Pleasanton Not Listed In Fresh & Easy Roll Out

British-based grocery chain Fresh & Easy announced yesterday that it will open locations in eight Northern California cities early next year, but Pleasanton is not on the list.

Reports of Fresh & East Markets coming to the East Bay have been in the news for the past several years. Many in Pleasanton thought the city would be among the first to have the store. 

In a Pleasanton Patch article published in April, the city's developmental director, Pamela Ott, anticipated that Pleasanton would be part of the company's next phase of openings in the Northern California region late this year or early 2011. 

Brendan Wonnacott, spokesperson for the supermarket, said the announcement of new locations for the coming next year is just the first in the region. He said there are plans to open stores afterwards, though the timing is unknown.

"As any business does, we go along at a certain pace," he said. "Since yesterday, we've only announced our first eight stores in 2011.

When asked if the company will ever come to Pleasanton, Wonnacott said, "It stays the same for Pleasanton, we don't have an opening date yet."

The company has had to delay some of its store openings in Northern California this year. According to a statement from the company, opening the eight stores will provide as much as 160 jobs in the region. 

Fresh & Easy, with 5,000 stores globally, first broke into the Southern California market four years ago.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets will open in Walnut Creek in the Ygnacio Plaza Shopping Center at Ygnacio Valley Road and San Carlos Drive. The store in Danville will open on Diablo Road at Interstate 680.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the chain aims to serve changing consumer habits. People want a more diverse selection of food from their local grocers. Customers are also looking for more fresh and prepared foods and are not necessarily loading up the shopping cart once a week, according to Fresh & Easy chief executive Tim Mason.

Fresh & Easy stores will feature prominent delis, called Kitchen Tables, stocked with soups, guacamoles and other prepared foods, made without preservatives in the company's industrial kitchen, the Chronicle reported. 

The company is betting that consumers will make more frequent trips to the market, also looking for stapes, pet supplies and beauty aids.

Fresh & Easy wants to compete with Safeway but with a strategy that is more like Trader Joe's, with specialty items that consumers can't find elsewhere, Mark Hamstra, retail editor for Supermarket News, told the Chronicle.

Pleasanton Patch will continue to update this story as more information becomes available.