Orange County Register

Last night, I attended a media preview of a Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market set to open this morning in Los Angeles, along with five others. Conceived by British retailer Tesco, the markets, including one in Anaheim, will open at 10 a.m.

It’s a day many curious grocery shoppers have been waiting for. Take reader Barbara, who left me this voice mail Wednesday morning: “I must get to this store.”

But, can Fresh & Easy live up to all this hype? Time will only tell.

Here’s my initial reaction:

Have you ever been at Trader Joe’s and grown frustrated when you realize you have nearly every grocery item you need but a few essential name brands? You know what I’m talking about. Stashed in your cart are the cool dinner party appetizers, the havarti cheese, the ready-to-cook marinated chicken, milk, produce and, of course, a dirt cheap bottle of wine.

But, drats, you also want a 12-pack of Diet Pepsi, Tide and Tylenol. In my case, generic substitutes won’t do. So, that means an extra grocery trip to Albertsons or Stater Bros., where I can load up on name brands.

And, that’s where Tesco’s Fresh & Easy might slip in.

The store is exactly as advertised: a collection of fresh, upscale private label products mixed with top national brands. On the brand side, I saw Coors Light, Guinness, Lunchables, Cheerios, Charmin, Bounty, Baked Lays, Folgers Coffee, and thank heaven, Diet Pepsi. (Coca-Cola, by the way, was also there.)

Yet, Fresh & Easy is packed with private label goodies that rival items found at Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and some traditional supermarkets. I saw black olive tapenade, homemade soups, single-serve salads, gourmet cheeses, ethnic foods and Angus beef patties.

Fresh produce, deli sandwiches, fresh-squeezed juices, desserts, fresh-cut flowers and heat-and-serve meals dominate the first few aisles. The prepared items are made daily at the grocery chain’s Riverside commissary, an 85,000-square-foot kitchen run by Development Chef Mike Ainslie.

The chef (shown left) is charged with making 140 foods items — from pre-packaged chicken enchiladas with rice and beans to ready-to-cook meats to macaroni and cheese. The latter, by the way, is made with elbow pasta and four kinds of cheeses — two cheddars, havarti and Swiss.

With store space limited to 3,500 items, Fresh & Easy food selections have been precisely “edited” to meet consumer needs, said John Burry, Fresh & Easy’s chief commercial officer. In other words, stores will try and represent the best of all grocery concepts.

“We tried to put it all together in one store at a price everyone can afford,” said Simon Uwins, chief marketing officer for Fresh & Easy.

To keep costs down, Fresh & Easy maintains a no-frills look. Produce is displayed in large, black bins. Many food items — from eggs to cereal bars — are stocked in the same cardboard carton they were delivered in. Checkout lines are all self-serve — something that may throw off first-time do-it-yourself scanners.

The store also doesn’t accept coupons, and won’t force club cards on shoppers.

Uwins maintains that such a bare bones setup helps reduce costly labor, which ultimately, translates to lower food prices for consumers.

Fresh & Easy chief executive Tim Mason made an appearance at the Los Angeles store preview. He told a throng of media (photo, right) that Tesco was a “third rate” grocer in the United Kingdom when he landed his first job at the company 25 years ago.

But, over time, Tesco turned itself into an “admirable” retailer, now boasting 3,400 stores in 12 countries. Today, Tesco invades America using a formula that has made it the third largest retailer in the world.

“We did it by listening to customers, and giving them what they asked for,” Mason said.

Related stories:

The Fast Food Maven on Fresh & Easy prices, including a Two Buck Chuck-inspired wine.

Register story: A closer look at Tesco’s U.S. invasion

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