U.K. grocery chain to put S.F. expansion on hold

Mini-mart: Fresh & Easy stores are much smaller than supermarkets, but they still carry all the essentials. (AP file photo)

SAN FRANCISCO — Plans to build at least three new grocery stores in San Francisco and more than a dozen elsewhere in the Bay Area have been delayed indefinitely, but not canceled.

Last year, British retail giant Tesco PLC announced plans to open 18 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets in the Bay Area. The stores are small grocers that typically take up about a quarter of the space of a supermarket, but carry food staples and a variety of healthy private-label and prepared eats.

The announcement garnered interest because they planned to open stores in the Bayview-Hunters Point and the Portola neighborhoods, both of which have long lacked adequate grocery options. Since then, the chain has also committed to opening a store at the former Albertsons site in the Richmond district, at Clement Street and 32nd Avenue, site owner Richard Klein said.

Now it appears those plans are on hold. Spokesman Brendon Wonnicott said the economy has forced Tesco to slow those openings.

“The main thing for us is to basically evaluate the best time to open given the current economic climate,” he said. “That said, we don’t have an announced opening time frame.”

The store in Bayview was planned for a new mixed-use building currently being built at Third Street and Carroll Avenue by Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group. The group’s managing director, Alicia Glen, said Fresh & Easy’s delay has slowed construction of the building by several months. However, she had met with Fresh & Easy executives recently and they affirmed the chain is still committed to the project.

“My understanding is they were going to be looking for a 2010 opening,” Glen said. “They wouldn’t commit to a firm date, but the conversation was targeting the first half of 2010.”

In the meantime, residents in southeastern neighborhoods of The City still must drive to other areas to find fresh food, said Jeffrey Betcher, a resident of Bayview and a member of the Southeast Sector Food Access working group.

“We need to be able to buy healthy fruits and vegetables and other foods locally,” Betcher said. “Now we typically get on Muni or in our cars or walk a very long ways for that.”

kworth@sfexaminer.com