South L.A. gets a new supermarket

With the opening today of a Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, the area around Central Avenue and Adams Boulevard in South Los Angeles has two new supermarkets. The Fresh & Easy joins a Superior just a couple of blocks away.

Customers lined up for a whole block before the 10 a.m. opening of Fresh & Easy -- accompanied by the Jefferson High marching band. The company now has 145 stores in California, Arizona and Nevada, spokesman Brendan Wonnacott said.

L.A. City Councilwoman Jan Perry said she was "overjoyed" at the opening of the store along "an emotional historic corridor," the center of blues and jazz in the first half of the last century. Perry's office worked with the grocery company to develop the corner site, which has apartments above the grocery store.

Wonnacott said the company is committed to opening stores in neighborhoods that have come to be called "food deserts" for their lack of fresh, nutritious food. He said the produce and meat and poultry have been bestsellers in their stores, which are about 10,000 square feet big and boast of selling foods containing no chemicals or preservatives. The shelves are stocked with a combination of private label and national brand foods, with some of the products reminiscent of what's sold at Trader Joe's stores.

-- Mary MacVean

(In the top photo, customers line up before the store opens. In bottom photo, from left, store manager Aaron Davis, City Councilwoman Jan Perry and L.A. Deputy Mayor Austin Beutner at the opening ceremony. Photos courtesy of Fresh & Easy.)

 

Comments

[matt arnaiz]

I hate freshandeasy, they hire then fire employees so damn fast! I still can't stop thinking about the brain wash they filled us with! I can't say enough about those drunken alcoholics of F&E, but I'm happy not to be there and in THE BOX.

[quan chandler]

cool!!

[J. Cruz]

They need to expand and open one up in the Crenshaw area as well.

[David G.]

Was decidedly unimpressed by Fresh and Easy. I have heard that corporate officers reap huge salaries and bonuses while store employees are left scraping by on ten bucks an hour.

[Sean]

This would have been great to have when I was an undergrad at USC

[Tye Hilliard]

Fresh and Easy is a wonderful neighborhood store. Finally we have fresh produce and groceries in our own So. LA community at an affordable price..Im so happy!

[DougKantner]

Supermarkets such as Fresh & Easy are great places to have in the neighborhood because of their attention towards fresh, nutritious food.