Six Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores in Southern California Being Readied For Openings

Tesco's Fresh & Easy in Southern California: New Stores

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is queuing up two more stores in Southern California for openings later this year, Fresh & Easy Buzz has learned.

The two new stores, at Nohl Ranch Road and Anaheim Hills Road in Orange County's Anaheim Hills and 18th Street and La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles, are in addition to the four new units we reported on July 5 [Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Preparing For A Spate of New Store Openings Beginning in August] the grocer is already preparing to open in the region.

The four stores are:

>Anaheim - Euclid and Broadway

>Long Beach - Long Beach Boulevard and 5th Street

>Long Beach - Atlantic Avenue and 33rd Street

>Los Angeles - Coldwater Canyon Avenue and Sherman

On July 13 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market confirmed its plans to open the two stores in Long Beach listed above, along with a unit in Hayward in Northern California, soon, saying in a press release it started hiring employees for the three stores. [See our story here - July 13, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Press Release Confirms Our Recent Report On New Stores.]

None of the six Fresh & Easy stores are set to open this month, although based on the information we currently have we expect one or more of the units to be opened in September. To date the grocer has not announced any new store openings for September.

The store at Nohl Ranch Road and Anaheim Hills Road in Anaheim Hills, California is located in the Anaheim Hills Plaza shopping center, which was renovated and expanded in 2008 by its then owner Hanley Investment Group. Hanley Investment Group sold the 71,720-square-foot neighborhood shopping center to Lin Investments in August 2009. The center's current retail anchor is a CVS pharmacy drug store.

The new store at 18th Street and La Cienega Boulevard is in what's often referred to a the mid-city area of Los Angeles. The store is one of a number of units Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has planned for Los Angeles County.

For example, on Saturday we reported here that what most likely is going to be the first smaller format (4,000 square-foot) Fresh & Easy "Express" store to open will be located in Los Angeles' San Pedro community. (Also, click here to read about additional Fresh & Easy stores currently in development in Los Angeles.)

The addition of the 18th and La Cienega unit in Los Angeles and the Anaheim Hills location makes for six new stores - the four units we reported on July 5 and the two new units -  in Southern California Tesco's Fresh & Easy is preparing to open this year, based on our reporting to date.

Tesco has opened 22 Fresh & Easy stores so far this year, all in California. Twelve of the new stores are in Northern California and 10 units are in Southern California.

Earlier this year Tesco said it would open 50 new Fresh & Easy stores in 2011. One store is set to open in August. That store is at 3rd Street and Carroll Avenue in San Francisco's Bayview District. It opens August 28.

Along with the six new Fresh & Easy stores in Southern California, we've identified through our reporting four stores (in addition to the unit in San Francisco opening August 28) in the north being prepared for openings soon.

Those stores are in Hayward, Farfield, Antioch and Sunnyvale. [See - March 15, 2011: San Francisco, Antioch and Fairfield Stores Next Up in Northern California For Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market; and May 15, 2011: Breaking Buzz: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Plans to Open Second Store in Hayward, California August 10.]

The Hayward unit at A Street and Hesperian Boulevard in Hayward isn't going to open on August 10, as we noted might be the case in the May 15 story at the above link. Based on the current information we have, we're expecting a September 2011 opening for the store, which will be the second Fresh & Easy market in the city.

The five stores in Northern California and the six in the south bring to 11 the number of Fresh & Easy units in the pipeline for opening this year, based on our reporting so far. When opened those 11 stores will bring the total to date for the year to 33 units.

Tesco currently has 101 of its 176 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores in Southern California.

In total there are 127 Fresh  Easy units in California. Along wth the Southern California stores, the retailer has 14 units (seven in each region) in the Bakersfield and Fresno metro areas in the Central Valley and 12 stores in Northern California.

There are 28 Fresh & Easy stores in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona and 21 units in metro Las Vegas, Nevada.

The six Fresh & Easy stores next up in Southern California

>Anaheim - Euclid and Broadway
>Anaheim Hills - Nohl Ranch Road and Anaheim Hills
>Long Beach - Long Beach Boulevard and 5th Street

>Long Beach - Atlantic Avenue and 33rd Street

>Los Angeles - Coldwater Canyon Avenue and Sherman

>Los Angeles - 18th Street and La Cienega

Related Stories

July 30, 2011: First 4,000 Sq. Ft. Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market 'Express' Store Set to Open in Los Angeles' San Pedro Community This Year

July 13, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Press Release Confirms Our Recent Report On New Stores

July 12, 2011: Tesco in America: A Few Things Tesco Deputy CEO-Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Tim Mason Might (and Probably Should) Say in His Speech at Town Hall Los Angeles Today

July 9, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market (Selectively) Bullish on Commercial Real Estate In California

July 5, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Preparing For A Spate of New Store Openings Beginning in August

May 18, 2011: Major Changes Coming to Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores

February 23, 2011:Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Hits - and Passes - 100-Store Milestone in Southern California Today

November 4, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Confirms Our October Reports On 10 New Stores Opening in Early 2011

October 25, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Open 10 New Stores in 10 Southern California Cities in January-February 2011

Also, see the following links - Fresh and Easy Southern California and Southern California Market Region Report - for additional related stories.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Hits - and Passes - 100-Store Milestone in Southern California Today

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market will open two new stores in Southern California this morning at 10 a.m., taking the fresh food and grocery chain to - and then over - the 100-store milestone in the Golden State's southland region.

The two new stores - at 655 East Bonita Avenue, in San Dimas, and 2249 Los Posas, in Camarillo - will mark the 100th and 101rst Fresh & Easy markets opened and operating for Tesco in Southern California.

After the stores open later this morning, Tesco will have 164 Fresh & Easy small-format fresh food and grocery stores operating in California, Nevada and Arizona.

The majority of the 164 Fresh & Easy stores, 115 units, are in California - the 101 stores in Southern California and seven stores each respectively in the Bakersfield and Fresno metro regions in the Central Valley - followed by 28 units in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona, and 21 units in metro Las Vegas, Nevada.

Tesco opened its first Fresh & Easy stores in Southern California in November 2007, although the units in Hemet had a soft opening in October 2007.

On March 2, the grocer plans to open its first two stores in Northern California, something Tesco originally planned to begin doing in early 2009, but instead has postponed until next month because of the less than stellar performance of its Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market chain to date. Tesco has lost over half a billion dollars on its operations of Fresh & Easy, and that doesn't include start up costs, since the first stores opened in November 2007.

But its 2011 and Tesco's Fresh & Easy is putting nearly all of its new store opening focus for the year in California. After tomorrow's openings, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market will have thus far opened nine new stores this year, all in Southern California. A tenth new store in the region, at Atlantic Avenue and 33rd Street in Long Beach, is set to open on March 30.

Additionally, as we've previously reported, Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has 11 stores scheduled to open in March-April in Northern California, beginning with a store in San Jose and another unit in Danville, on March 2, 2011.

Related Stories

February 16, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Celebrates Three-Store Opening Trifecta Today in Southern California.

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

February 10, 2011: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Breaks Ground Today For Second Store in South Los Angeles

February 9, 2011: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Opens Three New Stores in Southern California Today

January 23, 2011: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Looking For Locations For New, Smaller-Format 4,000-to-5,000 Square-Foot Stores

January 14, 2011: Tesco 'Banking' on California in 2011 For Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA

January 17, 2011: First Look at the Willow Glen-San Jose Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store Set to Open March 2, 2011

December 10, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Tim Mason Says 70 New Stores Possible in Los Angeles Area

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Celebrates Three-Store Opening Trifecta Today in Southern California

Southern California Market Region

Fresh on the heels of opening three new stores in Southern California last Wednesday [February 9, 2011: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Opens Three New Stores in Southern California Today], Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market did it again today, opening three more new stores in the region, for a second- in-two-week's new-store-opening-trifecta.

The three Fresh & Easy markets opened today in Southern California are at the following locations:

• 1640 Oceanside Boulevard/Oceanside Boulevard & Vine Street, Oceanside
• 2260 East Thompson Boulevard/Alameda Street & Florence Avenue, Walnut Park
• 7600 South Alameda Street/Seaward Avenue & Thompson Boulevard, Ventura

Today's grand openings take El Segundo, California-based Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market over the 160 unit mark, giving the grocer, which is owned by United Kingdom-based Tesco, 162 small-format, Fresh & Easy fresh food and grocery stores in California, Nevada and Arizona.

The three new stores opened today in Southern California make for 113 Fresh & Easy markets in the Golden State - 99 units in Southern California and seven stores each respectively in the Bakersfield and Fresno metro regions in the Central Valley.

Twenty eight of the 162 Fresh & Easy stores are in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona; with 21 units open and operating in Nevada's metro Las Vegas region.

Southern California: More February openings

Tesco's Fresh & Easy plans to open two more stores this month in Southern California, on February 23.

The two stores, at Arneill Road and Las Posas Road, in Camarillo, and Bonita Avenue and San Dimas Canyon Road, San Dimas, were originally supposed to open on February 3 but the grocer changed the dates to the 23rd.

The opening of the two stores next week will make eight new stores that Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market will have opened in February - and nine new units so far for 2011. [See - November 4, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Confirms Our October Reports On 10 New Stores Opening in Early 2011.]

Thus far, one new store in Southern California, the unit at Atlantic Avenue and 33rd Street in Long Beach, is scheduled to open in March 2011.

Northern California: March Openings

On March 2, the retailer plans to opens its first two Fresh & Easy markets in Northern California, in the cities of San Jose and Danville, followed by additional store openings throughout the month and into April. [See - February 14, 2011: First Look: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store in Northern California's Danville Set to Open on March 2; and January 17, 2011: First Look at the Willow Glen-San Jose Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store Set to Open March 2, 2011.]

Thus far, Fresh & Easy has announced it will open 11 stores in Northern California in the March-April 2011 period. [See - January 12, 2011: First Northern California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Opening March 2; Nine More to Follow March-April.]

Additionally, we are reporting that two more stores, both in San Francisco, are slated for spring 2011 openings. [See - February 1, 2011: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Still Plans April-May 2011 Openings For First Two San Francisco Stores.] Based on the information we have, we expect Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to announce the opening dates of the two San Francisco stores soon. We expect the opening dates to be in May - but no later than June 2011.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Open 10 New Stores in 10 Southern California Cities in January-February 2011

Southern California Market Region Report

On October 17, 2010, we reported in this story - No Additional New Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Set to Open This Year; Ten New Units Planned For January 2011 - that Tesco plans to open 10 new Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores in Southern California in early 2011.

Since publishing our report last week, we've learned some additional information and details.

First, not all of the 10 new Southern California units are likely to open in January 2011, although a number of them will. Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has now set a time frame of early January 2011-February 23, 2011 for opening the 10 stores.

We've also learned the identity of the 10 California cities where the 10 new stores will be opened in January-February 2011.

The 10 Southern California cities are: Lake Forest, Camarillo, El Cajon, Ventura, Sandimas, Walnut Park, Oceanside, Long Beach, Costa Mesa and San Diego.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market hasn't announced the new store plans.

As we previously reported in our October 17 story, no additional new Fresh & Easy stores are currently set to be opened for the remainder of 2010.

Tesco plans to start opening its first batch of 11 Fresh & Easy stores in Northern California in early 2011, likely beginning in February, although it could be March, depending on a couple of variables. [see - September 22, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Plans to Open Two Additional Stores in Northern California in Early 2011.]

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is on track to close 13 stores by November 2, 2010, which will result in Tesco having 155 Fresh & Easy markets open and operating in California, Nevada and Arizona. [See - October 24, 2010: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market On Track to Close 13 Stores By November 2, 2010.]

Southern California Market Report: New Tesco Fresh & Easy Store Featured as Retail Co-Anchor in Proposed New Rose Ranch Center in Oxnard, California

New Store Development News

The city of Oxnard, California Planning Commission heard a request by a developer last Wednesday night (November 19) to change the Ventura County city's general plan and current zoning regulations to allow for a 77,697 square foot parcel of land at the southwest corner of Rose Avenue and Gonzales Road, which would be co-anchored by a new Fresh & Easy grocery and fresh foods market, in the city to be developed into a shopping center called The Rose Ranch Shopping Center, according to the city agenda for last week.

At present the city's current general plan and zoning restrictions for the area don't allow for a center of the size and scope of the proposed Rose Ranch to be constructed at the location.

The nearly 10 acre shopping center would have a Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market grocery and fresh food store and a Walgreen's drug store as the retail anchor tenants.

Additionally plans call for the new center to also include a retail bank and a restaurant. Additionally, the remaining about 37,000 square feet would be marketed to a variety of smaller retail shops and related businesses, according to the proposed plans.

At the Oxnard Planning Commission hearing on Wednesday night the city planning board also got its first look at an environmental impact report the developer had prepared for the proposed Rose Ranch Shopping Center. No decision has been made yet in terms of approving the plans.

Ventura County is one region in Southern California where Tesco to date has fewer Fresh & Easy grocery markets open than in a number of other counties in the Southland. However, Tesco plans to open new Fresh & Easy markets soon in Lompoc as well as in Oxnard in Ventura County, as well as a store in nearby Santa Barbara, in Santa Barbara County.

The proposed Rose Ranch center has to first gain approval from the planning commission, which then if it gives its approval to the developer and Tesco Fresh & Easy's plans for the store, turns it over for review and ultimately a vote by the Oxnard City Council, which has final approval on any commercial developments in the city.

Oxnard is located about 60 miles northwest of Los Angeles on the Southern California coast. The Ventura County region in and around Oxnard produces some of the finest strawberries and citrus fruits such as organges, lemons and limes in the United States, along with a number of other premium crops that thrive in the region's good soil and coastal climate.

Resources:

Related Stories:

>May 2, 2008: More Critical Mass in the Neighborhood: A New Fresh & Easy Grocery Store to 'Sprout' In the Southern California Central Coast City of Lompoc

>February 7, 2008: Latest Fresh & Easy Market Opens in Simi Valley, California

Southern California Market Report: Tesco Hits A Numerical Milestone Tomorrow Morning As Store Number 100 Opens its Doors in Fullerton, California

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA will celebrate a numerical store opening milestone tomorrow morning when it opens store number 100 in the Southern California city of Fullerton. The new store is located at Orangethorpe Avenue and Euclid Street in the Orange County city. The actual address is: 1207 South Euclid Street.

The first batch of Fresh & Easy stores officially opened last year, in November, 2007, were in Southern California, including in the Orange County city of Anaheim. Therefore, the retailer is coming full-circle about one year later, opening its 100th store in a city, Fullerton, in that same county.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market also is headquartered in Southern California, in the city of El Segundo. It's 850,000 square foot distribution center, which serves the soon to be 100 stores in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona, also is in Southern California's Riverside County in the Inland Empire region.

As store opening paces go, 100 stores in roughly one year is a rather remarkable pace -- assuming a food retailer wants to open new stores at such a fast pace, of course. There are pluses and minuses to doing so.

In Tesco's case the pluses outweigh the minuses because as we've written about all year, the company's strategy with the small-format combination grocery and fresh foods convenience-oriented Fresh & Easy chain is what we call "critical mass," opening as many stores (within reason of course) as rapidly as possible in three key market regions -- Southern California, Metropolitan Las Vegas, Nevada and in the Phoenix Arizona Metropolitan region market.

Beginning on December 3 Tesco expands it reach in California to the southern Central Valley city of Bakersfield, where it will open the first two of five thus far planned combination grocery and fresh foods Fresh & Easy markets. From there it is on to the rest of the Central Valley -- Fresno, Modesto, ect. -- up into the Sacramento/Vacaville Metropolitan region and to the San Francisco Bay Area. The first of those stores are set to begin opening early next year.

These regions will join the three current market regions in Tesco's "critical mass" rapid store opening strategy, as we've reported all year in Fresh & Easy Buzz.

However, as we've also written about a number of times recently, Tesco's Fresh & Easy is considerably behind in completing its Northern California distribution center in Stockton, as well as being considerably behind schedule in the remodeling and construction of many of its Northern California stores.

This leads us to believe the grocery chain will not only open far fewer stores in the Northern California region in 2009 than the thus far 45 Fresh & Easy markets we've indentified for Northern California --and probably even fewer than the 37 of those stores it has confirmed to date -- we also think the stores will start opening at best in the second half of 2009 rather than in the first quarter, which is when Tesco has said the markets will begin opening.

Store count is only part of the game though; often a small part. Performance is the top gun. In that regard the jury remains out on the overall success of Tesco's small-format, convenience-oriented Fresh & Easy food and grocery retailing venture.

Despite that, store number 100 opens in Fullerton, California tomorrow morning.

Additionally, Fresh & Easy CEO Tim Mason has said at least 100 -to- 125 more Fresh & Easy stores are set to open in California, Nevada and Arizona in 2009, although our sources say that number could be reduced considerably by the grocery chain like it has done in the past.

Earlier in the fall Tesco reported a loss of $108 million on sales of just under $400 million for Fresh & Easy for a nine month period. This was the first time Tesco reported sales and income for the start up grocery chain.

The company attributed most of the loss to start up costs. It will be a little more difficult to make that same attribution when Tesco next reports sales and earnings for the chain, which is based in Southern California.

However, since 2009 will be an expansion year as great as 2007-2008 has been, Tesco will continue dumping lots of investment dollars into the fresh foods and grocery retailing venture, which has been the company's plan all along. Therefore, look for it to attribute any similar losses to those efforts as well next time, an attribution which would be justified in part but not in full.

The key metrics we will look for will be same store sales. That's sales at stores open more than a year. Additionally we look forward to seeing what Tesco's reports next for Fresh & Easy in terms of average sales per store per square foot.

For us, earnings/losses will be less important -- unless they are dramatic losses -- because of the rapid expansion and thus investment we described above.

As a result, sales at existing stores, compared to sales at those stores in the last reporting period, is the key we will be looking at and analyzing closely, along with average sales per store per square foot.

Meanwhile Fresh & Easy store number 100 opens tomorrow morning.

There will be a grand opening celebration at 10am tomorrow just like the grocer has held for the opening of its other 99 new stores opened to date. There will be food samplings, a ribbon cutting and brief speech by CEO Tim Mason, some special events, and most likely a group of demonstrators from the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) union in attendance.

And when store number 100 opens tomorrow morning, Tesco will have 49 Fresh & Easy markets in Southern California, 26 stores in the Phoenix, Arizona Metropolitan region, and 25 stores in Metro Las Vegas, Nevada -- with more to come. But perhaps at a slower pace, as we suggested above.

New Store Openings: Fresh & Easy Has A Milestone Opening of Sorts Yesterday in Murrieta, California

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market had a milestone new store opening of sorts yesterday, opening its 75th small-format combination basic grocery and fresh foods market in the Southern California city of Murrieta.

The Murrieta Fresh & Easy, which is one of the grocer's built from the ground up stores rather than being one housed in a remodeled retail building like the majority of its grocery markets currently are, held its grand opening Wednesday morning, getting a strong crowd of first day shoppers looking for bargains, along with curiosity seekers and about 25 pickets from the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union in attendance.

UFCW pickets

The UFCW demonstrators, who were largely ignored by shoppers and others attending the store grand opening, according to a Fresh & Easy Buzz correspondent who was at the store opening, were there protesting Tesco's refusal to meet with union leaders to discuss the potential of unionizing the U.S. Fresh & Easy chain.

United Kingdom-based Tesco, which is that nation's leading food and grocery retailer and the third-largest retailer in the world after France's Carrefour Group and number one Wal-Mart, Inc., has union affiliations in all of the nations where it does business except in the U.S.

The UFCW has been conducting a campaign designed to get Tesco executives to meet with the union's leadership in order to discuss the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA unionization issue.

Thus far Tesco has said it has no plans to meet with representatives from the union, saying its position is the UFCW is free to organize Fresh & Easy store-level workers in accordance with U.S. labor laws, and that it is up to store employees as to if they want to vote in union representation or not. Tesco is not required by U.S. labor laws to meet with the union's leaders.

Bargain hunters

Tesco mailed out its $5-off coupons, which are good for grocery purchases of $20 or more in the Fresh & Easy stores, to residents of the neighborhood surrounding the Murrieta store at 395530 Murrieta Hot Springs Road prior to yesterday's grand opening.

Many of the shoppers at the store Wednesday morning had these discount coupons in hand as they roamed the store's aisles in search of bargains and grand opening day deals, according to the Fresh & Easy Buzz correspondent who attended the store opening yesterday morning.

Shopper response

According to our correspondent, the general response from the store's opening day shoppers was a positive one. One shopper said she lived just 15 minutes away from the store and welcomed its opening because with the high price of gasoline she has cut back on her driving and plans to do much of her shopping at the Fresh & Easy store now that it is open.

Another opening day shopper told our correspondent that she had the day off and decided to attend the store opening because of the $5-off coupons she received. She was looking for grand opening specials she said and planned to use the coupon to save even more money. Asked if she would shop the store without the deep-discount coupon, she said she wasn't sure of that but that she might, although she said she loves Trader Joe's.

Built from the ground up store

The Murrieta store, like the handful of other built from the ground up Fresh & Easy markets currently open, is a big improvement design-wise over the stores located in former retail buildings. It features large windows in the front of the store, along with skylights that illuminate the inside of the store, creating a much warmer feel than the stores in the remodeled retail buildings do.

The built from the ground up Fresh & Easy stores also are much greener environmentally than the stores housed in the former retail buildings. The building's design is to much higher environmental standards than the stores in the older, remodeled buildings, for example.

Organics big hit

According to our correspondent, one of the big hits at the store yesterday seemed to be the fresh and easy brand organic food and grocery items which tend to be priced at least 15% (and sometimes more than that) below the everyday prices of similar items at such natural foods retailers as Whole Foods Market, Inc. and supermarket chains like Safeway. Customers were grabbing up discount-priced organic fresh produce and grocery items at the store yesterday in considerable quantities, our correspondent said.

More on UFCW picketers

The 25 or so UFCW union picketers made their presence know outside the store, carrying signs that said: "There's nothing fresh about fresh & easy," which is the theme the union is using on its website http://www.freshandeasyfacts.com/ and in its direct mail flyers, as we've reported in Fresh & Easy Buzz.

The UFCW has had pickets, many who are union members and work for unionized supermarket chains like Safeway's Vons, Kroger's Ralphs and others, at nearly every new store grand opening Tesco's Fresh & Easy has had this year in Southern California, the Las Vegas, Nevada Metropolitan region, and the Phoenix, Arizona Metro area, the three markets in which its small-format neighborhood grocery markets are located.

Chris Lopez, a spokesman for the UFCW pickets outside the Murrieta Fresh & Easy store yesterday morning told our correspondent in explaining why he and the others were picketing the store opening: "Fresh & Easy mostly only hires workers for part-time positions and the company has not been adhering to grocery worker standards set by the union."

Lopez is a UFCW member and works at a Vons supermarket in Southern California.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy employees about 25 people per store. All store-level employees except the store manager and sometimes the assistant manager are part time employees. Part time store workers make a starting salary of $10 an hour. They receive a health insurance plan which Tesco says pays 75% of their expenses if they work a minimum of 20 hours a week.

Although the hourly pay is less than UFCW member supermarket clerks make, and the health insurance benefits not as extensive, Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market hasn't had problems filling store-level jobs thus far, although turnover has been fairly high at some stores.

In addition to Tesco's Fresh & Easy, other major non-union food and grocery retailers in Southern California include: Wal-Mart, Inc., Trader Joe's, Winco, Whole Foods Market, Inc., Sprouts Farmers Market, and Henry's Farmers Market, along with a few others.

The region's major supermarket chains like Safeway's Vons, Kroger's Ralphs, SuperValu, Inc.'s Albertsons and Bristol Farms, Stater Bros, Gelsons and most others are unionized and the employees are members of the UFCW. In terms of market share, unionized food and grocery retailers comprise about 70% of the total food and grocery dollar sales market share in Southern California.

More new stores to come

Yesterday's opening of the Murrieta Fresh & Easy grocery store is part of a rapid new store opening spurt for Tesco's Fresh & Easy in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona. The grocery chain is opening 30 -to- 35 new stores over a 90-day period, from July 2 to the end of September.

The retailer will open additional new stores from October to December in its three existing markets and plans to start opening its first stores in California's Central Valley and in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento Metropolitan region in 2009.

Website Writer Loves Fresh & Easy, Especially Store in Indio, California

The writer of the desertbest.com website, a site covering goings on of all kinds in the Southern California desert communities, likes the Fresh & Easy format of basic groceries at low prices, combined with fresh, prepared foods and specialty items like fresh flowers, wines and more.

The writer especially likes the store at 42nd and Jackson Street in the desert town of Indio, California.

Read what desertbest.com thinks about the Indio store, the Fresh & Easy format, and other things here.