Fresh & Easy To Close 13 Stores

[Alpha8472]

http://supermarketnews.com/retail_finan ... lose_1005/

Tesco said Tuesday it plans to “mothball” 13 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market locations by Nov. 2, with plans to reopen them “when the housing and employment markets [in those neighborhoods] pick up.”

When exactly do they think the economy is going to improve? If they are waiting for a time when people suddenly start spending money like crazy, they are going to have to wait years.

Fresh & Easy is still losing money, but in order to make themselves profitable, they are going to have to make some major changes. Closing the stores for a period of time won't solve their problems. Changes need to start happening now.

[storewanderer]

This is a smart decision on its face. Deeming the closures "temporary" is something I call bs on. The heavy closure activity in Las Vegas and Phoenix two markets dominated heavily by Kroger, Wal Mart, and scattered with other various pretty good choices, is not surprising. Location choices I saw were questionable in both markets, many non-corner locations and other odd site selections. I am interested to see exactly which locations are closing in Las Vegas since they did get some good corners from Rite Aid there in more established areas from when Rite Aid penetrated Las Vegas in the late 1990's.

They will keep expanding. They should hit the central valley heavily because I think the opportunity there is great and so far they have done very well in Bakersfield and Fresno, some of their best stores are in those towns. They should work on that region and then move up into northern California from there. Thing is, they have already signed onto many questionable locations in northern California... we'll see how many of those actually open.

[romleys]

Haha, just posted the same article under the "California" section...

[ckellogg5]

Here are the AZ stores that are being "temporarily" closed


• 858 S. Greenfield Road, Gilbert

• 3232 E. Guadalupe Road, Gilbert

• 1045 S. Gilbert Road, Mesa

• 2009 N. Stapley Drive, Mesa

• 9124 E. Apache Trail, Mesa

• 5802 W. Olive Ave., Glendale

[romleys]

The chances of F&E reopening these stores is about as likely as Longs returning (It ain't going to happen). F&E made a larger than life mistake in NorCal even though they have yet to open any stores whatsoever. A company should not state in the same press release that they plan to open stores in towns with a healthy & wealthy income (Danville, Pacifica, Concord/Clayton) and also mention stores soon to open in East Oakland and the Bayview District of San Francisco. This proves that F&E did a horrible job planning stores, not looking at the ethinicity, income, and general needs of what specific locations have.

[storewanderer]

To add some points there Romleys, the real problem is they are trying to run the EXACT same store in these very different neighborhoods. The same merchandise, same staffing levels, same exact space allocation for items, same everything. This is a big reason why they are not doing too well. But they can adjust it. And if faced with the choice between these guys, Save Mart, and Safeway only, I would probably do about 1/3 of my shopping with them since their prices are a lot lower on many dry goods. Add in a conventional Kroger operation like Smiths and my shopping with them would fall down to about 5% assuming I lived around the block from one, otherwise even less.

[storewanderer]

Closing Las Vegas Stores are as follows:

2950 E. Desert Inn - former Rite Aid
Store is hidden behind a fast food place, not exactly at the corner
Across street: Albertsons

6100 W. Vegas Dr. - former Rite Aid
Corner site at not the highest traffic corner.
Across street: Smiths (former Raleys and Albertsons)

6685 E. Lake Mead - former Rite Aid
Corner site.
Across street: Albertsons, Wal Mart Neighborhood Market

7380 S. Eastern - original build?
Within strip mall.
Across street: Albertsons, Wal Mart Neighborhood Market

10 N. Eastern - former Rite Aid
Corner site.
No competition within sight.
VERY bad area.

1900 Las Vegas Blvd. North - former Rite Aid.
Corner site.
No competition within sight; closed Vons nearby.
BAD area.

All of these are in mature neighborhoods. The decline in these areas has nothing to do with the housing or commercial real estate crunch. The Fresh & Easy PR people are lying when they say these closures are due to housing crunch. These are all very mature neighborhoods.

[klkla]

Here it is ten months after the first post in this thread and there is an article on PG about Fresh & Easy being #3 on STORES' Magazine Hot Retailers List:

http://www.progressivegrocer.com/top-st ... lers-list/

Sales are up 37.8% year-to-year.

[Alpha8472]

Fresh & Easy is still losing money. Their stores have not yet made a profit.

Supposedly, someone at the company says that they expect to possibly make a profit several years down the line.

That is assuming a best case scenario where the economy improves. Right now we could be looking at higher unemployment, lower spending by consumers, and an even bigger recession.

The only thing going for Fresh & Easy right now is their newness. People see a new small supermarket with a quirky name and people flock to check it out.

Once the newness wears off, people will return to their normal habits. Fresh & Easy is like an over-hyped convenience store. They don't carry everything that you need. You have to go to a full size supermarket to get everything on your shopping list.

Fresh & Easy is only a supplement to grocery shopping. They lack a full range of products and their prices really aren't that great. You can find cheaper sale prices at Safeway. I am not impressed by Fresh & Easy.

They try to copy Trader Joe's but they can't seem to get it right. They are awful at running stores and can't seem to make a profit despite their advertising and brand awareness.