- NEWS
- Car plows into concrete wall, house 2 hours & 29 minutes ago
- Freeway connector road closed 31 minutes ago
- Weather service issues red-flag fire warning 4 minutes ago
- Another up month for home prices 1 hour & 17 minutes ago
- SPORTS
- Hudler, Physioc fired by Fox 1 minute ago
- UCLA-USC: Ten things to look for 1 hour & 30 minutes ago
- O.C. players make an impact in NFL 1 hour & 5 minutes ago
- USC football: 10 reasons why it went wrong 32 minutes ago
- BUSINESS
- Be thankful for this: $1 million in cash
- More homeowners struggle in Surf City
- Stop acting rich, start getting rich 21 minutes ago
- Zippiest O.C. home market? Los Alamitos 3 hours & 38 minutes ago
- ENTERTAINMENT
- Who will win 'Dancing With The Stars'? 35 minutes ago
- Rattle, Berlin Phil, awash in Brahms 1 hour & 23 minutes ago
- Jim Gaffigan brings his new act to O.C.
- 'Little Women' well performed in Anaheim
- LIFE
- Thanksgiving wine picks
- Frumpy Mom: I'm flunking the 7th grade 1 hour & 52 minutes ago
- 7 For All Mankind opens first O.C. store
- Seedless watermelons recalled over bacteria 20 minutes ago
- TRAVEL
- OPINION
Is Fresh & Easy slowing growth?
November 24th, 2008, 3:33 am · 12 Comments · posted by Nancy Luna, Staff Writer
The blogosphere has been erupting lately with reports of Fresh & Easy slowing growth plans in 2009, as the economy continues to tank.
The convenience store chain, owned by British retailer Tesco, has 10 markets in Orange County. Three more stores are on the books: Fountain Valley, Cypress and Rancho Santa Margarita.
(See Fresh & Easy O.C. map here.)
So I asked Fresh & Easy: What’s happening in O.C.? Here’s what spokesman Brendan Wonnacott said via email.
“As for the “scaling back” speculation, basically we had planned to accelerate our expansion in the second half of this financial year. But given the current economic climate, we felt it was prudent to continue opening stores at the same pace we have been over the past year. We’re still pursuing stores in Northern California, building a
distribution center and will evaluate the appropriate time to open in that region.”
In summary: Instead of rapid expansion, it’s just normal expansion. As for O.C., Wonnacott said, “No change in plans for Orange County.”
In fact, the Fountain Valley Fresh & Easy is slated to open Dec. 11, he added. That store is at the corner of Harbor Boulevard and Edinger Avenue. That opening comes a month after a Fullerton store opened at 1207 South Euclid St.
Fresh & Easy has opened 49 stores in Southern California.
Discount: Find the latest Fresh & Easy $6 off coupons
Related Fresh & Easy stories:
- Tesco says Fresh & Easy stores in the hole more than $100 million in U.S. dollars
- Should Fresh & Easy workers form a union?
- Fresh & Easy chef cooking healthier, bigger to-go meals
- Tesco targets Orange County and Los Angeles for relaunch of Fresh & Easy stores
- Fresh & Easy vs. Famima: Fountain Valley to open two stores a block apart
- Vons opens Fresh & Easy copycat market in Long Beach
- Fresh & Easy to add 250 new food items
- Tesco to revamp Fresh & Easy stores, add British foods
- Fresh & Easy off to rocky start. A look at the first 100 days
- A closer look: What is Tesco’s Fresh & Easy concept?
12 Comments
Leave a Reply
-
ADVERTISEMENT
-
The Catch: Burger Contest Results
The soon-to-be-open The Catch in Anaheim held a burger contest this month. Some of the "killer burgers" will be featured on the restaurant's revamped menu. To view a photo gallery of the burgers, click on the image or CLICK HERE .
The Catch Burger Contest
-
Restaurants Out of Business
The recession is forcing many Orange County restaurants to shutter, and we're trying to track them all for you. Check out our O.C. Restaurant Closure List for the latest updates. -
O.C. Frozen Yogurt Shops
-
-
-
-
Report: Restaurants on Twitter
Special report: Restaurants are jumping on the Social Media bandwagon. But is Eating and Tweeting luring diners? READ FULL STORY
- How Twitter-savvy are chains? CLICK HERE to see how the Fast Food Maven rates local and national chains on Twitter.
-
Contact the Fast Food Maven
Follow the Fast Food Maven on Twitter or 'Friend Me' on Facebook.
Send tips reviews, gripes to nluna@ocregister.com
Nancy Luna, the Fast Food Maven
The Orange County Register
625 N. Grand Ave.
Santa Ana, CA 92711-1626
-
-
-
-
-
16th annual People's Choice
From your favorite restaurants and shops to the best day spa in town, here are your choices for the number one places to eat, shop and play in O.C.
Browse the 2009 Best of Orange County winners -
ADVERTISEMENT
Seems like everyone is getting hit by the downturn. Hope we get through it soon. This is a good store, but not a complete replacement for all my shopping. I will continue to shop here to get the things I like. With that being said, I have noticed prices creeping up and some changes to the product mix. For example, I used to love their cheese tortellinis at $1.99 per pack. This was a great product that kept me coming back, they don’t offer it anymore, it has been replaced with another type that is more expensive. I used to like F&E more before the new changes to the product mix. Seems like prices are getting more and more comparable to other stores. Trader Joes is still better. I also miss the $5 coupons. Now I go there less to use the new coupon $6 off of $30 in purchases.
I pray F&E reverse-union-busts Ralphs/Vons union employees by not only resisting the union organizers but then pushing these grocers into bankruptcy so they can re-do their bloated union contracts.
As consumers, we ultimately pay the price for excessive wages and benefits; unions do not cause profits to trickle down, they cause middle class dollars to trickle across to other middle class people in the form of high prices. Our economy doesn’t make sense at every level: the CEO earning millions while his corporation tanks is just as egregious as the deli clerk making $20/hour with a pension.
I’m not surprised to hear this happen. I don’t find these stores jammed with customers, it’s like who needs them?
they may end up closing some of these stores in the near future.
I am not a fan of this store. There is one that is less than a minute from my home but I still drive the 4 miles I drive to get to my regular market. Fresh & Easy is just this boring, faceless, Euro-type store that has very little of anything I want. Come to think of it, there are 2 locations within a mile of each other from me. Is that really needed? Planning like that is what will cause this store to tank. Too many, too soon and too few dollars being tossed around.
I like F&E for some things. It’s easier to pop in for a few essentials and get out quick. I like to go in the late afternoon or evening when the 1/2 off stuff is the most abundant. Some of their prices are comparable to food4less, doesn’t get any cheaper than that!
As I write, I’m drinking a Taurino Cerveza which is currently on sale for $4.99 for a 12pack!!!!!
Their prices are way up there even though they have no staff on hand to ring up the merchandise, and they sneak in foods from Mexico and China and still charge an arm and a leg for a so so product.
I am one fussy Yuppie and I have grown to like F&E.
Their prepared take out foods are excellent, fresh and generally, very well balanced nutritionally.
I go there for specific items and find F&E is a great compliment to Von’s and Trader Shmoe’s.
With their typical $5 off $30 coupons, the quality and price for what I like is irresistable.
Viva La Fresh & Easy!
So after being disenchanted with the first store in Orange a year ago I recently tried out the brand new Orange store in Chapman. I’m still not into F&E, and I’m not convinced they are going to survive in SoCal much beyond 2009. The store on Chapman is even more sterile and more charmless than the other Orange store on Main! It’s like they are trying to make these stores as bland and entirely devoid of personality as possible.
Shopping at Fresh&Easy is what I imagine shopping at an old Soviet Union grocery store must have been like on a really good day when most things were in stock. If they could just put up a big portrait of Leonid Brezhnev on the wall and dress the shopping housewives in head scarves and heavy cloth coats, the scene would be complete.
I’ve hit up the Palm Desert store while on vacation in the Palm Springs area, and made it a must-visit due to this and the other blogs I’ve read to see what this store is about. And I’m a big fan. Whatever happened to focusing on buying the actual product, and not on the atmosphere? Has the buying public been mesmerized by a plethora of stimulii and shopping experience that when it’s all cut out the store is boring or bland? I happen to like the well organized and compact nature of f & e, it lets me focus on getting my food shop done with minimal hassle. And it’s about time for a store like this to come to play; I like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods as much as the next food fan, but if I can pick up name brand essentials, which I like to do from time to time, as well as store branded competitively priced products at an attractive price, I’m sold. I’ve an enthusiastic interest in the chain as well; here in San Francisco they plan to open not too far where I live, in an area where a grocery store hasn’t been in over 20 years.
I never knew that the Southern California market has quite a bit of food stores to choose from; seeing Statler Bros, Vons, Wal-Marts, etc; it seems endless!
Well, I’ve heard from certain sources within the company that Fresh & easy is very seriously looking to build two stores in Brea, one in Anaheim Hills, a Santa Ana store, and at least one store in both Tustin and Irvine. Fresh & Easy is not going anywhere, I can say that much for sure. Sure it’s not for everyone, but there are plenty of people that do like it. And it’s funny how many people working for the union or going after this company and trying to discredit it at every opportunity. The UFCW is only looking for one thing, more money for themselves.
I was just in one of Wal-Mart’s new Marketside fresh food stores in Arizona last week. Very impressed. Looks like a couple are coming to the San Diego area according to Fresh & Easy Buzz, along with maybe some in outher parts of SoCal.
http://freshneasybuzz.blogspot.com/2008/12/competitor-news-wal-marts-marketside.html
The make the prepared meals right in the store. I also noticed the store I was in in Mesa, Arizona has a eating area right in the store. There were a couple people eating at it when I was there.