SAN DIEGO -- Wal-Mart and Tesco each upped the ante on their small-format rollouts in the West with news of a new market and an increase in private-label products, respectively. Wal-Mart is now targeting the San Diego market for its Marketside stores, while Tesco plans to introduce more than 200 new proprietary products in its Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets by the end of the year.
Wal-Mart is out to catch up with the rapid expansion of Tesco's Fresh & Easy chain by adding sites in southern California, where Fresh & Easy has gotten a foothold, according to a report in London's [image-nocss] Financial Times.
The largest U.S. retailer has applied for a liquor license for a Marketside store that is part of a retail development in Oceanside, a coastal city north of San Diego. The location, still awaiting planning approval, will be just two miles from a recently opened Tesco Fresh & Easy store in the neighboring city of Vista.
Wal-Mart has also leased a 12,000-sq.-ft. space in a new condominium development in downtown San Diego, in a rapidly gentrifying area adjacent to the city's baseball stadium, according to the newspaper.
The retailer will open the first four of the new small stores in the suburbs around Phoenix in the coming weeks, again in communities targeted by Tesco's 10,000-sq.-ft. Fresh & Easy format.
Meanwhile, Fresh & Easy, with private-label products accounting for more than 70% of sales, announced plans to introduce more than 200 new proprietary products by the end of the year.
Over 80% of customers cite Fresh & Easy's own-brand products as one of the main reasons they shop at the stores, according to the company.
Some of the own-brand items Fresh & Easy is introducing include: Vegetable Curry with Brown Rice, Mushroom Stroganoff, Chicken Parmesan with Linguine, Broccoli and Cheese Soup, Shrimp Alfredo, Orange Chicken, Organic Honey, new coffee and tea flavors, different varieties of cereals, new flavors of kettle and veggie chips and new juice blends.
"People increasingly want food that is more like they would make in their own kitchens," said Tim Mason, CEO of Fresh & Easy, El Segundo, Calif. "At Fresh & Easy, we are able to offer fresh, wholesome products at incredible prices without the additives and preservatives they don't want. Our products are a win-win for customers."
Tesco is continuing the rapid roll-out of its network of U.S. stores, opening its 75th store in southern California earlier this month. It is pushing ahead with plans for stores in northern California, with several hundred planned in the state, as well as in Arizona and Nevada.
Wal-Mart continues to describe its Marketside format as a pilot, although it has indicated in job advertisements that if successful it could open more than 1,000 of the stores and create more than $10 billion in sales.
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