Getting By (Much Better Now) 'With A Little Help From My Friends:' New Talent On Board the Fresh & Easy Corporate Marketing Blog One Year Hence

In 2008, Fresh & Easy Buzz wrote and published a number of posts about Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's corporate marketing Blog, published by the retailer's marketing chief, Simon Uwins, and how the Blog would go for weeks, and even months, without being updated with new content-posts, along with the fact that seldom if ever reader-customer comments on the Blog were addressed and answered.

We likened the situation to a retail store -- of which a corporate marketing Blog is an extension of in the case of a retailer that uses one for such purposes -- that is neglected, seldom updated in content and merchandising, and where customers' (that's what the Blog's readers are, along with others being potential customers) questions are seldom answered. A corporate marketing-oriented Blog is an extension -- a digital store-front minus actually selling groceries -- of a grocery chain's brick-and-mortar stores. Plus, marketing and customer service is "everything" a retailer does, from how store employees dress to its Web sites and Blogs.

It's our analysis and opinion that when a grocery chain or any other type of retailer uses a company Blog for marketing purposes it then needs to keep the content (regular posts say at least once a week at a minimum) of that Blog fresh, just like it must keep merchandise in a brick-and-mortar grocery store fresh.

And just like store employees are required to (and want to) answer customer questions and inquiries, so to should whomever is responsible for publishing a company marketing Blog do the same. It's just basic and good customer service.

We also think retailer company Blogs should offer customers and potential customers important information about the retailer and its stores, as well as marketing-focused information. Done well, both general and marketing-oriented communications can be achieved, often times in the same post.

Whole Foods Market, Inc. does this well with its "Whole Story" Blog. Wal-Mart does it in an interesting and informative way as well with its Web site-based "Buyers Blog," as does San Francisco Bay Area (Northern California) multi-store independent Andronico's Market, with its "Buyers Blog," to offer three grocer-retailer examples we think are worth taking a look at.

Below are links to the posts we made about the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market corporate marketing Blog topic and issue in 2008:

[January 21, 2008: Click! Click!: Who's Minding the Fresh & Easy Corporate Blog?... February 14, 2008: It Looks Like Somebody is Minding the Fresh & Easy Corporate Blog A Bit Better of Late... March 29, 2008: Things Are Improving Over at the Fresh & Easy Corporate Blog: Perhaps They've Been Listening to Us?.]

As you can see by the post titles above, after publishing our January 21, 2008 piece, in which we identified and pointed out the problem, there was some improvement at the Fresh & Easy corporate marketing Blog, an improvement we attempted to reinforce in a positive manner (Fair & Balanced as one cable news network likes to say) with two posts -- one in February and another in March.

But... things went downhill over at the Fresh & Easy corporate marketing Blog once again soon after -- actually well before October, but we waited, just to be fair, as the posts linked below describe:

[October 13, 2008: 'The Promotional Pundit': Tesco Fresh & Easy Launches New $6-off Online Coupon Today; Post on Corp. Marketing Blog Remains -- Adding Insult to Injury... October 12, 2008: 'The Promotional Pundit:' More On the Online Coupon Fiasco: Tesco Fresh & Easy's Marketing Department to Launch A New Online Coupon Early Next Week... October 10, 2008: 'The Promotional Pundit': Keeping the Marketing and Promotional Eye On the Ball; Fixing A Promotional Fiasco Fresh & Easy Isn't Even Aware Of.]

Things got even worse over at the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market corporate marketing Blog in the fall of 2008, when not one single new post was made from September, 2008 -to- the end of the year. Fresh & Easy Buzz was well aware of the once again neglected digital store-front but (that Fair & Balanced mantra again) decided to hold off, thinking perhaps the busy holiday season was the reason, therefore giving benefit to the doubt.

We were considering writing another piece about the topic when not a single new sentence, nor even a single word, was posted as 2008 neared its end in December. Even worse, numerous reader-customer comments in the form of questions on the last posts went unanswered, as they do to this day from those past posts.

We then learned that Mr. Uwins was out during most of that period on paternity leave -- the proud new father of twins. Congratulations on that wonderful event to him.

We learned this fact though -- and its explanation as to why there had been zero posting activity on the company Blog -- not from the Blog -- which one could reasonably expect (or if not, just a single sentence in the Blog saying: "There won't be any new posts in the Fresh & Easy marketing Blog until January, 2009) -- but rather from a response by SallieB (who works for Fresh & Easy's public relations firm) on the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Twitter.com site she established and maintains in an excellent manner for the grocery and fresh foods chain.

Her "tweet" (Twitter-talk for a post) was in response to a question ("tweet") from a Fresh & Easy customer, Blogger and Twitter-user named Frankie, who was asking why there hadn't been a post on the Fresh & Easy company Blog since September. She had also left the same question on the company Blog but it was never responded to. There were a couple of additional consumer questions on the last (September, 2008) post on the Fresh & Easy corporate marketing Blog, in addition to hers, asking this same question, by the way -- question-comments that went unanswered.

Therefore, we decided to not write about the over three month lack of Blog activity at the Fresh & Easy corporate marketing Blog (digital store-front) for a bit, waiting to see if something might appear in 2009. (The benefit-of-the-doubt mantra again.)

And eventually it did. On January 2, 2009, Mr. Uwins wrote the post reprinted below (in italics) titled: "new year resolutions from fresh & easy." Of particular note are paragraphs number 9 and 10:

Friday, January 2, 2009
new year resolutions from fresh & easy

"Well, what an extraordinary year.

With all that's happened in the world, it's easy to forget that fresh&easy only had its first birthday in November.

From the start, it's been a business built by simply listening to what customers ideally want, and then trying to deliver it.

So in that spirit, I thought I'd share 3 resolutions for the new year.

We all know about the state of the economy. In talking to a lot of our customers, we hear about the various measures they're taking to cut down on their spending and reduce waste, in order to stretch their budgets. But we're also hearing the same concerns that we heard before, about the wholesomeness of food and the impact on the environment, though with a real sense of having to compromise to make ends meet.

So our first resolution is to find new ways to help our customers to stretch their budgets, so they don't have to compromise - from tomorrow, for example, we will always have 6 produce packs on offer at just 98¢ per pack, week in, week out, so our customers can count on it."

We've also had many, many requests to be kept informed via email of what's going on at our stores - whether offers, new products, meal ideas, etc.

So our second resolution is to do just that - you can now sign up on our website to be a friend of fresh&easy, receiving latest news and offers from us via email. It's quite basic at the moment, but we'll add features as we go (on the basis of feedback from our friends, naturally).

Finally, I've also had many requests to keep this blog going, and make it a bit more interactive - I'm very conscious that my last posting was in September (I had twin girls that month, which has kept me rather busy...).

So my third resolution, to uprate this blog. To help me, I've co-opted 2 web assistants, Gary and Sallie, who'll add things now and then, and follow up on comments. They'll always though use their own names, when they do.

It's been an amazing year to be a part of fresh&easy, as we've built a brand from nothing.Who knows what 2009 will bring. But we'll just keep listening to customers, and trying to give them what they want.And that, surely, is how it should be.

If you read our January, 2008, February, 2008 and March, 2008 posts on the topic and issue that we linked above (eighth paragraph from the top of this page), you will see we offered as one simple solution to the problem being for Mr. Uwins to merely have one or more of the Fresh & Easy Buzz marketing and/or PR firm staff personal assist him with posting and responding to reader-customer comments on the Fresh & Easy corporate marketing Blog -- assisting with the operations of the digital store-front just as team members assist one another in the Fresh & Easy brick-and-mortar grocery stores.

Such teamwork also has the added benefit of getting fresh thinking from others. It's also plain old good delegation. We also suggested -- and still do -- that some of the Fresh & Easy category managers and buyers be invited to post on the Blog. After all, too many marketers on one Blog tends to sound like...well, too many marketers. Other voices add variety. How about a store manager (or employee) or two as well?

It took a full year, but it appears marketing chief Uwins agreed with our suggestion. And since we believe course-correction to be a good thing, we applaud the decision. Better late than never, right?

SallieB and Gary, a company marketing staffer, are now posting on the Fresh & Easy marketing Blog, as well as answering some of the reader questions left via the comment box. As mentioned, SallieB does an excellent job with the Twitter site, and it appears Gary has been posting on the company's Twitter site as well. Both have added to the Fresh & Easy corporate marketing Blog, particularly the simple fact that the posting is now more frequent. It could be a little more frequent however. A minimum of at least once a week seems reasonable to us.

Having SallieB and Gary posting on the company Blog also has an added benefit for Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market: both are or very close to the age demographic (about 18-35) which we've identified to thus far be the most enthusiastic about the Fresh & Easy small-format, convenience-oriented grocery and fresh foods store and retail offering. Combining the use of the Blog with social networking tools like Twitter is something both of them seem well versed in and comfortable with.

Fresh & Easy Marketing chief Simon Uwins has often mentioned his affection for the British band Radio Head, which was born in Oxford, England, in the corporate marketing Blog. But it appears that about one year since we first suggested it, Mr. Uwins has listened to the musical advice of another British rock legend, Joe Cocker, he born and raised in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, and asked for a little help from his friends with the company Blog. As Mr. Cocker sings:

What would you think if I sang out of tune,
Would you stand up and walk out on me?
Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song
And I'll try not to sing out of key.

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm, I get high with a little help from my friends
Mm, gonna try with a little help from my friends

[Click here for all of the lyrics, and a cell phone ringtone as well.]

We look forward to watching how the Fresh & Easy corporate marketing Blog progresses now that the two new associates have joined the team. Of course, some might suggest that now with a team of three, particularly since the two new Bloggers are extremely talented from our observations, that the bar has now automatically been set much higher. We will let Fresh & Easy Buzz readers know if we think that bar has been met -- or even exceeded -- down the road a bit. [Hint: We like that SallieB and Gary have been posting at least one a week since January. That frequency sounds familiar.]

Waiting a year to bring in some help with the Blog was about 11 months too long though. We've heard from a number of the company Blog readers who didn't ever get their post questions answered, nearly all of them were Fresh & Easy store customers. Most were not very pleased.

Those we heard from also said they stopped shopping at the stores. We only heard from about six such people -- but that's six too many for a grocer to alienate when doing so can be easily avoided. And if six did send us comments, comments we didn't ask for, we can imagine there are more than six that felt they received negative customer service by not having their questions addressed on the corporate marketing Blog. And as all marketers know, word-of-mouth can be the best -- and the worse if negative -- form of marketing. It's a powerful sword that can cut both ways.

Course correction is good among retailers and marketers. We applaud it. But waiting unnecessarily too long to course correct when there's no need to do so can cause damage to a brand, not to mention contributing to a loss of customers. We suggest it did so at Fresh & Easy.

After all, there's never anything wrong with asking for a little help from one's friends -- in real time though. And can't you almost feel the sigh of relief when reading Mr. Uwins' January 2, 2009 Blog post about getting a little help with the corporate marketing Blog from his friends-associates?

Reader Resource:

[The Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market corporate marketing Blog is here.]

[A couple past posts from Fresh & Easy Buzz about the Fresh & Easy company Blog but not directly related to the topic addressed in our post: April 6, 2008: Telegraph.uk.com: 'Tesco USA Slip Highlights the Perils of Corporate Blogging;' We Couldn't Disagree More With This Piece April 18, 2008: Fresh & Easy Marketing Director Talks About the 'Self-Service' Checkout Policy at the Stores in the F&E Company Blog.]

[Twitter.com: You can follow Fresh & Easy Buzz on Twitter here.]

Bloggers-At-Large - Weekend Frolic: Video Blogger Spoofs Trader Joe's in YouTube Video Commercial Spot

Video Blogger and YouTube creative force Chris, who also posts video spoofs at carlsfinefilms.com, isn't a member of the cult of Trader Joe's (TJ's), those millions of consumers who love the specialty grocer's stores and spend lots of money shopping at them. In fact, you could probably say Chris prefers pretty much all other grocers and grocery stores to TJ's -- perhaps because the iconic grocer has such a cult following. Such phenomenon are the seeds of video spoofs, after all.

Chris decided to express his opinion of Trader Joe's by making a TJ's commercial he would like to see, and posting it on YouTube, for all to see. He calls it: His "Unauthorized commercial for Trader Joe’s shot on my Palm Treo before I accidentally ran over it with my car."

You can join the 171, 597 (and counting) viewers who've watched the "unauthorized" Trader Joe's spoof commercial spot, simply titled, "If I Made a Commercial for Trader Joe's," on YouTube by clicking here.

Note to Chris: Might an unauthorized commercial of Tesco's Fresh & Easy be in your future creative portfolio? Or Whole Foods Market... Wal-Mart?

Note to Readers: You can view additional, similar spots at: http://www.carlsfinefilms.com/.

[You can follow Fresh & Easy Buzz on Twitter.com at: www.twitter.com/freshneasybuzz]

The Valentine's Day (Retail Promotional Price) War of the (Dozen Long-Stemmed) Red Roses: And the Winner Is... Tesco's Fresh & Easy

The Valentine's Day holiday, which this year falls on a Saturday -- tomorrow, Saturday, February 14 -- is the first merchandising and selling opportunity for food and grocery (and other format) retailers after the busy Christmas-New Year's season.

The week leading up to Valentines Day, which has become an event not just to celebrate with significant others but also one in which many people exchange greeting cards and buy gifts for close friends and family members, offers food and grocery retailers the opportunity to merchandise, promote and sell numerous products in high volume that they normally wouldn't sell much of at all in mid-February were it not for the Valentine's Day holiday.

These items include: Valentine's Day-themed greeting cards of all kinds; both regular and special Valentine's Day candy and confection items; Valentines Day-themed gift items (food and non-food); higher-priced and higher margin premium chocolates and other confections; bakery items like cakes, cookies and more; premium fresh meat items like Filet Mignon and New York steaks, as well as high-end items like fresh and frozen Lobster; higher-end wines, champagnes and spirits; numerous other food items that go with creating a quality Valentine's Day dinner at home; and, of course -- fresh cut flowers, particularly roses, and especially red roses. Roses in colors other than red have become increasingly popular over the years, but when it comes to Valentine's Day the red rose is still by far the most popular color desired by shoppers and sold by retailers.

And for those starving college students and the rest of us economically hard-pressed folks, that single red rose, dressed up with a couple floral greens and a strand of baby's breath, can also make a romantic Valentine's Day statement, particularly if you include a card that expresses the "singular" nature of the significant other you give the single-rose bouquet to. We offer that suggestion both to those with recession-pinched pocketbooks, as well as to any retailers who've yet to include the single-rose bouquet in their Valentine's Day floral merchandising mix. We've seen such single-rose mini-bouquets for $3 -to- $5 in a couple supermarkets this week. it's a great value merchandising idea for this year.

But numerous food/grocery, drug and discount retailers in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona, where Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market operates its about 112 combination grocery and fresh foods stores, have taken the recessionary moment to heart, and to their merchandising schemes, and are offering bouquet's of one dozen long-stemmed red roses at super-affordable prices this year for Valentine's Day.

Fresh & Easy Buzz just completed a survey of a number of those retailers in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona that are offering such deals.

How we did the survey: (1) We looked at and surveyed the hard copy and online advertising circulars of just the top food/grocery, drug and discount chains in the three states, not other formats. (2) We only included those chains that are promoting one dozen long-stemmed red roses in either their weekly advertising circulars/flyers or via their Web site ads, or both. And we might has missed a couple. We aren't claiming we did a scientific, random sample study. It's merely a survey of chains offering promotions on the dozen red roses via printed-digital media. (3) If retail chains are offering the dozen red roses on promotion only in-store, they are not included in our survey. That means there could be a grocery, drug or discount retailer or two (or more) in the three markets that's offering one dozen long-stemmed roses at a lower price than those included in our survey. We make no claims that our survey lists all of the "lowest" available prices in the three markets. We do believe the retailers listed represent the lowest-priced offering in the three markets though.

Below are the results of Fresh & Easy Buzz's survey of food/grocery, drug and discount format retailers in Southern California, Southern Nevada (Metro Las Vegas region) and Arizona that are promoting the lowest advertised prices we could find for one dozen long-stemmed red roses for Valentines Day 2009. It's the "Retail (Promotional Price) War of the (Red) Roses."

1. Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market. Stores in Southern California, Nevada, Arizona. 1 dozen long-stemmed red roses.
Promotional Price = $9.99

2. Wal-Mart. Stores in Southern California, Southern Nevada and Arizona.
1 dozen long-stemmed red roses.
Promotional Price = $15.00

3. Costco. Stores in Southern California, Southern Nevada and Arizona
1 dozen long-stemmed red roses.
Promotional Price = $14.99

4. Trader Joe's. Stores in Southern California, Southern Nevada and Arizona.
1 dozen long-stemmed red roses.
Promotional Price = $16.99

Note: When it comes to roses of any other color besides red, Trader Joe's is the winner. The grocer is offering a bunch of 14 long-stemmed roses in every other color (pink, white, yellow, orange, ect.) but red, for $9.99. (or a bunch of six for $6.99). That's two extra roses, but not red ones, for $9.99, the same promotional price Fresh & Easy is offering for one dozen red roses. You can read about Trader Joe's offering here. But for a dozen red roses the cost is $16.99 at Trader Joe's.

5. Kroger Co. Southern California (Ralphs, Food 4 Less), Southern Nevada (Smith's, Food 4 Less), Arizona (Fry's, Smith's, Food 4 Less). 1 dozen long-stemmed red roses.
Promotional Price = $17.77

6. Albertsons. Stores in Southern California, Southern Nevada, Arizona.
1 dozen long-stemmed red roses.
Promotional Price = $19.99

7. Stater Bros. Southern California
1 dozen long-stemmed red roses
Promotional Price = 19.99

8. Walgreens Drug. Stores in Southern California, Southern Nevada and Arizona. 1 dozen long-stemmed red roses.
Promotional Price = $19.99

9. Long's Drug. Stores in Southern California, Southern Nevada and Arizona.
1 dozen long-stemmed red roses.
Promotional Price = $19.99

10. Target. Stores in Southern California, Southern Nevada and Arizona.
1 dozen long-stemmed red roses.
Promotional Price = $19.99

11. Safeway Stores, Inc. Stores in Southern California, Southern Nevada (Vons) and Arizona (Safeway). 1 dozen long-stemmed red roses.
Promotional Price = $21.99.

Note: Safeway/Vons also is offering a coupon for an additional $4-off the $21.99 promotional price of shoppers purchase a minimum of two Hallmark Valentine's Day greeting cards with a minimum price of $1.00 for the cards.

12. Bashas. Arizona
1 dozen long-stemmed red roses.
Promotional Price = $21.99

Kroger Co. (Ralphs and Food 4 Less) and Safeway (Vons) are the top two (in market share) grocery chains in Southern California and Southern Nevada. Albertson's and Stater Bros. round out the top four in Southern California. Kroger and Safeway also are the top chains in Southern Nevada. Wal-Mart, Safeway, Kroger and Bashas are the top four chains in Arizona. In other words, we've included the market share leaders in all three market regions in this survey.

As with all products -- and especially a super-significant gift item like a dozen long-stemmed red roses for Valentine's Day -- value doesn't mean just price. It means which dozen red roses are of the relative best quality (look, how long will they last, ect.) for the best price. That equals value.

For example, spending $5 or even $10 more for a bunch of one dozen red roses that is superior in quality can actually be a bargain, depending on who the gift is for. Having them last beyond the next day also offers benefits, as well as perhaps saving embarrassment to the giver, particularly if your are trying to make an impression on a potential sweetheart or significant other. We make no representation in this survey as to the quality of any of the red roses being offered by these retailers.

What we do know though is that the prices represented by the retailers listed above are among the lowest we've seen across the board for Valentine's Day in many years. It's clear the retailers "get it" and are offering good prices in this severe recession.

Of course, in terms of quality there is no doubt that there are cheap red roses and absolutely stunning ones. And many of the food/grocery chains, particularly Safeway and Kroger, are offering super-premium bunches of one dozen long-stemmed red roses at higher prices. Safeway, for example, is offering a super-premium red rose full arrangement in its advertising circular this week for $49.99, along with over a dozen other Valentine's Day 2009 floral arrangements, ranging from $6.99 mixed bouquets on up, including floral shop-quality orchids and many other varieties.

But when it comes to this year's "Valentines Day Retail (Promotion Price) War of the (Red) Roses," Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market beats out all the others we've surveyed with its $9.99 per dozen bunch of long-stemmed red roses. At $9.99 for the dozen, Tesco's Fresh & Easy beats out number two Wal-Mart ($15.00 dozen) by $5.01. Therefore, Fresh & Easy is the winner.

[Reader Note: Fresh & Easy Buzz is an independent Blog. We have no affiliation with Tesco, Tesco's Fresh & Easy, or any other food and grocery or other format retailer. You can follow Fresh & Easy Buzz on Twitter.com at: www.twitter.com/freshneasybuzz.]

Labor & Food Retailing: Kroger Co. Chains Sign New Contract With the UFCW Union in Vegas; What Happened to the UFCW Tesco Fresh & Easy Campaign?

Las Vegas Market Region -- and Beyond

Kroger Co., the largest U.S. supermarket chain and the number three seller of food and groceries nationally in the country in terms of market share, (after number one Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. and Coscto), says it has reached agreement with the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) union on a union contract for store-level employees in the Las Vegas, Nevada Metropolitan regional market.

Kroger Co. operates two supermarket chains in the Las Vegas Metro market -- Smith's Food and Drug and Food 4 Less.

The compromise contract agreement was signed with Las Vegas-based UFCW local 711, according to the union and Kroger Co. The local represents 2,800 Smith's and 900 Food 4 Less store-level workers at a combined 47 Smith's and Food 4 Less stores in the Las Vegas Metropolitan region.

"This agreement maintains quality jobs and affordable health care for our associates and their families in this challenging economy and keeps our stores competitive," Jim Hallsey, president of Smith's Food and Drug, and Dave Hirz, president of Food 4 Less, said in a joint statement issued by Kroger Co.

The UFCW union local and Kroger had been negotiating over a new contract for a considerable amount of time. Among the issues in the negotiations were health care and job security.

Vegas, supermarkets and the UFCW

The Las Vegas Metropolitan region is one of three markets where Tesco operates its 112 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market combination grocery and fresh foods stores. The other two markets are Southern California and the Phoenix, Arizona Metropolitan region. There are about 35 Fresh & Easy markets in the Las Vegas Metro region.

Unlike Kroger's Smith's Food & Drug and Food 4 Less and most of the other supermarket chains in the Las Vegas, Nevada region -- as well as those in California and Arizona -- Tesco's Fresh & Easy is non-union.

Other major chains in the three markets that are unionized include Safeway Stores, Inc. (Safeway and Vons banners in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona), Ralphs (Southern California) and Fry's (Arizona) (both Kroger Co.-owned), Albertsons (Southern California, Nevada, Arizona) and a number of others, including smaller, privately-held grocery chains like 18-store Gelson's in Southern California and some others.

Most of the chain and larger, multi-store independents (and even some single-store operators) in the three markets are UFCW-union affiliated. But like Tesco's Fresh & Easy, Wal-Mart, Trader Joe's and Whole Foods Market, all major food retailers with numerous stores in the three markets, aren't unionized either.

UFCW in relative hibernation over Tesco Fresh & Easy

As regular readers of Fresh & Easy Buzz know from our extensive coverage of the issue throughout 2008, the UFCW made Tesco's Fresh & Easy its prime target in terms of non-union food and grocery retailer unionization campaigns last year.

The UFCW had its closest chance to achieve potential unionization at Fresh & Easy when employees of the Fresh & Easy market in Huntington Beach, California sent a letter to Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's senior management at corporate headquarters in Southern California, requesting to be recognized as a UFCW-affiliated union store.

The company responded to the store employees, telling them they were welcome to follow established procedures and hold a "secret ballot" vote on UFCW-affiliation and becoming a union store in accordance with U.S. Department of Labor guidelines. [Read our report on the store-issue in this September, 2008 piece: [Store Workers at Huntington Beach Fresh & Easy Demand Union Recognition From Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market.] Such a response by a non-union grocery retailing company is common; it's the norm rather than the exception.

The UFCW said at the time it planned to go forward and work with the Huntington Beach store employees and to eventually hold a vote on unionization.

However, its been about six months, September, 2008 to the present, and no Huntington Beach Fresh & Easy store employee union vote has taken place yet.

Political developments and UFCW's Tesco Fresh & Easy campaign

Of course, since September, 2008 much has happened politically in the U.S. Most specifically for the UFCW, Barack Obama was elected President, with much support by organized labor, including the union which represents about 1.5 million unionized supermarket workers in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico.

President Obama, along with the unions and the Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, are in favor of the Employee Free Choice Act legislation and its "Card Check" provision, which instead of a "secret ballot" (the current process) vote (which isn't as easy a process as it sounds), would only require employees in all industries, including food and grocery retailing, to check "yes" on card if they want to join a union.

If the majority of say the 25 employees at a Fresh & Easy market checked yes under "Card Check," they would be certified as a union shop. The secret ballot process is much more elaborate and longer. It also allows companies to meet with and attempt to convince employees not to join the union during the process, subject to U.S. Labor Law provisions of course.

Most of corporate America, along with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business trade groups, and the majority of Republicans in the House and Senate, are against the Employee Free Choice Act and its "Card Check" provision. They argue the "secret ballot" is the only fair way to hold a unionization vote, comparing the process to the "secret ballot" voters cast in electing their representatives.

The unions and other supporters, including the majority of Democrats in Congress and the President, challenge that, saying employees should have a right to an easy way, like "Card Check," to say "yes" or "no" to joining a union. They also argue voting for those who represent citizens in public office is far different than an employee electing to join a union or not.

According to a couple of our sources, the UFCW has been so much less active in its efforts to unionize Tesco's Fresh & Easy so far this year because it is waiting for Congress to put the Employee Free Choice Act with its "Card Check" provision up for debate and eventual vote in the House and Senate.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, from California, has said she wants to introduce the Employee Free Choice Act legislation this year. Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid, from Searchlight, Nevada, hasn't said yet if he will introduce the legislation in the Senate this year.

The Employee Free Choice Act was voted on in 2008 by both the House and the Senate. It passed by a majority in the House, where just a simple majority is needed to pass legislation, but failed to gain 60 votes in the Senate, which requires that many votes, called a Supermajority, in order to pass legislation that is opposed and filibustered by the opposition party, which the minority Senate Republicans did successfully last year. As a result, the legislation failed to get the required 60 votes in the Senate and went away. President George W. Bush has promised he would not sign the legislation if it did pass the Senate.

However, the Democrats now have a considerably larger majority in the Senate after the 2008 election than they did in 2008. There are currently 57 Democrats in the Senate, and possibly soon 58, if former comedian and radio talk show host Al Franken is confirmed as the Senator from Minnesota in that disputed election, which looks like will happen soon. Additionally, the two independents in the Senate voted for the Employee Free Choice Act the last time around. That could give them the needed 60 votes, assuming all Democrats voted in favor of the legislation. One or two moderate Republicans also could vote in favor of the legislation if it is raised this year.

President Obama has already said he would sign the Employee Free Choice Act if passed by Congress. However, it isn't at the top of his agenda right now -- the economy is.

And the President and his top aids are also concerned about the legislation being brought up anytime soon in 2009 (they prefer 2010) out of fear it will cause a backlash with unemployment at such record highs, and growing. The fear is that a debate on the Employee Free Choice Act this year would give Republicans a perfect issue to hammer the new Democratic President with, arguing as they did last year (but much louder this time) -- when the economy was much better than it is now and when unemployment was much lower than it is at present -- that passing the legislation would amount to a "job-killing" bill at a time when job loss is already skyrocketing.

The President's men also feel it would be a political gift to the conservative radio talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh and others who have already said that if the Employee Free Choice Act comes up in Congress this year they will use it as a "job killing" hammer against the President and Democrats. One can almost visualize Rush Limbaugh encouraging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to bring the legislation up in the House in the same way a fully-committed carnivore urges a vegetarian to just taste one bite of the beef Prime Rib so she can know what it actually tastes like to better make her case for vegetarianism.

Regardless of whether or not the UFCW is waiting for the Employee Free Choice Act and its "Card Check" provision to pass or not, it is fair to say that in terms of last year's super-aggressive and highly coordinated efforts to unionize Tesco Fresh & Easy store-level employees, thus far this year the UFCW has been in relative hibernation.

For example, while still picketing at some Fresh & Easy stores, the UFCW hasn't thus far this year demonstrated anywhere near as strongly as in 2008, when it had union reps at every new store opening, holding up signs, handing out literature and encouraging shoppers to not shop at the non-union stores.

Additionally, for most of 2008 the UFCW conducted a vocal and aggressive lobbying and public relations campaign both in the U.S. and in the United Kingdom where Tesco is headquartered, designed to draw attention to the fact Tesco's Fresh & Easy is non-union and to gain support from store employees, politicians and the media for its unionization efforts. Thus far this year that mighty UFCW 2008 PR machine has been near-silent.

Lastly, throughout 2008 UFCW representatives paid regularly scheduled visits to numerous Fresh & Easy stores. The regular visits are designed to get to know employees, build relationships with them and encourage them to join the unionization movement. We've talked with numerous Fresh & Easy store employees who say they haven't had a visit from UFCW representatives yet this year. This might not be unusual except that we talked to many of these same employees throughout 2008, and they told us then the UFCW representatives visited the stores on a regular basis, often once a month.

Unionization in an economic recession-depression

We can tell you that despite what appears to be the current hibernation of the UFCW regarding its Tesco Fresh & Easy unionization campaign, that the union's campaign to achieve that goal isn't over. But it is interesting how the union seems to have let the momentum they had going for most of last year fall off so much since the fall of 2008 to the present.

Of course, the economy is in shambles and job loss growing by the tens of thousands each day. Perhaps the union is being sensitive to this fact from a political standpoint. After all, this isn't the best time for employees of any company to be pitching to join a union to a non-union employer; not while they feel they could be next to lose their jobs because of the bad economy.

It's tough out there -- and getting tougher. Laid off formerly high-paid workers who haven't been able to find work in their respective industries for many months are hoping they can land jobs such as the $10 an hour part-time positions with medical insurance that Tesco's Fresh & Easy is offering. And there are few of those types of retail jobs out there right now as there generally has been in past recessions, not with America's retailers laying off 45,000 workers in January alone, with tens of thousands more to come this month.

You know that old saying, right: "It's a recession when your neighbor losses his job, it's a depression when you lose yours." More and more of our neighbors, as well as more and more of "us" are losing jobs. Call it a recession, call it a depression, depending on where you are in it. But another old saying is: "I know what it is when I see it." And "it" isn't looking good. As British Prime Minister Gordon Brown started calling "it" last week -- "The Depression."

It looks like the Kroger Co. employees in the Las Vegas Metropolitan region, which is one of the hardest hit in the U.S. by the recession and job losses, got their union contract renewal just in time.

Reader Resource

>[Click here for a selection of past stories from Fresh & Easy Buzz about the UFCW union-Tesco Fresh & Easy issue.]

>[Reader Note: You can follow Fresh & Easy Buzz on Twitter.com at: www.twitter.com/freshneasybuzz]

>Reader Comments: We invite reader comments on this story, and particularly want to hear your views on the issue of joining labor unions in times of serious economic recession, like at present. Is it a "good" thing to do in terms of it offering better pay and job security to workers? Is it a "job killing" proposition, as some suggest? What's your view? Just click on the "comments" link below to leave your comment.

Consumer Use of Manufacturers' 'Cents Off' Coupons Continues to Grow: The Latest American Rage: Home Coupon-Clipping and Coupon-Trading Parties

Fresh & Easy Buzz has written regularly over the last few months about the growing trend among American consumers during this deep economic recession to increasingly use manufacturers' "cents off" coupons at the supermarket, as well as at drug and discount stores, as one way to save money on food and grocery purchases.

We've also written about the increasing use and distribution of the coupons, part of this same trend, among food, grocery and consumer packaged goods companies and marketers, which includes offering far more coupons than ever before online via Internet Web sites dedicated to the "cents off" coupons. The number of such coupons Web sites and Blogs has soared in the last year, as the use of the coupons by consumers soars along with the sites. [Here are just a handful of such sites: coupons.com, couponcabin.com, couponcode.com, couponmom.com, 8coupons.com, fatwallet.com and shortcuts.com.]

Supermarkets and drug and discount stores that except manufacturers' "cents off" coupons -- which is nearly 100% of such format stores in the U.S. -- are reporting that shoppers are using the coupons at about the highest volume they've seen in many decades -- if not ever.

Additionally, numerous supermarket chains, such as Fry's, Albertsons and others in Arizona, Nevada and Southern California, where Tesco has its 112 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market combination grocery and fresh foods stores, are offering to double and triple, and even at times quadruple, the value of the manufacturers' coupons for shoppers as a way to gain business.

We've also noted that since Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market doesn't except the manufacturers' "cents off" coupons from shoppers in any of its stores, it is, unlike every one of its major competitors who except the coupons, missing out on a substantial and considerable amount of business and thus sales from the millions of consumers in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona who are using the manufacturers' coupons and therefore won't shop at stores that don't accept the discount pieces of paper, or will exclude buying items at Fresh & Easy that they can buy elsewhere using a manufacturers' coupon.

The use of manufacturer's "cents off" coupons by consumers looking to save whatever money they can at the grocery store has rapidly increased over the last six months, and continues to increase at the present. A resent survey conducted by the Promotional Marketing Group, the trade group that represents the coupon industry, for example, reported a significant increase in the last year in the number of people who say they are using the coupons in surveys conducted by the organization.

Coupon parties, the latest American rage

Now, in a sign that the use of manufacturers' "cents off" coupons is becoming "off the charts" among American consumers, as we've been saying is the case since early 2008, welcome to one of the hottest ways to party in recessionary America -- the home coupon clipping party.

That's right, across America people are getting together in each others homes and holding parties centered around the clipping and trading of manufacturers' "cents off" coupons, the premise of such parties being to save money on food and groceries in these hard economic times -- and to have some inexpensive fun doing so. We suspect most of the refreshments for these "coupon socials" are being purchased using the discount coupons, keeping in the theme of the events. The invitation perhaps: Come on over and 'Get Your Coupon On."

But you don't have to take our word about the fast-growing coupon-clipping and coupon-trading house parties. You can view some video of people having such parties at the link below:

Click on the link in green to watch the video: Americans throwing coupon parties to save on groceries.

Now that's a frugal good time, isn't it?

More on the manufacturers' "cents off" coupon trend:

Below is a selection of recent stories we've written and posted about the growing manufacturers' coupon use trend, and the related use of store coupons by grocers:

~December 12, 2008: Marketing & Promotions Report: Manufacturers' Coupons Becoming the 'New Black;' Use Among Consumers Soaring; Marketers Distributing More Than Before

~December 6, 2008: Use of Manufacturers' Coupons Soaring Among U.S. Consumers; Coupon Delivery Systems Going High-Tech; But Fresh & Easy Stores Don't Accept the Coupons

~Wednesday, November 26, 2008: Consumer Briefing: The New, Frugal and Near-Broke American Consumer is Staying Home For the Holidays

~Sunday, August 24, 2008: Sunday Supplement: 'America's Cheapest Family' Helping to Spur Increased Use of Manufacturers' Coupons At the Grocery Store; Accept At Fresh & Easy

~Tuesday, February 3, 2009: Competitor News: 'Grocer-Gone-Wild:' Arizona's Fry's and its 'Bring it On' 'Take All Competitors' (Including Tesco's Fresh & Easy) Store Coupon Move

~Monday, February 2, 2009: Competitor News: Safeway Stores, Inc. Enters the Store Coupon Derby in Southern CA, Nevada, Arizona; Part of Extending its 'Value Proposition'

~January 30, 2008: Breaking Buzz: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Distributes its First Promotional E-Mail Alert Today; Has the Grocer Been Reading Fresh & Easy Buzz This Week?

~December 22, 2008: Marketing: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Launches E-Mail Promo Alert Program; Something Fresh & Easy Buzz First Suggested it Do Many Months Ago

[Reader Note: You can follow Fresh & Easy Buzz on Twitter.com @www.twitter.com/freshneasybuzz.]

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Isn't the Only Food & Grocery Retailer With its Eyes on Bakersfield: Wal-Mart's Bakersfield Push and Central Valley, CA Strategy

California's Central Valley region (detailed in the map of California above), stretching from Bakersfield and Kern County in the south to Stockton and San Joaquin County in the north, is the largest single-producing and most diverse -- cotton, grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, milk, beef cattle, chickens, eggs and more -- agricultural region in the world. Additionally, one fourth of all the food produced in the U.S. comes from the Central Valley region, which also is home to such well-known global companies and brands as E.J. Gallo (Modesto, CA), the largest family-owned winery in the world, and the second-largest overall seller of wine globally.

The Central Valley is a diverse region as well. Kern County (Bakersfield area) is one of the top oil producing regions in America, for example, in addition to being a major agricultural region, as well as being considered by many to be the second home of American country music after Nashville, Tennessee. And when it comes to college sports, the Fresno State University Bulldogs are among the top college football teams in the nation. Stockton, in the north, was in the 1930's -through- 1960's one of the centers for both amateur and profesional boxing in America. So much so in fact that the famous boxing movie, "Fat City" was set in Stockton.

The Central Valley also is home to a few famous brands when it comes to individual celebrities. For example, famed movie director and producer George Lucas was born and raised in Modesto, which was the setting of his award-winning movie "American Graffiti." The late Pulitzer Prize winning writer and playright William Soroyan (author of The Time of Your Life and numerous other plays and books) is from Fresno, and country music greats Merle Haggard and Buck Owens hail from Bakersfield, which often is called "Nashville-West" for its fame in country music circles.

Bakersfield and Beyond:
Central Valley, California Market Region Report and Analysis

Earlier today we reported that Tesco will open its third and newest Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market combination grocery and fresh foods market in Bakersfield, California on February 25. [Read that post here: Tesco to Open Third Bakersfield, California Fresh & Easy Store On February 25.]

The new store is one of nine Fresh & Easy units planned thus far by the grocer for the Bakersfield Metropolitan market region, which is in California's southern Central Valley. The first two Fresh & Easy markets opened on the same day in Bakersfield on December 3, 2008. [December 3, 2008: Tesco Opens its First Two California Fresh & Easy Stores Outside of Southern California in the Central Valley City of Bakersfield Today.] Seven of the nine Fresh & Easy stores are located in the city of Bakersfield. One is planned for nearby Wasco, and the other for the nearby city of Delano.

Wal-Mart's Bakersfield market region push

Tesco's entry into the Bakersfield Market region is going to add new competition into the region which has an economy based primarily on agriculture, oil production and increasingly on service businesses. [May 24, 2008: Upcoming New Markets Special Report: The Changing 'Face' of Retailing in Bakersfield, California.] [March 10, 2008: Bakersfield, California Region Next Up On the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market New Store Parade.] [May 15, 2008: Fresh But Never Easy: Tesco's Long But Rapid South-North March in the Nation-State of California.]

But Tesco isn't the only food and grocery retailer looking to add a new competitive retailing element in the Bakersfield market. Bentonville, Arkansas-based mega-retailer Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. also is targeting the Bakersfield market region aggressively, and plans to soon open its first Supercenters in the city of Bakersfield and in the region.

Wal-Mart currently operates three of its Wal-Mart discount format stores in Bakersfield. But has none of its combination food, grocery and general merchandise mega-Supercenters in the city -- yet.

The Wal-Mart discount format stores, at well over 100,000 square feet, sell only a limited assortment of food and grocery items and consumer packaged goods, mostly shelf-stable products, but also some perishables in the refrigerated and frozen foods categories. Additionally, unlike the Supercenters, the discount format stores don't offer fresh produce, fresh meats or in-store deli and bakery departments, as well as not offering a full supermarket-like selection of food and grocery items.

But Wal-Mart is out to change that in the Bakersfield market -- and beyond in the Central Valley.

Here is what we know based on our research:

>First, just last week the Bakersfield Planning Commission approved a request by Wal-Mart to remodel and add an additional 46,000 square feet to its Wal-Mart discount store (one of the three in the city) in northeast Bakersfield at 2701 Fashion Place, turning the store into one of the retailer's hybrid Supercenters, as we call them. All of the new, additional 46,000 square feet, along with some added space from the store remodeling, will be devoted to food and grocery, including fresh produce, meats, an in-store deli and bakery. The additional square footage will come from Wal-Mart's taking over an empty building next door that used to be a Vons supermarket, operated by Safeway Stores, Inc. before it was closed by the supermarket chain.

The Bakersfield City Council must vote in favor of the planning commission's approval. But a vote in favor of the project by the city council going forward looks likely, according to members of the Bakersfield Planning Commission.

>Second, Wal-Mart is looking to try to add additional square footage in a similar way to its other two Wal-Mart discount format stores in Bakersfield, using the added space to include a full supermarket inside and create a hybrid Supercenter like its doing with the northeast Bakersfield store.

Wal-Mart is converting existing discount format stores into these hybrid Supercenters throughout the U.S. For example, the retailer is in the process of converting 30 or more of its Wal-Mart discount stores stores in Southern California into the hybrid Supercenter format so that it can offer a full selection of food and grocery products for sale in the units, as we've previously reported and written about. [September 15, 2008: Wal-Mart Expanding its Discount Store-to-Supercenter Conversion Program As Part of its Strategy to Grab Even More Food and Grocery Sales Market Share.]

As we've also previously reported, Wal-Mart is using the hybrid Supercenter conversion process throughout the Central Valley, not just in Bakersfield. For example, the retailer plans to convert an exiting Wal-Mart discount store in Los Banos, California (Merced County) into a hybrid Supercenter that will offer a full range of food and grocery products, and is looking to do the same with a dicount format store in Merced and another in Turlock (Stanislaus County) if it can find the added space in the respective shopping centers to do so, and get approvals from the respective cities for the conversions, if the additional square footage can be found. [Click here to read a selection of past stories about the hybrid Supercenters and related Wal-Mart topics.]

In the fall of 2008 Wal-Mart opened its first "hybrid" Supercenter, located in a vacant big box building that it completely gutted and remodeled, on McHenry Avenue in the Central Valley city of Modesto, which is in Stanislaus County, about 10 miles from Turlock, 35 miles from Merced, and about 45 miles from Los Banos.

Wal-Mart took the about 100,000 square foot vacant building that used to house a warehouse format supermarket in one half and a drug store in the other, gutted it, then remodeled it into the 100,000 square foot combination food, grocery and general merchandise hybrid Supercenter. [April 25, 2008: Going Smaller: Wal-Mart Might have Found A Solution or Two to Much of the Opposition to its Mega-Supercenter Stores in the USA]

At 100,000 square feet the store is nearly half the size of the average Wal-Mart Supercenter, which are about 180,000 square feet and often larger. As an example, Wal-Mart is building a brand new Supercenter in Ceres, which is right next door to Modesto. That store is about 215,000 square feet.

>Third, Wal-Mart has had a partially built new combination food, grocery and general merchandise Supercenter sitting at a site at Panama Lane and Highway 99 in Bakersfield for about five years. Wal-Mart started construction of the store in 2003-2004 and then was hit with a series of lawsuits from environmental groups over various environmental aspects related to the store location. In late January (last month) the Bakersfield Planning Commission and Wal-Mart said those lawsuits have been resolved. Wal-Mart further announced two weeks ago that it is preparing to resume construction on the site and hopes to have the Supercenter completed in time to open in the fall of this year.

>Fourth, Wal-Mart has another site approved to build a new Supercenter at in Bakersfield. That site in on Gosford Road in the city. It was approved in 2002, just like the Panama Lane and Highway 99 site was. Wal-Mart decided not to start construction at the Gosford Road location because of the lawsuits filed against the Panama Road project. Now that the retailer has resolved those lawsuits and is completing construction on the Panama Road Supercenter, it's likely it will soon move forward with the start of construction on the approved site on Gosford Road.

>Fifth, Wal-Mart also is proposing building a Supercenter at a site in Delano, which is close to Bakersfield in the market region, and is where Tesco also plans to open a Fresh & Easy market. The city of Delano has approved the project and supports the hundreds of new jobs and added retail sales tax revenue the new Supercenter coming to down would bring. Delano is a rural city and the average income of is residents is at the very low end.

A citizen's group in Delano though is against the project and has filed a lawsuit against its going forward. The group says the Wal-Mart Supercenter will hurt and drive out local small businesses who can't compete against mega-Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart runs into such opposition with nearly every Supercenter it proposes in California, although in this current bad economy numerous California cities that in the past didn't want anything to do with a Wal-Mart Supercenter are now looking much more favorably on the prospect of the retailer bringing one to their respective town.

This Friday a court in Bakersfield will hear the Delano group's lawsuit against the Wal-Mart Supercenter going in their city. The judge will rule on the lawsuit following the hearings.

We're told it's likely Wal-Mart, and the city of Delano, will prevail in winning the lawsuit and getting the Supercenter in Delano built.

>Lastly, in addition to hoping it can find the additional space, and if it does to gain approval from the city of Bakersfield to expand and remodel its other two Bakersfield Wal-Mart discount format stores into hybrid combination food, grocery and general merchandise Supercenters, the retailer is looking for additional new Supercenter sites in and around Bakersfield as part of its strategy to become a serious player in food and grocery retailing in the region.

Wal-Mart's Central Valley strategy

Wal-Mart's plans to aggressively convert discount format stores into hybrid Supercenters and to open new Supercenters in the Bakersfield region of the Central Valley isn't an isolated strategy. Rather it's part of the retailer's overall strategic plan to become a major player in food and grocery retailing throughout the Central Valley -- from Bakersfield in the far southern end of the vast valley, and Fresno and Merced County in the middle of the region, to Stanislaus County and San Joaquin County in the Northern Central/San Joaquin Valley. Nearly 5 million people live in the Central Valley, from Bakersfield north to Stockton in San Joaquin County

The key to Wal-Mart's Central Valley strategy is its proposal to open a big, new distribution facility in the city of Merced, the county seat of Merced County. Wal-Mart submitted plans for the new 500,000 -to- 600,000 square foot facility early last year.

The proposal has been making its way through the various local government agencies responsible for approval. There has been objections to the huge facility from a number of groups in the region, and Wal-Mart has made some changes to its original proposal because of those objections. The objections center around environmental impacts like traffic congestion and other related issues.

Last year it looked like the proposed new Wal-Mart distribution center in Merced might not gain approval. However, according to sources in the region, the economic recession has changed that. Merced County has one of the highest housing foreclosure percentages of any county in the U.S., at times being number one, and one of the highest unemployment rates in the country at its current whopping 16%, which is almost twice the rate of the state of California (9.4%). The region is bleeding jobs and the Wal-Mart distribution center, which would bring hundreds of badly needed jobs to the area, now looks like it will soon gain approval, we are told.

With the new Merced distribution center, Wal-Mart will be able to supply fresh foods, grocery products and other goods without a hitch to basically all of the new and hybrid Supercenters and other format stores it wants to remodel and build in the Central Valley -- south to Bakersfield and Fresno and north to Stanislaus County and San Joaquin County, as well as up into the Sacramento region and even into the nearby San Francisco Bay Area -- where the retailer has a near-zero presence and wants to open many new stores, including Supercenters, if it can gain approval of them by Bay Area cities and counties, something the retailer has found near-impossible to do to in the past with its Supercenters because of so much opposition to the mega-big box stores. (That's one reason the retailer created its small-format Marketside grocery and fresh foods stores as an alternative food and grocery retailing format to help Wal-Mart increase market share in such difficult to enter with Supercenter markets.)

As we mentioned earlier in this piece, Wal-Mart opened its first Supercenter in Modesto in November of last year -- the 100,000 square foot hybrid store in the vacant big box retail building. The retailer also has a discount format store in the city it would like to convert into a hybrid Supercenter if it can find the the space next to the existing store to add the additional square footage. Wal-Mart also is looking for other vacant big box buildings in other parts of Modesto where it can create a hybrid Supercenter like it did with the one on McHenry Avenue in the city that opened in the fall of 2008. [Related story - November 21, 2008: Breaking News: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Names New CEO to Replace Lee Scott; USA Chief Castro-Wright Elevated to Vice Chairman Effective Immediatley.]

The retailer previously tried to gain approval for a new, built from the ground-up Supercenter in Modesto a number of years earlier, but met objection from the city and various community groups. That's why it went with the hybrid Supercenter in the vacant building concept instead.

Fresh & Easy Buzz has identified and reported on two locations thus far Tesco's Fresh & Easy has leased for planned stores in Modesto. [Those reports are here and here.] Tesco hasn't publicly announced or confirmed the Modesto locations as of yet.

The process of putting a store in a vacant building like Wal-Mart did in Modesto doesn't require the same extensive approval and environmental impact process that building a Supercenter from the ground up does in the city and in most California cities. As a result, even though there were groups opposed to the Modesto store, they couldn't stop Wal-Mart because like any other retailer its able to convert an existing vacant building into what they want it to be without an elaborate planning process like with new store construction, and particularly like new big box store construction. Instead Wal-Mart just needed to meet the essentially simple approval process for remodeling a vacant store building in Modesto, just as all other retailers are required to do.

As we also mentioned earlier in this piece, Wal-Mart is building a huge, new Supercenter (over 200,000 square feet) in Ceres, which is on Modesto's southern border. The two cities basically run into one another. That store is set to open sometime this year. The store was supported by the city of Ceres and met with little opposition from members of the community, with the exception of some traffic issues that were resolved by Wal-Mart and the city. [Related story - November 19, 2008: Competitor News: Wal-Mart Lowering Prices on Holiday Items and Staples; New Formats Coming; Online Grocery Sales; Hundreds of New Stores FY 2009-2010.]

Wal-Mart also has applied to build a brand new 158,000 square foot Supercenter in the Stanislaus County city of Patterson. Patterson, which has about 35,000 residents, is located about 20 miles from Modesto on the county's west side. The proposed Supercenter is right across the street from an existing Save Mart supermarket, operated by Modesto-based Save Mart Stores, Inc., which is the market share leader in the region.

Additionally, Wal-Mart plans to turn its existing discount format store in the city of Los Banos (Merced County) into a hybrid Supercenter. We're told the city of Los Banos has no objection to that since the city of about 30,000 is understored in terms of supermarkets, having only one major supermarket, a branch of Modesto, California-based Save Mart, curently operating in town. There's also an independent supermarket in Los Banos, but it is an older and fairly small store. Los Banos is located about 20 miles from Merced, where Wal-Mart hopes to open its new Central Valley distribution center.

Further, Wal-Mart building a new Supercenter in the Merced County city of Livingston, which is a small city of about 20,000 people located just a few miles from Merced. That store will serve a much larger population base than just the residents of the Livingston though because numerous people live in the nearby unincorporated parts of rather rural and agriculture-based Merced County, in addition to living in the county's incorporated cities. It's also expected that residents of other towns just a few miles away will shop at the Livingston Supercenter when it opens.

Merced County has a current population of about 260,000 residents. Merced is the largest city in the county with about 80,000 residents. Next door Stanislaus County, of which Modesto (about 205,000 population) is the county seat, has a population of about 560,000. The two counties are right next to each other in one geographical block.

Merced is only about 40 miles from Fresno, where Wal-Mart has been opening up numerous new Supercenters and has plans to open more. The Fresno Metropolitan region has a population of over 1 million people, and has been one of the fastest-growing regions in California, as have Merced and Stanislaus Counties, until the housing foreclosure crisis and recession hit.

If it can gain approval, Wal-Mart wants to open numerous build new Supercenters and create hybrids, in some cases adding on to existing discount format stores and in other cases putting hybrid Supercenters in remodeled vacant big box buildings like the one on McHenry Avenue in Modesto, throughout the Central Valley. It will be able to do so aggressively once it gets the Merced distribution center open, which it wants to do no later than 2010.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy in the Central Valley

In addition to the two Fresh & Easy Neighborhood market combination grocery and fresh foods stores already opened in the city of Bakersfield and the other seven planned for the market region, and the Modesto stores we've discovered and reported on, the retailer has leased numerous sites in Fresno and the Fresno Metropolitan regions where it is either building or converting vacant buildings into Fresh & Easy markets it plans on opening in the near future.

Tesco plans to eventually open and operate Fresh & Easy stores throughout the Central Valley and Northern California, from Bakersfield in the south to the Northern San Joaquin Valley, and into the Sacramento Valley region and San Francisco Bay Area, as we've previously reported on and written about extensively in Fresh & Easy Buzz.

The retailer continues work on a number of its Fresno region stores but no opening dates have been announced. Work has yet to begin on the two Modesto sites, both set to be stores located in vacant buildings that formerly housed supermarkets.

Additionally, as we reported here, Tesco has postponed its Northern California launch, the first stores of which it originally planned to start opening in 2008, then changed to early 2009, and now has postponed indefinately.

California's Great Central Valley, as its often called, is suffering significantly in the current recession with high unemployment, massive housing foreclosures, growing poverty and other serious economic probelms. That's actually a good perscription for Wal-Mart's brand of discount retailing, which is why the retailer is moving forward with its strategic growth plan throughout the region.

The region also offers opportunity for Tesco's Fresh & Easy if it focuses its merchandising on creating a solid, comprehensive value proposition and communicates it well in the Central Valley, rather than one week positioning itself as a discount grocer, then the next week as a specialty foods market, and the third week as a prepared foods market that also happens to be an environmentally-friendly-focused grocery chain, as in our analysis it has been doing since it opened the first stores in November, 2007. There are some signs Tesco's Fresh & Easy is taking our advice though and starting to better create, develop and communicate a solid value proposition. It's far from being there yet though.

All those things are fine -- selling specialty foods and prepared foods and being a "green" grocer. But they need to be additions to the overall discount grocer value proposition, which should be Fresh & Easy's hub on the wheel of food retailing, with all the other aspects of its merchandising being the spokes on that wheel.

If Tesco does that with Fresh & Easy in the meat and potatoes Central Valley -- focuses on being a discount food and grocery retailer with a solid value proposition first, with all else coming after -- it stands a chance of doing well in the region, in our analysis. If it doesn't, or fails in trying, things are going to be very difficult, paticularly with Wal-Mart now joining the already competitive Central Valley food and grocery retailing market in a big way.

Tesco to Open Third Bakersfield, California Fresh & Easy Store On February 25

Bakersfield, California Market Region Report

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is preparing to open its third combination grocery and fresh foods market in Bakersfield, in California's south Central Valley region, Fresh & Easy Buzz has learned.

The new and third Fresh & Easy store in the city, located in a shopping center at 5190 Stockdale Highway in Bakersfield, will open on February 25.

Bakersfield is Tesco Fresh & Easy's newest market region. It's also the farthest north in California that the grocer has come to date from its base in Southern California.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy opened its first two stores in Bakersfield (and in the south Central Valley region) on December 3, 2008. Those two stores are located at Panama Lane and Stine Road, and Olive Drive and Jewetta Avenue. [Read our story about the two stores opening at this link: Tesco Opens its First Two California Fresh & Easy Stores Outside of Southern California in the Central Valley City of Bakersfield Today.]

Thus far, Tesco plans to open nine of its small-format, combination grocery and fresh foods Fresh & Easy markets in the Bakersfield, California region, according to the company and to our reporting. Those locations are:

>Panama Lane and Stine Road
>Olive Drive and Jewetta Avenue
>California Ave. & Stockdale Hwy, Bakersfield
>Buena Vista Rd. & White Lane, Bakersfield
>Coffee Rd. & Hageman Rd., Bakersfield
>H St. & Planz Rd., Bakersfield
>Brimhall Rd & Jewetta Ave, Bakersfield
>Cecil Ave. & High St., Delano
>Hwy 46 & Griffith Ave., Wasco

The top two Fresh & Easy store locations in the list above are the two stores that opened on December 3, 2008. The third location is the store opening on February 25. Delano and Wasco are cities located near Bakersfield.

Related posts from Fresh & Easy Buzz:

>Upcoming New Markets News: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Confirms Bakersfield, CA Stores; Says First Two Will Open Next Month on December 3rd, 2008

>March 10, 2008: Bakersfield, California Region Next Up On the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market New Store Parade

>May 24, 2008: Upcoming New Markets Special Report: The Changing 'Face' of Retailing in Bakersfield, California

>May 15, 2008: Fresh But Never Easy: Tesco's Long But Rapid South-North March in the Nation-State of California

>March 26, 2008: Mid-Week Tesco Fresh & Easy Roundup

[Note: The stories linked above contain extensive information on the Bakersfield Metropolitan region in general and the Bakersfield region food and grocery retailing market specifically.]