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.

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.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Opens Three New Stores in Southern California Today

The first customer (pictured above holding up his register receipt) to make a purchase this morning at the just-opened Fresh & Easy market in Costa Mesa, California gets a round of applause from a couple store employees.

Southern California Market Region

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market opened three new stores today, all in Southern California.

The three stores, which all had grand opening celebrations today, are at: El Toro Road & Trabuco Rd., Lake Forest; Newport Boulevard & Harbor Boulevard, Costa Mesa; and Camino Del Norte & Dove Canyon Road, San Diego.

Today's openings bring to 159 the total number of Fresh & Easy stores Tesco now operates in California, Nevada and Arizona. A majority, 110 units, of the 159 Fresh & Easy stores are in California.

El Segundo, California-based Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has so far opened four new stores this year, all in Southern California. In addition to the three fresh food and grocery markets opened yesterday, a store was opened in El Cajon (at 2nd Street & Madison Avenue) on January 12.

The grocer plans to open three more new stores in Southern California next week, on February 16. Those stores are located at:

• Oceanside Boulevard & Vine Street - Oceanside

• Alameda Street & Florence Avenue - Walnut Park

• Seaward Avenue & Thompson Boulevard - Ventura

Below is the current store-count rundown by market region for the 159 Fresh & Easy stores, which average 10,000-12,000 square-feet and feature a limited assortment - 4,500 -to- 5,000 SKUs - of fresh foods, groceries and non-foods' packaged goods:

Southern California

= 96

Bakersfield, California Metro Region

=7 units

Fresno, California Metro Region

=7 units

[California = 110 stores.]

Metro Las Vegas, Nevada

= 21 units

Metro Phoenix, Arizona

= 28 units

Total #Stores

= 159 units

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

Tesco's Fresh & Easy in Northern California - 2011
News/Analysis

[Editor's Note: One December 27, 2010, we took a "first look" (which includes photographs) at one of the 11 Fresh & Easy food and grocery markets set to open in Northern California early this year. That store, in Pacifica, California near San Francisco, is scheduled to open March 9, 2011. [Read the story: 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.]

Today we take a "first look" at one of the two Fresh & Easy markets scheduled to open on March 2, 2011 - the store in the Willow Glen Village shopping center in San Jose, California. The store, along with one in Danville, are the forst two of the 11 Fresh & Easy stores opening in Northern California. Here's the opening schedule for the first 11 stores, along with the locations: January 12, 2011 - First Northern California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Opening March 2; Nine More to Follow March-April ]

Along with a store in Danville, which is in the East Bay Area, Tesco plans to open its long awaited (by residents of the neighborhood) Fresh & Easy fresh food and grocery market at Bird Avenue and Minnesota Avenue in San Jose's Willow Glen neighborhood, on March 2, 2010.

The store will be the retail grocery anchor in the Willow Glen Village shopping center. As you can see in the photograph at the top, which was taken on Friday, January 14, workers have installed a Fresh & Easy logo sign on the entrance to the shopping center, indicating the store's anchor status.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market announced the Willow Glen store location, which is going into a building the formerly housed an Albertsons supermarket, along with 17 other planned stores, in January 2008, when it took out a lease on the building. The retailer has been paying the monthly rent on the vacant building for three years.

Tesco stockholders can perhaps soon breath a little bit easier however. Construction workers are busy getting the store in the Willow Glen Village shopping center ready for its March 2 opening, which is fast approaching. If all goes according to its plans, less than two months from now Tesco will still have to pay the monthly rent on the building, but will have the added bonus of doing so for a store that's open for business.

Pictured above: Work is in progress on the exterior of the Fresh & Easy market in the Willow Glen Village shopping center in San Jose, California's Willow Glen neighborhood.

The front of the store, above, faces about 90% of the parking lot in the shopping center. The cream-colored blank space, under the green "now hiring" banner on the store's facade, is where the "Fresh & Easy" logo sign will soon be mounted. As of Friday, when all of the photographs in this piece were taken by a Fresh & Easy Buzz correspondent, workers had yet to install the sign. But they say it's coming soon.

Pictured Below is a close-up of the front of the store and its facade. You can view the store's facade and the "now hiring" banner "up-close" in the picture below.

The competition

Interestingly, the closest grocery store to the small-format (about 12,000 square-foot) Fresh & Easy market opening on March 2 in the Willow Glen Village shopping center happens to be another small-format, neighborhood-oriented grocery store, Zanotto's Willow Glen Market, which is about the same size (10,000-12,000 square-feet) as the soon to be nearby Fresh & Easy market.

The Zanotto's market, at 1421 Foxworthy, is a five to- 10 minute drive from the Fresh & Easy store in the Willow Glen Village shopping center. The store opened in 2009.

The market is one of three smaller-format grocery stores owned by local independent grocer Zanotto's Family Markets. It's similar in format to Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market. In addition to offering fresh produce, meats and groceries, the Zanotto's Willow Glen Market also specializes in ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat fresh-prepared foods.

The independently-owned grocery store, which you can view here, has an in-store service deli where clerks prepare sandwiches to order; a sushi and salad bar; offers grab-and-go-meals and what it calls meals in minutes; and also does catering.

In addition to the small-format Zanotto's market, there's a Safeway supermarket about five -to 10 minutes away from the Fresh & Easy store in the Willow Glen Village shopping center. The store, at, Hamilton and Meridian, is about 45,000 square-feet.

There's also a Lunardi's supermarket, at 4650 Meridiam, that's about 10 -to- 15 minutes away from the soon to open Fresh & Easy store. The medium-sized supermarket offers a complete selection of fresh food and grocery items, along with a healthy assortment of fresh-prepared foods and specialty, natural and organic products. Lunardi's Markets is a locally-based, family-owned chain of seven stores. It's been in business in the San Francisco Bay Area for 57 years.

For 40 years there's been another popular family-owned supermarket, Cosentino's, where many residents of the Willow Glen neighborhood have shopped for fresh food and grocers, and particularly produce, located about 10 -to- 15 minutes away from the Willow Glen Village shopping center, at 2666 South Bascom Avenue.

But last week the Cosentino brothers, who own the store and are all over age 70, announced they're closing the iconic local supermarket soon, saying none of the younger members of the family want to take it over. They've sold the store and the land they own around it for $10 million, and plan to retire. The Cosentino family has been in the food and grocery retailing business in the Bay Area for 63 years.

The store and surrounding land was purchased by a development company. It plans to put a shopping center on the land and is courting grocers to go into the Cosentino's store space. Among the grocer's interested include: Sprout's Farmers Market, Henry's Farmers Market and Whole Foods Market, according to our sources. As we've been reporting, in the case of Sprouts and Henry's, they could soon become one? [See - January 8, 2011: Smart & Final-Henry's Tell Employees About Deal Discussions With Sprouts Farmers Market; Confirming 'The Insider's' Reports.]

The Cosentino family, pioneers in San Francisco Bay Area food and grocery retailing, operated three supermarkets in the South Bay Area for many decades. They closed the other two over the last few years, keeping the flagship market on South Bascom in San Jose until now.

By the time Tesco opens its Fresh & Easy store at Bird and Minnesota on March 2, the iconic Cosentino's Market, famous for its fresh produce and meats, and it's focus on specialty foods, will be closed

[It wouldn't be a bad idea for Tesco's Fresh & Easy to reach out to the Cosentino's and offer one or more of the brothers a consulting contract. Not only could they give Tesco corporate director and Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Tim Mason and his team a valuable history lesson on food and grocery retailing in the San Francisco Bay Area, they would, if listened to, likely save Tesco at least ten times whatever consulting fee they got paid.]

Location good test for Fresh & Easy format

The Willow Glen location offers good opportunity for Tesco's Fresh & Easy for a few reasons.

First, the immediate neighborhood is under-stored, based on the number of residents that live in it.

Additionally, the Zannotto's market has fairly high price points on basic food and grocery items. The Willow Glen Fresh & Easy store should be able to draw a customer base that needs or wants to spend less at the grocery store, without having to drive to Safeway, for example, because Fresh & Easy's overall price points come in lower than Zanotto's.

Lastly is convenience. There's a large population base right around the Willow Glen Village center. These customers should logically shop at Fresh & Easy, at least based on proximity, rather than travel over to Zanotto's or a bit further to Safeway or Lunardi's.

Of course, most consumers shop at multiple grocery stores today. For example, many residents of the Willow Glen neighborhood who shop at Safeway, for example, also go to Cosentino's for certain things (produce, meats, gourmet foods, its famous fried chicken), Lunardi's for other specialties, and Zanotto's for its sandwiches and fresh-prepared food offerings. The Fresh & Easy store will add another venue for multi-store shoppers in the area.

The Willow Glen neighborhood location will actually be a good test for the Fresh & Easy format because it has all of the elements of being a potentially good spot for a grocery store, particularly a small-format market. Therefore, if the store doesn't do well, it will be due as much or more to the Fresh & Easy format than anything else, which is why the location is a good test for the format.

Pictured Above: The side of the Fresh & Easy store facing Bird Avenue. This part of the store in the Willow Glen Village shopping center is what's most visible to through traffic in the area. Notice the Fresh & Easy logo sign is already up on this part of the building.

Recent, Related Stories

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

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

January 12, 2011: First Northern California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Opening March 2; Nine More to Follow March-April

January 12, 2011: First Northern California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Opening March 2; Nine More to Follow March-April

January 10, 2011: Sprouts Farmers Market to Open Second Northern California Store in Roseville No Later Than Mid-April

January 10, 2011: Walmart 'Gets Real' With Smaller-Format Grocery Store Initiative in California; First Stores On Tap

December 30, 2010: Seven Predictions For Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market For 2011

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

October 17, 2010: No Additional New Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Set to Open This Year; Ten New Units Planned For January 2011

[Plus: See these links - Fresh and Easy Northern California, Fresh and Easy San Francisco Bay Area, Northern California and Northern California Special Report - for additional related stories.]

[Note to publications: You may use the photographs in the piece, as long as you include a photo credit to Fresh & Easy Buzz and a link to the blog under the photo.]

Tesco 'Banking' on California in 2011 For Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA

Analysis/Commentary

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market opened its first new store of the new year on Wednesday (January 12), in the Southern California city of El Cajon. The store is at 2nd Street & Madison Avenue.

The El Cajon store is the first of 10 new Fresh & Easy units Tesco plans to open between January-March of this year. It's the 156th store for Tesco's Fresh & Easy.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has eight new stores set to open in February, starting on February 3. The stores are at the following locations:

February 3
• Arneill Road & Las Posas Road, Camarillo, California
• Bonita Avenue & San Dimas Canyon Road, San Dimas, California

February 9
• El Toro Road & Trabuco Road, Lake Forest, California
• Newport Boulevard & Harbor Boulevard, Costa Mesa, California
• Camino Del Norte & Dove Canyon Road, San Diego, California

February 16
• Oceanside Boulevard & Vine Street, Oceanside, California
• Alameda Street & Florence Avenue ,Walnut Park, California
• Seaward Avenue & Thompson Boulevard, Ventura, California

The 10th new store opening in Southern California is set for March 30, when the grocer plans to open its third Fresh & Easy market in Long Beach, California. That store is at Atlantic Avenue and 33rd Street, in the city's downtown.


Northern California

In addition to the 10 new Fresh & Easy stores to open in the first quarter of this year, Tesco has set the opening dates for the opening of its first 11 stores in Northern California.

Seven Fresh & Easy markets are set to open in March, from March 2 -to- March 23, followed by the opening of the four other stores in April.

Below is the Northern California new store opening schedule:

March 2nd, 2011
• Bird Ave. & Minnesota Ave., San Jose, California
• Diablo Blvd. & Hwy 680, Danville, California

March 9th, 2011
• Cabrillo Hwy. & Linda Mar Blvd., Pacifica, California

March 16th, 2011
• Clayton Rd. & Ygnacio Valley Rd., Concord, California
• Elmira Rd. & Nut Tree Rd., Vacaville, California

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

New store surge

If the 10 Fresh & Easy stores in Southern California and the 11 units in Northern California, where Tesco will be launching into for the first time starting in March, open on time, the first four months of the new year will see the grocer opening 22 new stores, taking its total store count from 155 units at the end of 2010, to 178 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores in California, Nevada and Arizona, by the end of April 2011.

Of the current 155 Fresh & Easy stores, 117 of the fresh food and grocery markets are in California - 93 in Southern California, seven units in the Bakersfield metropolitan region, and seven stores in the Fresno, California area.

Outside of California there are 28 Fresh & Easy markets in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona and 21 stores in the Las Vegas, Nevada metro area.

In November 2010, Tesco closed 13 poor performing Fresh & Easy stores - six units each in Arizona and Nevada and one store in Southern California. [You can see the addresses of the 13 stores at 13 Closing Fresh & Easy Stores List.]

California 2011

Based on our research and source information, we expect Tesco to open approximately 13 -to- 28 new Fresh & Easy stores, in addition to the 22 units set for January-April openings, from May, on to the end of the year.

All but a handful of these stores, like the first batch of 22, will be in California, according to our information. We expect no more than a couple-to-a-few new Fresh & Easy to be opened by Tesco this year in Arizona, and zero-to-a-couple to be opened by the grocer in Metro Las Vegas/southern Nevada this year.

'Banking' on California

With 117 of its existing 155 Fresh & Easy stores already in California, along with plans to open nearly all of its new stores in the Golden State this year, one thing is crystal clear: Tesco is banking on California as the key to its success with Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market.

It's crystal clear in our analysis because the retailer already operates a disproportionate number of its stores in California, although the Golden State has far more people than Nevada and Arizona combined.

But population alone isn't the key criteria in terms of locating grocery stores. And in Tesco's case its putting most of its hope-to-break even by fiscal year 2012-13 eggs in its California basket in terms of geographical store operations focus with Fresh & Easy.

California is a better place for Tesco to put those eggs, in terms of new store growth, than either Nevada or Arizona are, in our analysis, but its also our analysis that focusing so many - 156 now, 178 in a few months, and more later - stores in just three states, is an overall mistake for Tesco with its Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market chain.

Store location strategy

Instead, as we've said since 2008, Tesco would be much better off following more of a national strategy, similar to what Trader Joe's and Whole Foods Market both do, which is to look at much of the U.S. as a whole (most all states) and open stores in select market regions in those many states where it makes the most sense to do so, based on specific demographic and consumer lifestyle criteria, which both Whole Foods and Trader Joe's use, along with extensive research, as the basis of there respective store location and placement strategies.

Tesco has and is doing the opposite though with Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market. Its focusing on just three states - California, Nevada and Arizona - and then opening stores in most market regions in those three states all over the place - in suburban, urban and rural neighborhoods; upper middle-income, middle income and lower income communities; and in areas where consumers have education levels ranging from higher to very low.

In other words, Tesco's strategy is a shotgun approach - open stores everywhere in the three states and see what happens - while Trader Joe's and Whole Foods Market use rifle approaches - create a huge national canvas (nearly all of the U.S.), then choose selected markets that, based on the demographic and lifestyle criteria - who's (consumers) most likely to shop at the stores and where do those most- likely shoppers live - open stores there. [See: Tesco's critical-mass retail strategy for Fresh & Easy, for examples of this.]

It's not an accident, for example, that Trader Joe's has five stores in San Francisco (population 850,000), with more to come, but only one each in Oakland (425,000) and Modesto (210,000), with no new stores planned in either city in the near future. It's not about population size for Trader Joe's, within reason of course, there has to be a minimum population base. Rather, it's all about demographic and lifestyle consumer/shopper criteria, as it is for Whole Foods Market. We choose the three Northern California cities as examples because Tesco is headed to all three with Fresh & Easy. But there are numerous others.

Tesco has set the end of its 2012/13 fiscal year, a little over two years from now, to hit break-even with Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market.

A risky strategy

It's our analysis that its store location strategy - putting all those eggs in three states and so few market regions - plus the fact its putting so much of its new store growth focus one state - California - is extremely risky for Tesco and its goal to break-even with Fresh & Easy by the end of the 2012-13 fiscal year.

By this analysis we aren't suggesting Tesco should put more emphasis on Nevada and or Arizona rather than California, as noted earlier in the piece. The focus shouldn't be on which of the only three states to put the new store growth in.

What we are suggesting in our analysis is that Tesco should have been all along - and we first said so in 2008 - using a national or semi-national strategy for Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market rather than its "super regional" strategy of putting all its eggs (stores) in so few states, in just one region of the country, the Western U.S.

But right now such a plan as we suggest isn't on the table at Tesco headquarters in the United Kingdom or in the boardroom of its Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market corporate offices in El Segundo, California.

Instead the retailer's current plan is to focus all new store growth this year and probably in 2012 on California (primarily), Nevada, Arizona and any other nearby state that can be served by its Riverside County distribution facility in Southern California - and that rules out pretty much any of the additional Western states because they're all very difficult to distribute to from Riverside - in its march to break-even with Fresh & Easy in a couple years.

One of, if not the reason driving this strategy, is the need to have sales volume from 400 stores, all pulling out of the Riverside facility, in order to, according to Tesco, make the distribution center efficient enough so that it doesn't continue to bleed cash - as in losing money - which is key to Tesco's break-even by fiscal year 2012-13.

Tesco's outgoing CEO, Terry Leahy, and the retailer's incoming CEO, Philip Clarke (March 2011), said this in October 2010, when they also said plans are to have 400 Fresh & Easy stores open and operating by the end of that very same 2012-13 fiscal year. [See - October 5, 2010: Philip Clarke's Early Welcome to America: Tesco Logs $151 Million Half-Year Loss For Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market.]

Although they didn't say it in a declarative sentence in October 2010, or anytime since, if one connects the dots (statements), the conclusion is obvious - if Tesco needs 400 stores to make Riverside efficient, as it says it does, and if its plans are to have a total of 400 stores open by fiscal 2012-13-end, which the two men said in October 2010 is the case - then those 400 Fresh & Easy stores all have to be close enough geographically to the Riverside distribution center to be distributed to out of that same facility, which rules out opening stores in any potentially good western states like Colorado, Utah, Oregon and Washington - all too far from Riverside - basically leaving California, Nevada and Arizona as the focus for all or most of the 224 new stores (to reach the 400 units from the current 156 stores) Tesco says it will open by the end of its 2012/13 fiscal year.

There are ways Tesco could change this strategy, although at present it appears to think doing so isn't necessary and that it's own the right track strategically to obtaining break-even by fiscal year 2012-13-end. Perhaps it is. But the current strategy, as we've said, is in our analysis a very risky and potentially extremely costly one for Tesco.

We will be writing much more about this strategy and related topics and issues throughout 2011. Stay tuned.

Related Stories

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

October 17, 2010: No Additional New Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Set to Open This Year; Ten New Units Planned For January 2011

January 12, 2011: First Northern California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Opening March 2; Nine More to Follow March-April

October 5, 2010: Philip Clarke's Early Welcome to America: Tesco Logs $151 Million Half-Year Loss For Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market

October 4, 2010: Tuesday's Tesco Interim Report Offers A Road Map of Sorts For the Future of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market

December 7, 2010: Tesco Reports Solid Third Quarter Same-Store-Sales Growth For Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market

November 2, 2010: Closure of 13 Stores Brings Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Store-Count to 155 Units

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

December 30, 2010: Seven Predictions For Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market For 2011

October 8, 2010: Incoming Tesco CEO Philip Clarke Needs to 'Imagine' When it Comes to Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA

January 11, 2011: 'The Insider' - A 'New York State of Mind': 'The Insider' On Walmart, Apollo Global Management, Tesco's Fresh & Easy and the NRF in New York City

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

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Confirms Our October Reports On 10 New Stores Opening in Early 2011

Southern California Market Region Report: New Stores

On October 17, Fresh & Easy Buzz broke the news that Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market plans to open 10 new stores in Southern California beginning in early January 2011. [See - October 17, 2010: No Additional New Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Set to Open This Year; Ten New Units Planned For January 2011.]

We followed our October 17 report up a week later, naming the 10 cities in Southern California where the 10 new Fresh & Easy stores will be located, and reporting the 10 stores are set to open in the January-February 2011 time period. [See - October 25, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Open 10 New Stores in 10 Southern California Cities in January-February 2011.]

As we correctly reported on October 27, the 10 Southern California cities are: Lake Forest, Camarillo, El Cajon, Ventura, San Dimas, Walnut Park, Oceanside, Long Beach, Costa Mesa and San Diego.

Today, Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market confirmed our reports, announcing the addresses of the 10 stores and the dates when it plans to open the locations.

Below are the store addresses and opening dates:

January 12
• 2nd Street & Madison Avenue - El Cajon

February 3
• Arneill Road & Las Posas Road - Camarillo
• Bonita Avenue & San Dimas Canyon Road - San Dimas

February 9
• El Toro Road & Trabuco Road - Lake Forest
• Newport Boulevard & Harbor Boulevard - Costa Mesa
• Camino Del Norte & Dove Canyon Road - San Diego

February 16
• Oceanside Boulevard & Vine Street - Oceanside
• Alameda Street & Florence Avenue - Walnut Park
• Seaward Avenue & Thompson Boulevard - Ventura

March 30
• Atlantic Avenue & 33rd Street - Long Beach

As you can see above, one store, the unit in Long Beach, has a March 30, 2011 opening date. As we always note in such stories in Fresh & Easy Buzz, new store opening dates are fluid and dynamic at Tesco's Fresh & Easy. The other nine stores are set to open within the January-February 23 time-frame however.

In our October 17, 2010 story we also reported that Tesco's Fresh & Easy had decided not to open any additional new stores for the remainder of 2010. The grocer's announcement today about the early 2011 store openings confirms our report. It wouldn't announce 2011 store openings if it was planning any additional 2010 new store openings.

The last new stores Tesco's Fresh & Easy opened were in September of this year. [See - July 14, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Confirms Our June 25 Report it Will Open Nine New Stores in September 2010.]

[For related reading on the September 2010 new store openings, also see - September 22, 2010: California Dreamin': Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, Whole Foods Market Combined Open a Total of Four Stores Today in California and September 21, 2010:Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market and Walmart Create A September New Grocery Store Rain Storm in Oceanside, California. Plus - September 15, 2010: Two New Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Open in Fresno, California Region Today; September 8, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Hits (and Breaks) the 100-Store Mark in California With Today's Openings; and September 7, 2010: 'Big Bang' September: First Four of Nine New Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Opening on September 8.]

Tesco currently has 155 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market fresh food and grocery stores in California, Metropolitan Las Vegas, Nevada and Metro Phoenix, Arizona.

The 155-store number is down from 168 units, the result of the closing by Tesco of 13 poor-performing Fresh & Easy Markets. [See - November 2, 2010: Closure of 13 Stores Brings Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Store-Count to 155 Units. There's a breakdown of the 155 stores by market region in the November 2 linked story.]

Once the 10 new stores are opened by the end of the first quarter of 2011, Tesco will have 102 Fresh & Easy markets in Southern California.

In addition to the planned first quarter 2011 openings of the 10 new stores detailed above, Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood market plans also to open its first batch of stores, 11 thus far based on our reporting, in the first quarter of next year. [See - September 22, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Plans to Open Two Additional Stores in Northern California in Early 2011. Also see the other linked stories at the piece.]

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.]

No Additional New Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Set to Open This Year; Ten New Units Planned For January 2011

Breaking Buzz

United Kingdom-based Tesco isn't planning to open any additional new Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores this calendar year, Fresh & Easy Buzz has learned. No new stores are set to open in October, November or December 2010 at present, and likely won't be.

However, the retailer is currently planning to open 10 new stores in January 2011, according to our sources. All 10 stores are in Southern California.

New store openings are dynamic and fluid at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market headquarters in El Segundo, California. Therefore, the current 10 planned store openings for January 2011 could change in either a plus or minus direction between now and the end of 2010.

Tesco opened nine new Fresh & Easy stores in September. [See - September 22, 2010: California Dreamin': Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, Whole Foods Market Combined Open a Total of Four Stores Today in California.]

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market was originally considering opening at least three new stores in November 2010. However, that was before Tesco decided to close 13 Fresh & Easy stores - six each in metro Phoenix, Arizona and metro Las Vegas, Nevada, and one unit in Southern California - which it announced on October 5. (there's a list of the addresses of the 13 locations set to close by November 2, 2010 at the top of Fresh & Easy Buzz. Just click the "13 Closing Fresh & Easy Stores List" link.)

Tesco's Fresh & Easy is now in the process of closing the 13 stores. It plans to board the stores up, something it's referring to as "mothballing," saying it might open some or all of the units up again at some time in the future.

All 13 stores are set to be shuttered by November 2, 2010.

Fresh & Easy's real estate department is also trying to sub-lease the stores, which will be difficult, particularly in metro Phoenix and metro Las Vegas, where there's an abundance of vacant retail commercial real estate on the market currently. Apparently "mothballing" is a situational process. If Fresh & Easy is fortunate enough to sub-lease some or all of the stores, that would tend to render opening the stores up in the future a moot point, wouldn't it?

As of today there are 168 Fresh & Easy stores - 93 units in Southern California; seven stores each in metro Bakersfield and metro Fresno, in California's Central Valley; 34 units in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona; and 27 stores in metro Las Vegas, Nevada.

After closing the 13 stores, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's store-count will be 155. There will be 92 units in Southern California, 28 stores in metro Phoenix, and 21 units in metro Las Vegas. The Bakersfield and Fresno region store numbers will remain unchanged.

On October 5, 2010, Tesco said it plans to open 19 Fresh & Easy stores over the next six months. [See - October 5, 2010: Philip Clarke's Early Welcome to America: Tesco Logs $151 Million Half-Year Loss For Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market]

The new store opening schedule - 19 stores over the next six months or so - tracks with our research and analysis. Besides the 10 Southern California stores set for January 2011 openings, as we've previously reported, Tesco plans to open 11 stores in Northern California in early 2011. [see - September 22, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Plans to Open Two Additional Stores in Northern California in Early 2011.]

The retailer's plans call for opening some of the 11 stores in February 2011, and opening the remaining units in March. However, that schedule depends on how many of the stores are ready to open at the time. A few of the 11 stores might not be ready to open until April 2011.

Either way, if all 11 are open and operating by the end of March 2011, that equates to 21 stores in six months. If a couple aren't ready to open until April that would work out to about 19 new units six months from now.

As we've previously reported, Tesco's Fresh & Easy plans to distribute to the Northern California stores from its Riverside County distribution center in Southern California, rather than opening its Northern California facility, which has been sitting idle since 2008.

The Northern, Southern and to a lessor degree Central California regions will be Tesco's focus in 2011 in terms of opening new Fresh & Easy stores, based on our information, as well as analysis.

We expect the retailer to open a few stores in metro Phoenix, Arizona, in selected locations, in 2011. Tesco has a number of Fresh & Easy store locations in the region. A few stores are completed but sitting empty. Tesco holds leases on still other metro Phoenix sites where no work at all has been started.

At present we would be surprised if Tesco opens any Fresh & Easy stores in metro Las Vegas, although one or two are possible. Like in metro Phoenix, Tesco has a number of unopened and future store locations it acquired a considerable amount of time ago and is sitting on.

When it reported its half-year sales and earnings on October 5, Tesco said it plans to have 400 Fresh & Easy stores open and operating by the end of its 2012/13 fiscal year. It's currently in its 2010/11 fiscal year, which ends in February of next year.

The retailer also said fiscal year 2013-end is when it plans to break-even. [See - October 5, 2010: Philip Clarke's Early Welcome to America: Tesco Logs $151 Million Half-Year Loss For Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market]

To achieve that 400-store mark, Tesco will have to open 245 new stores in less than three years. That's in contrast to having opened 168 - and it will be 155 when the 13 stores close - in its first three years of operation with Fresh & Easy. The first batch of Fresh & Easy stores opened in late November 2007.

In our analysis its a very tall order to open 245 stores in that period of time - and to do so without ending up with numerous poor to very poor locations, which is something Tesco's Fresh & Easy has done - choose way too many bad locations in the first place - in opening the 168 stores in a bit under three years, which is the primary reason it's closing 13 stores, some of which have been open for far less than three years.

For example, three of the six metro Phoenix, Arizona region stores that are closing are in the city of Mesa and two are in Gilbert. See 13 Closing Fresh & Easy Stores List. A more thoughtful store location process would not result in five of the six stores being closed being in just two cities.

[Editor's Note: We will elaborate on Tesco's strategy and plans to open 245 new Fresh & Easy stores by the end of its 2013 fiscal year in an upcoming analysis piece.]

Whole Foods Market's Two Newest California Stores, Santa Rosa and Just-Opened Huntington Beach, Are at Shopping Malls

Southern Califoria Market Region report: New Store Openings

The Whole Foods Market store (pictured above) that opened its doors yesterday in Huntington Beach, (Southern) California is the second new Whole Foods unit to open in a three week period that's at a shopping mall location.

The 30,000 square-foot store is located at the Bella Terra Mall, at Edinger and Beach Boulevards in Huntington Beach. It's Whole Foods Market's 300th store. Whole Foods, which has annual sales of about $8 billion, has stores in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom.

On September 22, Whole Foods Market opened its newest and second store in Santa Rosa, in Northern California. That store, like the Huntington Beach market opened yesterday, is at a shopping mall location - 390 Coddingtown Mall. [See - September 21, 2010: A Look Inside Whole Foods Market's Newest Store, A Mall Location in Santa Rosa, California and September 19, 2010 Whole Foods Market Gives Itself A 30th Birthday Present: 299th Store Opens This Week in Santa Rosa, California.]

Like the Coddington Mall Whole Foods store, the Huntington Beach market has a facade and entrance facing the parking lot outside the main shopping mall. Shoppers are also able to enter the store from inside the Bella Terra Mall.

Shopping mall locations aren't a tradition for Whole Foods Market. In fact, it's only something the grocer started pursuing recently.

Whole Foods isn't alone in this regard. After flirting with shopping mall-based locations in the 1980's, most U.S. grocery chains have avoided the spots like the plague ever since.

However, a number of grocers besides Whole Foods are looking at shopping malls once again as secondary locations, in large part because the recession and commercial real estate crisis has made mall operators hungry for retailers that can bring in foot-traffic. Enter grocery stores. As a result, many mall operators are offer grocers locations for far less dollars per-square-foot than ever before in recent history. An example is hard-discount grocery chain Aldi USA, which plans to open a number of stores in shopping mall locations this year and next.

We don't see shopping malls becoming a magnet for grocery stores. However, locations like the two California malls where Whole Foods has opened the stores, where there's both stand-alone and in-mall access, can make very good sense for grocer's to explore.

Whole Foods' new store in Huntington Beach also shows off the grocer's keen ability to localize its units, building on its decentralized operations structure and culture.

Huntington Beach, including the neighborhood surrounding the Terra Bella Mall Whole Foods Market store, has a substantial Vietnamese population and community. Additionally, Huntington Beach, which is know as "Surf City USA," has a surfing culture - and is filled with surfers.

Whole Foods' has taken these demographic and cultural characteristics of the city and incorporated them into its new 30,000 square-foot store.

For example, the store, which features a massive fresh-prepared foods selection and an eat-in area, is offering what it's calling "Local Flavors," which are selections of ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat Vietnamese cuisine such as Sesame Peanut Cold Noodle Salad, Sweet and Spicy and Tamarind and Pho soups, Vietnamese Skirt Steak and Spicy Lemon Tamarind Tofu entrees, Vietnamese-inspired pizza and many more similar prepared foods items.

There's also a full selection of stir fry sets of pre-cut strips of pork, lamb, chicken and beef paired with vegetables, for easy cooking at home.

The items are as much (or more so) Vietnamese-inspired, meaning geared for all ethnic groups but offered as part of the localization of the store in celebration of the city's vibrant Vietnamese community. For example, most first and many second generation Vietnamese-Americans don't buy prepared foods all that often and prefer to cut their own meat for stir-fry at home.

Huntington Beach's surfer culture is equally represented in the new store - in the pizza and beer bar.

The in-store pizza and beer bar, which has seating for customers, offers hot pizza from an oven and has a variety of cold beers on tap, and is designed to be a local gathering place for shoppers to meet up with friends. The "bar" also features a live real time feed of the surf conditions in Huntington Beach so surfers can keep track of the waves. Being able to monitor the local waves while having pizza and beer is a surfers dream. As such, we expect the "bar" to become a hangout once word gets out about the real time feed.

As a part of its fresh-prepared foods offering, the store also offers shoppers "Beach Bar, such as: 405," which features a selection of rotating ethnic foods and flavors from all over the world such as: beef and chicken empanada plates; a variety of bruschetta and marinated garlic plates, and unique dishes like arepas (flat cornmeal patties from Venezuela and Columbia stuffed with chicken, cheese or meat) and Jade Pearl Marbles (rice balls made with Jade Pearl rice, vegetables and herbs) served with sesame miso dipping sauce.

Additionally, the in-store "Beach Bar 405" also offers a full selection of comfort foods like fried macaroni and cheese balls, chicken wings, nachos and french fries.

Below are some of the other key departmental features and focal points of the new Huntington Beach Whole Foods Market store:

Meat: specialty meats featured in the meat department include: savory cured meat from the in-house smoke bacon program, smoked pork bellies, shabu shabu meat, duck and game birds. And that's just fpor starters.

Seafood: The fresh fish and seafood offering is extensive. It includes whole fresh fish and fish fillets, seafood and shellfish of every kind, including numerous varieties and sizes of shrimp, pre-packed wild-caught and responsibly farmed fish packs with vegetables for steaming or stir frying, fish smoked in-house daily and more.

Cheese: there's a full selection of cheeses sourced locally and from around the world. Also: pre-packed cheese packs, like the "International Assortment" or "The Cheese Mongers Pick" are featured in the department. Customers can create their own pairings of cheese with jellies, honeys from Honey Pacifica, a local honey producer, truffle oils, spreads, sauces and tapenades

Beer and Wine: Create your own six pack. The 'Mix and Match 6-Pack' offered in the department lets customers create their own set of hand-crafted beers from around the world, including varieties from the Orange County-based brewery, The Bruery. Wines made from grapes from Vietnam, as well as traditional favorites from Santa Barbara and other well-regarded regions are featured in the department. The store also is one of the first Whole Foods stores in the country that will carry what will be the grocer's challenge - an inexpensive but quality wine - to Trader's Joe's famous "Two Buck Chuck."

Bakery: organic breads made fresh daily include French baguettes, a Vietnamese favorite from the years of French occupation, plus a variety of Vietnamese coconut cakes, as well as tapioca desserts, cream puffs and cream horns. There are numerous gluten-free and vegan baked goods offered.

Produce: Whole Foods says it's offering as much quality locally-grown produce as it can source in the department, including products from Orange County Produce, featuring in-season and unique, ethnic selections such as baby bok choy, baby celery and greens for Asian cooking grown at Yasutomi Farm and a large selection of fresh squeezed citrus and vegetable juices.. Huntington Beach is in Orange County.

Floral: flowers and plants from local vendors are features, including lilies and Gerber daisies from local Fox Point Farm and succulents and indoor plants grown at Farm-Deer Springs, another local grower. The department is also offering eco-friendly cards, to pair with floral gifts, from Jillson and Roberts, a line of locally-made cards designed by kids through the Art for Education program.

Pickle Barrels: Roll out the barrel. The store offers a variety of bulk Alexander Valley pickles in barrels. The varieties include: Manhattan, Bread & Butter, Hot & Spicy and famous Rick's Picks, which have to be tasted to be described.

Bulk foods and more: The store offers more than 60 herbs and spices in bulk. There's also numerous types of olive oil, including two California brands, available in bulk dispensers. Containers are available at the store but shoppers are encourages to bring their own reusable containers

Whole Body: A major offering in the stores body care section is a selection of value oriented bulk natural soaps, bath salts, shower gels, shampoos, conditioners and lotions. There's also make-up, supplements, including herbs and essentials from Southern California-based Paradise Herbs, and a huge selection of organic baby products.

Like all Whole Foods' stores, the new Huntington Beach unit puts a major emphasis on offering locally-produced and made foods and other products, as we've outlined above.

Store Team Leader Pat Cox says the store currently offers products from over 50 local purveyors and vendors - and that the list is growing. For example, the in-house coffee poured in the store's cafe comes from local vendor Portola Handcrafted Coffee Roasters.

The new store makes 30 stores for Whole Foods in Southern California. The 30 units range in size from 25,000-30,000 square-feet to the nearly 80,000 square-foot Southern California flagship store in Pasadena.

There are 62 Whole Foods stores in California.

Whole Foods Market currently has four new stores in development in Southern California - one each in Del Mar, Encinitas, Malibu and Oxnard. The grocer continues to search for new store locations in the region.

Related Stories

September 21, 2010: A Look Inside Whole Foods Market's Newest Store, A Mall Location in Santa Rosa, California

September 19, 2010: Whole Foods Market Gives Itself A 30th Birthday Present: 299th Store Opens This Week in Santa Rosa, California

September 18, 2010: Keep On Truckin' - Whole Foods Market Celebrates 30 Years This Weekend.

July 14, 2010: Tony Bennett Has Nothing on Whole Foods Market When it Comes to Loving San Francisco...That City By the Bay

May 9, 2010: A Whopping 15 of Whole Foods Market's 41 New Stores in Development are in California - And Nine of The 15 Are In Northern CA

June 14, 2010: Newly-Named Whole Foods Market CO-CEO Walter Robb Comes Full Circle With the Opening of the New Store in Mill Valley CA

Target Hits Once-in-Century Date Bulls Eye: Opens Ten New Stores On Sunday 10-10-2010

Target Corp. took advantage of a once-in-a-century opportunity yesterday, 10-10-2010, to officially open a whopping 10 new U.S. discount format stores. Yesterday's date combination only comes around once every 100-years.

All of the new Target units had limited soft openings beginning a few days earlier. However, yesterday was grand opening day at the 10 stores, which range in size from about 138,000 -to- 150,000 square-feet, and span the country, stretching from California and Utah in the west, to Arkansas and the east coast. Target says the opening of the 10 stores created about 2,400 new jobs.

The 10 stores feature Target's 'P-Fresh' fresh food and grocery sections inside. Additionally, because they are new stores, some of the 'P-Fresh' sections are bigger than the normal 10,000-12,000 square-foot size. The new units opened yesterday also include in-store Starbucks coffee bars, prepared food and beverage-focused Target Café's, and in-store pharmacies.

Five of the 10 new stores are in California - two units in Southern California, two in Northern California, and one in Bakersfield in the Central Valley. The locations of 10 new stores are:

>Sacramento East: 6507 4th Ave., Sacramento, Calif.
>Simi Valley West: 51 Tierra Rejada Rd., Simi Valley, Calif.
>Bakersfield Central: 2901 Ming Ave., Bakersfield, Calif.
>San Jose North: 95 Holger Way, San Jose, Calif.
>Azusa: 809 Azusa Ave., Azusa, Calif.
>Salt Lake City: 1110 S. 300 West, Salt Lake City, Utah
>Little Rock University: 420 S. University Ave., Little Rock, Ark.
>Christiana: 800 Christiana Mall, Christiana, Del.
>Flushing: 4024 College Point Blvd., Flushing, N.Y.
>Braintree: 250 Granite St., Braintree, Mass.

The fact five of the ten new Target stores opened on 10-10-2010 are in California is far from a coincidence. Rather, it reflects the significant strategic commitment the retailer has to the state and its various regions.

There are now 249 Target discount format stores in California - 175 in Southern and Central California and 74 in Northern California.

A little over half of the California stores currently have 'P-Fresh" (pictured above) fresh food and grocery markets inside. However, Target is adding them to a significant percentage of the remaining stores rapidly, as part of its program to have the markets in 850 of its now 1,600 U.S. discount format stores by the end of 2011. [Read our September 24, 2010 piece: September 24, 2010: Target to Have 'P-fresh' Fresh Food & Grocery Markets in 850 Stores By 2011 End; First Smaller Urban Store Set For Seattle in 2012.]


For example, the new Simi Valley, California store is the first Target discount store in Ventura County to have a 'P-Fresh' which offers fresh produce, meats, perishable and frozen foods, pre-packaged baked goods, and packaged food/grocery items. There's an existing Target in Simi Valley, opened in 1986, but it doesn't include the in-store grocery market.

In Utah, the new Target discount store in Salt Lake City is the first unit of its kind in the state to feature a 'P-Fresh' market. However, Target has over a dozen of its Super Target combination supermarket/general merchandise stores in Utah, so the state's shoppers are very familiar with the retailer's approach to selling fresh food and groceries.

At the other end of the spectrum in Northern California, the new Target discount store in Sacramento makes 13 for the retailer in the metro region. And all 13 of the stores have 'P-Fresh' markets inside, as we detailed here: While Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Postponed, Target Opened 42 'P-Fresh' Fresh Food and Grocery Markets in Northern California.

The situation is similar in San Jose. Target now has 'P-Fresh' fresh food and grocery markets in eight discount stores in San Jose. See the story linked above. Also see - September 22, 2010: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Planning A New, Third Store in San Jose, California

In terms of 'P-Fresh' size, the new Target in Braintree, Massachusetts opened on Sunday has one of the larger fresh food and grocery store-within-a-store sections to date. The Braintree 'P-fresh' has 20 aisles of groceries, including four aisles devoted to fresh produce, meat and dairy-deli items. The store is 150,000 square-feet.

Target now has 'P-Fresh' fresh food and grocery markets in 472 of its U.S. discount stores. The retailer plans on adding the markets to 378 additional stores over the next 15 months, giving it a total of 850 units with 'P-Fresh' in-store by the end of next year.

As we've been saying in Fresh & Easy Buzz for some time, Target is on its way to becoming a major player in U.S. food and grocery retailing, largely due to its rapid addition and expansion of the 'P-Fresh' markets inside its existing discount format stores.

The 850 Target discount units set to have 'P-Fresh' by the end of 2011 are only half of the retailer's current total discount store-count. We expect to see the retailer add 'P-Fresh' to additional discount stores in 2012. We will have more on that in a future story.

Target also is headed north. The retailer confirms rumors that it plans to open stores in Canada. It isn't offering a specific date for the opening of the first store. But Target Corp representatives were at a retail industry convention in Toronto last week, shopping for locations. A Target spokesperson says the retailer could ultimately open up to 200 stores in Canada over the next few years.

Related Stories:

September 26, 2010: While Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Postponed, Target Opened 42 'P-Fresh' Fresh Food and Grocery Markets in Northern California

September 24, 2010: Target to Have 'P-fresh' Fresh Food & Grocery Markets in 850 Stores By 2011 End; First Smaller Urban Store Set For Seattle in 2012

September 22, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Plans to Open Two Additional Stores in Northern California in Early 2011

September 20, 2010: About Today's Walmart Stores, Inc. Smaller Stores Media Frenzy: We Scooped it On July 6, 2010

May 11, 2009: Target on Tap to Put Mini-Grocery and Fresh Foods Markets Into 100 Target Discount Stores This Year; Many More Likely to Come in 2010

November 19, 2009: Competitor News: Target Corp. Planning to Dramatically Expand Food and Grocery Offerings in All of its U.S. Target Discount Format Stores

July 9, 2008: Southern California Market Report: Five Supermarkets; A New Fresh & Easy, Wal-Mart and Super Target Will All Compete in Hesperia Food Retailing Rodeo

July 6, 2010: Walmart Looking for Store Sites in Northern California For 20,000 Sq-Ft Neighborhood Market by Walmart Prototype Store

September 23, 2010: Revisting 'marketside by Walmart': Format As We Know it On the Way Out But Some or All Of the Four Stores Could Be Converted