Fresh & Easy Grocery Market Opening Compton Location
By Allison Jean Eaton
Bulletin Staff Writer
thecomptonbulletin.com
COMPTON – Residents will be treated to a fresh approach in grocery shopping when a Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market opens its doors here tomorrow, Feb. 7.
A subsidiary of U.K.-based Tesco, one of the world’s largest international retailers, Fresh & Easy stores offer a shopping experience similar to that of Trader Joe’s stores.
The new market at 2175 W. Rosecrans Avenue is situated behind Rite Aid on the corner of Rosecrans and Central Avenue. The 10,000 square feet of shopping space offers an array of what the company calls wholesome, nutritious food products.
The chain emphasizes fresh organic products, take-home meals and private label products with a limited selection of national brand goods.
“Our private brand has no artificial colors or flavors, no added trans fats and only uses preservatives where absolutely necessary,” said John Burry, Fresh & Easy’s chief commercial officer.
Fresh & Easy guarantees its eggs come from cage-free chickens and that its meats and fish are hormone-free. Milk and butter comes from cows that have not been treated with rBST. Produce is packed, dated and delivered to each store daily. All poultry and 60 percent of all produce are supplied from within California. (more…)
I’ve spent a considerable time this morning reading about the store in general online (about 1/2 hour or so). So far, the best article I found was on the website of the magazine The Economist (link). In short, Tesco (parent of Fresh and Easy) has become the Wal-Mart of the U.K. in terms of size. Increased competition has now driven this company to look overseas for new opportunities. According to the article in The Economist, while this move has been profitable, they realize that their model can be easily dupicated by other competitors.
Some of the PR that I have been reading about this market’s move to Compton centers around it’s claim that one of the main reasons for coming to Comption was to serve quality food to an underserved community as well as to bring job creation. Sounds good and noble, but sorry, that ain’t the main reason. Bottom line, they are trying to out-flank the competition (which btw is a good benefit of capitalism).
Lastly, most of the reviews I have been reading about this store come from folks who, like me have the income to shop other places. So they tend to be very harsh in their criticism. Me? Anything that is a step up from faire you find in most lower-income communities is worth giving some benefit of the doubt. I would be very interested in hearing from the folks who do not have the luxury of doing part of their grocery shopping at Whole Foods or Gelsons. If THEY like it, I say Tesco may be on the start of something big in low-income communities.
I just checked the Fresh and Easy website and discovered that there is one not that far from me. I’ll try to check it out this week and make and post my lil’ review on this site.
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