of store-level activity the UFCW has organized at Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market since the first stores were opened in November 2007, based on our coverage of the chain, which began in late 2007.

Late last year we correctly said the UFCW would be intensifying its campaign targeting Fresh & Easy beginning in early 2011, after moderating it considerably in the last half of 2010.

The union has done just that, launching its "Fix Fresh & Easy" public relations and advertising campaign in the beginning of 2011 and expanding it over the last few months, as we've report on here, along with conducting other types of actions targeting Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, which is owned by United Kingdom-based Tesco, the third-largest food and grocery retailer in the world and the UK's market share leader, accounting for a whopping 30% of all food and grocery sales in the nation. Tesco's stores in the UK are unionized.

Additionally, yesterday's rallies at the 25 Fresh & Easy stores marks the beginning of more intense campaigning, organizing and events to come throughout the spring and into the summer, including in Northern California where the grocer has so far this year opened seven stores.

For example, as we reported on March 25 in this story - UFCW Union Local Sets Up Picket Line at Just-Opened Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store in Modesto, California - Northern California local UFCW 8-Golden State has set up an informational picket line at the Fresh & Easy market in Modesto, California which opened on March 23.

Further, another Northern California local, Local 5, is conducting random informational leafleting at a few of the five Northern California Fresh & Easy stores the grocer has opened thus far this year in the San Francisco Bay Area, such as the store in Pacifica. [See - March 9, 2011: Northern California Launch: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Opens Store in Pacifica Today.]

The increased activity by the UFCW and the group of pro-unionization Fresh & Easy store-level workers come at about the same time United Kingdom-based Tesco is preparing to report its fiscal year 2010/11 financials, including how much the global retailer lost in the fiscal year at its Fresh & Easy USA chain of 171 stores.

We say loss because Tesco has already said it estimates reporting a loss for Fresh & Easy in the $250-$259 million range for the fiscal year, roughly the same amount it lost in the previously 2009/10 fiscal year, despite having a considerable increase in sales, mostly from new stores opened, for the 2010/11 year, which ended in February.

Tesco has a new CEO, former head of European /Asia operations and information technology chief Philip Clarke, who replaced Terry Leahy, who retired last month. Fresh & Easy's CEO Tim Mason, who was also named Tesco group deputy CEO to Clarke in March, is under the gun to get the money-losing U.S. chain to break-even by the end of Tesco's 2012/13 fiscal year, which is about two years away. Based on Fresh & Easy's current performance and strategy, doing so is going to be a tough slog for Clarke, Mason and company.

The increased efforts by the union to organize store-level workers at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market won't make achieving that goal any easier for Tesco, although the El Segundo, California-based grocer's problems go far beyond a union organizing effort by a group of employees and the UFCW.

The UFCW rally outside the Fresh & Easy store at 1631 Highland Avenue in San Bernardino, California drew a large crowd of activits and supporters for union organizing at Tesco's Fresh & Easy.

The union issue is compounded by the fact that the current contract between the UFCW locals in Southern California and the regions unionized grocery chains, which include the four market share-leading grocer's in Southern California - Kroger's Ralphs, Safeway's Vons, Albertsons and Stater Bros - has expired.

The chains and their respective unionized workers are working on a day-to-day basis under the old contract. Either party has the right to terminate the day-to-day arrangement by giving the other party 72-hours notice.

As of today, no progress has been made in negotiations between the UFCW and Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons, which is owned by Supervalu, Inc. Stater Bros. is negotiating with the union separately, as is local chain Gelsons.

In fact, the three chains only submitted their first proposal to the UFCW on March 29. The Southern California union locals have essentially pronounced the proposal, which includes various "givebacks" involving premium-type (holidays, Sundays, ect.) wages and benefits, dead on arrival. Already some of the unions are telling employees that a strike vote may have to be made if progress isn't made in the next couple weeks, for example.

The UFCW is under pressure as part of the contract talks because the unionized chains say they are losing market share to non-union chains like Walmart, Target, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods Market, Sprouts Farmers Market and Fresh & Easy, which is true. As a result, expect to see intensified organizing by the UFCW not only vis-a-vis Tesco's Fresh & Easy but also involving a couple of the other chains noted above.

One of the more aggressive UFCW union local presidents in Southern California is Connie Leyva (pictured above in front of the West Covina Fresh & Easy store and behind store employee Lisa Austin in the earlier photo), who's also the president of the California Labor Federation, the highly politically connected umbrella organization for organized labor in the Golden State.

Governor Jerry Brown is counting on the Federation's support for his budget balancing plan and on other issues, for example.

Additionally, organized labor is also a crucial supporter of Democrats in California, which hold a majority in both the State Assembly and State Senate. Assembly Speaker John Perez is a former official with the UFCW union.

Leyva attended the rally at the West Covina store yesterday and had strong words for Tesco and Fresh & Easy's senior management, saying: "When Dr. King passed away, he was standing up for striking workers in Memphis. We honor his memory today by standing with organizing workers at Fresh & Easy and saying our communities support and honor the right to organize."

For the UFCW union and the pro-union Fresh & Easy store employees however, the bottom line is that until they can hold an win an election at one of the grocer's 171 stores, the probability of becoming unionized is as close to zero as can be had. Tesco has no interest in talking with the UFCW about becoming a union shop, evidenced not only by our source information but by the fact the union has been asking its and Fresh & Easy's senior executives to do so for four years.

We don't see such an election happening at any Fresh & Easy store this year. Therefore the employees' and union's thrust will continue to be through public relations, advertising, picketing and events like the action held yesterday at the 25 stores in California. In other words, don't look for a resolution to the Fresh & Easy-union issue anytime soon.

Union activists and supporters rally outside of the Fresh & Easy store in Spring Valley/San Diego yesterday.

Below are the locations of the 25 Fresh & Easy stores where the rallies took place yesterday:

Alhambra - 2121 W. Main St.
Buena Park - 7880 Valley View St.
Burbank - 1615 W. Verdugo Ave.
Compton - 2175 W. Rosecrans Ave.
Glassell Park/Eagle Rock - 4211 Eagle Rock Blvd.
Fullerton - 1207 S Euclid
Harbor City - 26640 Western Ave, Suite E
Hollywood - 7021 Hollywood Blvd.
Lakewood - 4930 Paramount Blvd.
Lakewood - 5615 Woodruff Ave.
Manhattan Beach - 1700 Rosecrans Ave.
Northridge - 19350 Nordoff St.
Orange - 1803 E Chapman
Paramount - 15727 Downey Ave.
Pico Rivera - 8921 Washington Blvd.
Rancho Cucamonga - 8956 Foothill Blvd.
Rancho Cucamonga - 12188 Foothill Blvd.
Rancho Cucamonga - 829 W Foothill, Upland
Rialto - 2015 N Riverside Ave
San Bernardino - 1631 E Highland Ave
Spring Valley/San Diego - 96655 Campo Rd.
Van Nuys - 15230 Vanowen St.
Vista - 945 E Vista Pkwy
Walnut Creek - 1821 Ygnacio Valley Rd.
West Covina - 1000 W. West Covina Pkwy

Related Stories

[Readers: See our extensive coverage and analysis of the union issue at Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market at (click on) the following links: Fix Fresh and Easy, Fresh and Easy Eagle Rock Blvd. store in Los Angeles, Glassell Park Fresh and Easy, UFCW, UFCW Tesco Fresh and Easy Campaign, UFCW union, union and labor issues.]

Three New Fresh & Easy Stores Opening This Month; First Opening March 10 in Palm Springs, California

Tesco is preparing to open the first of the three new Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores it has slated for grand openings in March.

Below are the three Fresh & Easy fresh food and grocery markets set to open this month:

Sunrise & Tahquitz: Palm Springs, California

On Wednesday, March 10, a new Fresh & Easy store will open in Palm Springs, California, which is located in Riverside County in Southern California's desert region. The new store is at 102 South Sunrise Way in Palm Springs.

Tesco's 850,000 square-foot Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market distribution center is also located in Riverside County.

The Sunrise & Tahquitz location will be the first Fresh & Easy store in Palm Springs (there's a Fresh & Easy market in Palm Desert, which is right next door), a city that was once the second home capital for many of Hollywood's biggest stars, and still remains a major second-home residence and tourist destination for the famous, infamous and not so famous - along with being a major retirement community.

Over the last decade Palm Springs has grown its permanent resident population considerably. The town's population is currently about 50,000, according to 2009 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.

However, that number is a bit deceiving because thousands of people have vacation homes in the city, where they spend a considerable amount of time. For example, right now is the "high season" in Palm Springs (January -to- early April), a time in which these temporary residents spend as much time as they can because of the generally warm and sunny weather.

Additionally, thousands more visit the city on a regular basis, including numerous groups that hold their conventions and other gatherings regularly in Palm Springs.

As a result, the population base from which grocers and other businesses have to draw from in Palm Springs is much greater than its 50,000 permanent residents.

Over two years ago, in February 2008, Fresh & Easy Buzz suggested to Tesco's Fresh & Easy in this piece [February 14, 2008: Is Tesco's Fresh & Easy Playing the Fiddle While Palm Springs' 'Burns' for A Trader Joe's?] that it should locate a store in Palm Springs, something that wasn't on the grocer's new store radar screen at that time. Also see - [March 26, 2008: Mid-Week Tesco Fresh & Easy Roundup. Scroll down to the heading: "Note to Fresh & Easy."]

In the summer of 2008 Tesco's Fresh & Easy acquired the Palm Springs location for the store that's opening on Wednesday, March 10.

The store was set to open much sooner than it is. However, it was one of the many new Fresh & Easy stores the grocer postponed opening last year.

Ann & Centennial Center: Las Vegas, Nevada

A week later, on March 17, Tesco will open a new Fresh & Easy store in Las Vegas, Nevada, at 5639 Centennial Center Boulevard.

The Ann & Centennial store will be the first new Fresh & Easy market the grocer has opened this year in Southern Nevada.

All of Tesco's Fresh & Easy stores in Nevada are located in the Metropolitan Las Vegas region of Southern Nevada.

Calimesa & Myrtlewood: Calimesa, California

On March 24, Fresh & Easy will open a new store - and its third new unit for the month - in Calimesa, California, which, like Palm Springs, is in Riverside County in Southern California's Inland Empire region.

The Calimesa Fresh & Easy market, which will be the first unit in the city, is at 1126 Calimesa Boulevard.

Calimesa, which is right next door to the city of Yucaipa, is a young city, having been incorporated only in 1990.

It's also a small town population-wise, with only about 8,000 residents, according to 2009 census bureau data. However, there are thousands more residents who live in next-door Yucaipa and the surrounding area.

First quarter 2010 new store opening sprint

Tesco opened nine Fresh & Easy stores last month, and five new units in January. With the three new Fresh & Easy markets set to open this month, that will being the total number of new store openings for the first quarter - January -through- March - of 2010 to 17 stores. [Related story: Wednesday, January 27, 2010: February New Store Opening 'Big Bang' For Tesco's Fresh & Easy; Nine New Stores So Far.]

There are currently 145 Fresh & Easy fresh food and grocery stores in California (Southern California and the Bakersfield and Fresno regions in the Central Valley); Southern Nevada; and Metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona. At the end of this month the total store count will be 148.

'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'

News & Analysis: Fresh & Easy's Deep-Discount Store Coupons

On May 1, 2009 Fresh & Easy Buzz reported that after taking a break from regularly distributing its $5-off (purchases of $20 or more) and $6-off (purchases of $30 or more) deep-discount store coupons for most of February, March and part of April (2009), Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market direct-mailed a $6-off store coupon good for nearly one month to consumers in neighborhoods surrounding its 120 Fresh & Easy grocery and fresh foods stores in California (Southern and Bakersfield), southern Nevada and Metropolitan Phoenix Arizona.

[Read our May 1, 2009 story here: Fresh & Easy Brings Back $6-Off Deep-Discount Store Coupon; Latest Version Good For Nearly One Month; New Promo Strategy Didn't Last Long.]

Tesco's Fresh & Easy has now followed-up on that household direct-mailed store coupon drop by offering one of the $6-off purchases of $30 or more store coupons on its freshandeasy.com Web site. The online coupon is here. The store coupon was posted yesterday on the Web site.

The $6-off online deep-discount coupon is good until May 10. As mentioned, the $6-off store coupon in the flier distributed on April 28 is good until May 25, 2009.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy also is promoting the online coupon's availability using its Twitter.com feed. For example, below are two promotional "Tweets" informing its fresh_and_easy Twitter followers of the coupon's posting on the Web site:

>This promotional "Tweet" is from yesterday, Wednesday, May 6:
Dont forget your coupons this week! http://tinyurl.com/dhb3snabout 23 hours ago from Netvibes.

>And this one is from earlier today:
@DollhouseCSMTCS did you get the latest coupon in the email? http://tinyurl.com/dhb3snabout 7 hours ago from Netvibes in reply to DollhouseCSMTCS.

Based on the fact Tesco's Fresh & Easy distributed a paper version $6-off store coupon on April 28 via direct-mail, which is good for nearly a month until May 25, along with it's now promoting of the online $6-off purchases of $30 or more store coupon good until May 10, it appears the grocer is back in the store coupon game in full force.

Store coupons and everyday merchandising

As we previously reported, Fresh & Easy was trying to wean itself off of the regular use of the deep-discount store coupons, the use of which for many shoppers has become a regular part of their Fresh & Easy grocery shopping behavior.

For all or most of February, March and April the grocer didn't distribute any of the deep-discount store coupons via direct snail mail, which is a practice Tesco's Fresh & Easy has done regularly since the first stores opened in November, 2007.

Instead, the grocery chain issued just a few online coupons good for no more than three days -to- one week in duration. We are aware of no more than three online store coupons being distributed from February -to- early April 2009.

Fresh & Easy's marketing people also told consumers requesting the discount store coupons on its company Blog and Twitter feed that it was no longer regularly distributing the coupons as it had been in the past, saying on more than one occasion that it was now something the grocer would do infrequently, if at all.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy also changed its advertising flier, which it posts as an online version on its Web site and direct-mails (paper version) to residential households, from a once-every-three-week promotional vehicle to a weekly flier on March 4. As part of that change the grocer has offered hotter promotional prices in its now weekly advertising flier since March 4, compared to the promotional offerings prior to that.

This strategy -- going to a weekly advertising flier (which is something Fresh & Easy Buzz suggested over a year ago, by the way) and offering deeper-discount promotional price-points on the advertised items in the flier, clearly was an attempt by Tesco's Fresh & Easy to change its strategy from the chronic use of the deep-discount store coupons and instead put the focus on the weekly advertising flier and hotter-priced promoted items in the flier. [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.]

The overall promotional merchandising strategy in doing this being to go from offering an across the board discount (a certain percent off whatever is purchased) -- the store coupons -- to a more item-based promotional scheme, similar to what nearly all of its competitors do.

But with the distribution of the $6-off paper store coupon good for nearly one month, along with the now online $6-off coupon, it appears that strategy isn't producing sufficient sales for Fresh & Easy. Why else go back to the discount coupons, including issuing one good for nearly a month, which is seldom if ever done in the retail grocery business.

On the rare occasions when grocers do issue such coupons, they almost always are good for three or four days only. (Duration is a key element in "promotion.") This is the case because the purpose of such coupons is to (1) stimulate sales over a short period of time and (2) to serve as a promotional vehicle to bring new customers into grocers' stores.

Whenever a food retailer issues such a coupon for such a long period of time -- three weeks, four weeks -- it generally means that grocer has a strong need to create sales and therefore decided to do so using the short-term device of a deep-discount store coupon. The use of deep-discount store coupons are considered a "quick fix" promotion (read need sales) in the retail food and grocery industry.

It's important to note that such coupons aren't really marketing vehicles, as their complete focus is on price.

Consumer perception and pricing realities

Additionally, when such coupons are used regularly by a grocer, and have long expiration dates on them, that grocer creates a perception among shoppers that the coupons are a part of the retailer's overall merchandising practice; that without the coupons perhaps that grocer's everyday prices are just too high. Consumers' perceptions are reality, even if incorrect.

It's our analysis, as we written about before in Fresh & Easy Buzz, that Tesco's Fresh & Easy has done just that with its regular use of the deep-discount store coupons: It's created a perception among a significant segment of its shoppers that the coupons are needed in order to gain value in the form of good prices at the stores.

The reality is that when there are no Fresh & Easy deep-discount store coupons, sales go down and shoppers complain to the retailer about the lack of coupons.

This is a self-inflicted problem for Fresh & Easy. The grocer created the perception and thus problem by its chronic distribution of the store coupons.

Evidence of this shopper perception is that from February -to- early April numerous customers complained to Fresh & Easy via its company Blog and on Twitter.com about the lack of the coupons. The record is there.

Shoppers also complained about it on other Blogs such as the one written by Orange County Register reporter Nancy Luna. Her popular Blog is called the "Fast Food Maven." In fact, even Ms. Luna complained to Fresh & Easy about the lack of the store coupons during that period, perhaps offering a voice for her readership in Southern California's Orange County. [Have a read here, for example.]

Tesco's Fresh & Easy responded to these numerous shopper complaints by offering online coupons good for a few days at a time a few times in February and March. It's clear by following the Blog and Twitter trail that doing so was a response to the coupon-less shoppers' complaints.

It's our analysis that with its latest round of $6-off store coupons, Tesco's Fresh & Easy will find itself in a bind -- well an even tighter bind than it already is in regarding the store coupon issue. The previously unhappy store coupon-hungry shoppers are now being satisfied with a new round of $6-off coupons. But that will only make the customers hungry for more when these expire.

Seeing that Fresh & Easy has issued this new coupon round, including the $6-off store coupon good for nearly one month, shoppers are likely to think that once again the deep-discount store coupons are back as a regular feature at Fresh & Easy. And perhaps they are?

But if they aren't back as a regular feature at the grocery and fresh foods chain, it isn't going to take long, perhaps a month without any of the coupons, for that shopper-base to once again voice its complaints via the Blogs and on Twitter. One Fresh & Easy Buzz reader e-mailed us about the lack of the store coupons in February, calling them "Coupon Crack," for example. He wanted them now.

No-frills, low price model: Why deep-discount coupons?

If a shopper buys the $30 minimum purchase using the $6-off store coupon, that's a 20 percent discount off the regular price of the items that comprise grocery order. That 20% comes out of Tesco Fresh & Easy's margins.

In the penny-profit food retailing business a grocer can only do a couple things if it's regularly giving shoppers 10% -to- 20% off of their store purchases: It can raise the everyday prices in its stores to make up the difference, it can figure out a way to cut costs to achieve that percent difference, or it can do some combination of the two. In reality doing so is impossible.

{We did notice in Fresh & Easy's weekly ad flier that ended yesterday that the grocer was promoting a number of items at higher prices than it has recently, prior to issuing the store coupons. An example is the Buxted store brand Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts, which in the just-ended ad flier were priced 20-cents per pound higher (still a decent promotional price at $1.97 pound though) than they were in two or three previous fliers, when they ran the chicken breasts at $1.77 pound. Perhaps this is because of the discounts represented by the deep-discount store coupons? The April 28 $6-off coupon was distributed that same week.}

The entire deep-discount store coupon fixation situation is particularly odd for Tesco's Fresh & Easy because its positioning with the small-format grocery and fresh foods markets is as a convenient, no frills, everyday low-price-focused neighborhood grocery market. That's the model.

Tesco has touted that Fresh & Easy's prices are about 15% lower everyday than those at supermarkets operated by its competitors in California, Nevada and Arizona. Does that mean with the $6-off coupon the prices are now 35% cheaper than the competitions, assuming a shopper buys the $30 coupon purchase minimum?

You see the problem. Why does a food and grocery retailing model or format (Tesco's Fresh & Easy) that is no frills, low price need (or want to) to regularly distribute deep-discount store coupons to get sales? Hint: It's not because of the recession.

Fresh & Easy does have good everyday prices in its stores. It's competitive on price with its retail competitors across the board. But it has gotten itself into a position where it must regularly distribute deep-discount store coupons worth up to 20%-off a total grocery order purchase in order to get sales.

That's a problem. And the root of the problem has to do with the Fresh & Easy format itself, the retailer's operations practices, and its merchandising and marketing, more so than it does with the current economic recession, in our analysis. [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. March 2, 2009: Fresh & Easy Buzz Redux: Much of the Value Proposition-Based Analysis and Suggestions We've Been Offering Now Being Adopted By Tesco's Fresh & Easy.]

Bringing back the $6-off store coupons with such a long expiration date -- from April 28 -to- May 25 -- plus adding an online version good until May 10 -- suggests to us that the deep-discount store coupon isn't going away anytime soon at Tesco's Fresh & Easy.

Fresh & Easy shoppers are delighted, and they should be, it's their job to get the best deals they can on groceries in these difficult economic times. They need not and should not concern themselves with retailer margins, sales and the like. That's not in the grocery shoppers' manifesto.

But we find it hard to believe that the senior management at Tesco isn't aware of the bind it has gotten itself into with the chronic use of the deep-discount store coupons.

No other grocery chain uses them anywhere near as frequently as Fresh & Easy has and does. In fact, most grocers don't use the coupons at all, for the reasons described above. They are margin killers and should only be used as short term promotional tools. And of course they create dangerous consumer price perceptions when used chronically like Tesco's Fresh & Easy has.

Perhaps Tesco hopes that once it gets its Fresh & Easy stores closer their sales targets (about $200,000 per store per week in average sales), if it does, that it can then just stop distributing the deep-discount store coupons completely.

That could happen. But only if the retailer comes up with a solid, comprehensive merchandising, marketing and promotional plan that positions the stores in a way that shoppers want to shop at them even without the regular availability of the $5-off and $6-off store coupons.

Since average sales per store are nowhere near that $200,000 per store per week target at present with the regular deep-discount store coupon distribution, Tesco's Fresh & Easy has a long road to travel in order to eliminate the use of the coupons, something it said in February of this year it was essentially doing.

But the store coupons are back -- and in full force -- online and via direct mail.

And it's our analysis that although the retailer will likely try to hold back on distributing the $5-off and $6-off deep-discount store coupons for as long as it can after the current $6-off coupon expires on May 25, it won't do so for very long.

And the funny thing is that by issuing a store coupon like that for so long of a shelf life, nearly a month, it's actual power as a promotional vehicle is greatly reduced. As we said earlier, duration (or time) is a key element in any promotion, including store coupons.

The idea behind using such coupons is to give shoppers a limited amount of time -- three days, four days, a week tops -- to use the coupons so that they will rush to a grocer's stores and save money. If you snooze... you lose.

In contrast, a nearly four week expiration date, like is the case with the $6-off Fresh & Easy store coupon that runs until May 25, allows for plenty of shopper snoozing before using. And the coupon's long duration builds an expectation on the part of shoppers that the coupons are a normal part of a retailer's merchandising practice. Why issue a coupon for almost a month if its is something special?

Coupons going to be tough for Tesco to 'Terminate'

Since Tesco's Fresh & Easy wants to eliminate the store coupons, and attempted to earlier this year, it's clear its desire isn't to have them as a part of the its normal course of doing business, despite distributing them in a way that says the opposite. Maybe the coupons are "Fresh & Easy senior management crack," as well as shopper "coupon crack," as our e-mailer referred to the $6-off store coupons?

It will be interesting to observe what happens after the latest deep-discount store coupon expires on May 25.

We're rather certain of this though: To paraphrase current Governor of California and former Hollywood movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger's famous catch phrase -- "I'll Be Back" -- from the movie "The Terminator" -- after May 25 the Fresh & Easy deep-discount store coupons "Will Be Back."

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