Danville’s Fresh and Easy Neighborhood Market is on track to open this spring, town staff says. But getting the British grocery store chain’s Bay Area distribution center up and running could be a different story.
“Everybody wants them in as quickly as possible,” said David Crompton, principle planner for the town.
All Bay Area Fresh and Easy stores will be supplied through a Northern California distribution center, said Fresh and Easy spokesman Brendan Wonnacott. But it’s still too early to tell when the distribution center will be open for business, he said.
The company announced last week that 18 Bay Area stores would open, beginning in 2009. Once the center is available, Bay Area stores can open independently, as their cities and towns permit.
The supermarket chain is taking over the old Albertson’s building in Green Valley Center on Diablo Road and plans to make only minor changes to the venue, which could make Danville among the first opened store locations.
New signage and some interior remodeling, to make the space available for two tenants, are the only significant building plans. In the works are plans for a pharmacy to take over just less than half of the 26,500-square-foot space. No exterior changes are planned.
“They’re not making any major changes,” said Town Manager Joe Calabrigo.
He said as far as he knew the store would be ready to open this spring.
Fresh and Easy locations will include Hayward, San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland and Oakley in 2009.
In December, Fresh and Easy representatives told the Danville Design Review Board that getting locations open as speedily as possible is a top priority.
“It’s up to them,” Crompton said, explaining the town could be ready for the opening as soon as late winter 2008.
Although the chain has gained media attention for setting up camp in low-income spots with little access to fresh foods, like San Francisco’s Hunter’s Point, Wonnacott said the store defies socio-economic categorization. Danville and Walnut Creek are the lone affluent cities where Fresh and Easy stores are planned among the 18 Bay Area locations.
“It’s really a store for everybody. Regardless of neighborhood, everybody wants fresh wholesome food,” Wonnacott said.
