Fresh & Easy Testing Smaller Format Concept

Tesco-owned Fresh & Easy opened a smaller-format store in Los Angeles, and plans to open several more in Southern California in an effort to test if it can expand is banner into more densely-populated areas.

Called Fresh & Easy Express, the concept store is approximately 3,000-square-feet sales floor (4,000 overall) and carries about half the SKUs of traditional Fresh & Easy stores while still maintaining a big focus on fresh food and grab and go items.

“We’re always looking to serve more neighborhoods and these stores should help us venture into neighborhoods that cannot accommodate a standard 10,000 sq ft store, and/or are particularly more densely populated where property price is at a premium,” Fresh & Easy spokesperson Brendan Wonnacott told Progressive Grocer. “The Express store looks and feels very similar to our standard F&E store and offers everything that our customers have come to love about Fresh & Easy, just in a smaller footprint.”

As with traditional Fresh & Easy stores, the Fresh & Easy Express stores are 100 percent assisted checkout.

“So far reception has been fantastic,” added Wonnacott. “There’s been lots of excitement about the store and offering.”