Over the last week or so Fresh & Easy Buzz has received numerous e-mails from readers regarding Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's delaying of its launch into the Northern California region.
A number of the e-mails -- we've received them from readers from San Jose, Pacifica, Fairfield, Vallejo, Sacramento, Modesto and a couple of other Northern California cities -- mentioned the completed and at present sitting empty Fresh & Easy stores in their cities or nearby. Yes, there are a number of such stores in the region.
We've answered each one of these e-mails individually. But we thought we would also publish an updated version of our most recent piece in which we detail all of the Tesco Fresh & Easy stores planned for Northern California that we've discovered in our reporting thus far, in addition to the 37 Northern California Fresh & Easy markets Tesco has thus far confirmed for the market region.
Tesco has to date confirmed or announced 37 Fresh & Easy store locations for Northern California -- 19 in the Sacramento-Vacaville region and 18 in the San Francisco Bay Area. It did so in January 2008, well over a year ago.
Fresh & Easy Buzz has thus far discovered an additional 14 planned Northern California Fresh & Easy store locations.
That brings the total we are aware of (that we can confirm using our confirmation process) to 51 planned Fresh & Easy store locations thus far for Northern California.
Tesco first started acquiring sites in Northern California for its Fresh & Easy markets in late 2007.
The retailer has yet to open any of its small-format (10,000 -to- 13,000 square-foot), convenience-oriented, combination grocery and fresh foods markets in Northern California.
As we were one of the first publications to report, Tesco has postponed its Northern California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market launch indefinitely.
The retailer has sited the recession as its primary reason for doing so. (More on that in an upcoming story.)
Below is an updated piece in which we detail the 37 confirmed, along with the 14 we've reported on, planned Fresh & Easy stores for Northern California. Just click on the green link for updated store information and data.
Stay tuned for new reporting and analysis in Fresh & Easy Buzz on Tesco's Fresh & Easy and Northern California.
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It is one reason why Fresh & Easy should re-position its strategy and consider expanding in the Texas market due to recession elsewhere. The unemployment rate for Texas is somewhere between 6 and 7 percent (via bizjournals.com website), while California is in the double digits.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, there are many pad sites (commercial real estate) readily available in all, if not, most metro areas, especially, DFW, Austin, and Houston. For instance, Aldi (similar store size at 15-20K), already building a distribution center in Denton, had signed, I believe, over 25 leases across DFW market. They will be open to public, sometimes in early 2010.
-D