As Quickly as They Came, Fresh & Easy Stores May Be on the Way Out

Photo: Courtesy of Fresh & Easy

British grocery chain Tesco is already talking about closing the 200 U.S. Fresh & Easy stores that they just opened in the past couple of years, due to disappointing returns and an apparent lack of interest in their prepared foods, generic products, and automated checkstands. The Bay Area was one of the last phases of their expansion, after they opened 160 Fresh & Easy stores in Southern California and the southwest between 2007 and 2011. Last year saw the opening of the new Bayview store, at 5800 Third Street, in an area that was long considered a “food desert.” And two more locations have since opened, one in a former Albertson’s at 32nd and Clement, and another at Silver and Goettingen, joining sixteen other locations in the greater Bay Area. (Just a month ago we heard they were eying a fourth location at 1830 Ocean Avenue, too.) A rep for the store tells the Chronicle that the stores will remain open while they conduct a review, and that they may consider selling off the stores rather than closing them down. [Chron, Earlier]