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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reader Resources

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

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

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