The retailer has opened 125 of its small-format convenience/grocery stores in southern California, Las Vegas and Phoenix over the past two years, seeking to woo customers with a focus on its low-cost private-label foods and prepared meals.
In April it said it [image-nocss] was slowing the pace of store openings in its existing areas and that it would delay its move into northern California, originally planned for this year, because of the economy. It did not give a new date for the expansion. (Click here for previous CSP Daily News coverage.)
But the retailer has continued to add to almost 50 store sites already acquired in communities including San Francisco, Sacramento and San Jose as well as Reno, Nevada, said the report. This month, it reportedly paid $3.75 million for two plots in the East Bay area, while it has also acquired a third site in San Francisco this summer, according to the Times.
Property brokers told the newspaper that Fresh & Easy has been increasingly interested in buying rather than leasing sites, given the current slump in commercial real estate prices in the region.
Fresh & Easy has also completed work on the structure of a distribution depot in an industrial park in Stockton, Calif., that it will use to service new northern California stores when they open, said the report, supplementing a similarly large facility, east of Los Angeles, that serves its existing locations.
While Tesco has cited the state of the economy as the main reason for slowing growth in the United States, it has also faced a tough battle to establish itself, the report said, with stores that include concepts such as prepacking its fresh fruit and vegetables that .US. shoppers are not used to.
Tesco said it was "being prudent in our expansion and our plans for northern California remain on hold," the Times reported.
City officials in San Jose in Silicon Valley told the paper that the company has indicated it was now looking at opening stores there next summer.
Click herefor previous CSP Daily news coverage of Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Stores Inc.
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